Well, good afternoon, everybody, and welcome back to day two of the Oxford Summit 2021,
and I hope that some of you arrived early and took advantage of the excellent networking system Hopkins got.
I had to go to yesterday and it was great to see so many people around and have some great short,
slightly random, but really interesting conversations. So yesterday you'll recall we talked about the catalysts for innovation in the crisis.
It was a really rich conversation, just looking back at what's been going on and how we've all reacted to the pandemic.
We had speakers from Samsung Health and from Kimberly-Clark talking about the way
that companies have pivoted and focussed on shared goals and driven innovation.
We talk quite a lot about some of the changes and the things that we were able to do,
and we started speculating about what we could preserve in terms of increased cooperation and what might lead to new changes.
So yes, reflecting on yesterday, we're moving into today looking at the present situation.
And of course, we know these are partnerships between universities, industries and government.
So we're going to explore a bit more of the policy layer of that conversation.
And of course, tomorrow we're turning to future inevitable crises and thinking about sustainability.
So this is the story arc of the three days, but I'm not here to chat today.
I'm going to introduce Joe Marshall, who's the CEO of the National Centre for Universities and Business, and he is going to chair day two.
So I look forward to catch you in catching you all in networking later or perhaps a session.
But for now, I will hand over to Joe. Thanks, Joe.
Thank you, Bill, and welcome to day two of the conference and it gives me great pleasure to be here.
And certainly as an organisation that is, you know, excited, animated by all elements of university business collaboration,
I think this is a fantastic summit that is bringing together the kind of classic elements of the Triple Helix Universe and government,
and it still has already said today really is about that government perspective.
But I think also, I think it's if yesterday could be characterised.
We had some very rich debates and discussions, both from the keynotes Q&A and into the breakout sessions about how we have reacted,
how we have responded to a very seismic event in the pandemic in the last year and how we have pivoted,
how we have adapted, how we've seen used those opportunities. But invariably we have reacted against something.
Today's session isn't necessarily just so focussed on governments and what their policy drivers are, but it is about,
I think, what is a really interesting inflexion point that was already taking place before the pandemic.
Clearly, many governments around the world are looking to think about how they seise the opportunities,
unlock the potential, capitalise on the ideas, the inventiveness,
the innovations that are being developed, and genuinely look at both what impact they can have economically,
societally, but to their respective communities across their countries.
So many countries around the world are thinking in these very ambitious terms about science and innovation.
And it gives me great pleasure to set up today's session, but not only what are those ambitions,
but what are those opportunities for greater collaboration internationally with many partners?
Ideas, inventions, innovations are not in the same are very intangible and therefore they're not bound by
trade tariffs in the same way or they're not bound by kind of physical being rooted.
They are often embedded in people, they're often embedded in the networks and the communities that we are part of part of.
And so really international collaboration is that kind of a key driver for many ideas about how these ideas are translated and capitalised upon?
And so when we look at today's session with the likes of, we've got to have two speakers, one from the U.K., one from the US,
who will set both the ambitions of their respective governments,
half in terms of how how they look to utilise and opportunities for science and innovation.
But also, I think look at those speakers won't get into the political winds of the last few years,
but they will talk about certainly both those relatively new administrations, certainly in the US, very, very new.
But certainly in the UK, a relatively new administration that clearly both and both have significantly put science in innovation,
not as bit part of that policy drivers on policy priorities, but actually science and innovation all.
Critical parts, not just to the recovery of these economies, but also in terms of often both repositioning or refocusing economies around technology,
around innovation, around advanced advances in a number of different fields.
And clearly and we will we will hear from both speakers today about what those mean.
I would just like, though, and there's a kind of famous African proverb that you, you know, you will get faster travel.
You will guess you can go faster travelling alone, but you can go further working with some together.
And I think one of the things that I think we will talk about in the breakout sessions is that in order for us to realise these ambitions,
one of the things that we do need to work through is how do we achieve these collaborations internationally?
There are fantastic opportunities and the greater international collaboration, but there are also challenges and both governments recognise that.
And certainly in the UK.
The Integrated Review talks about some of the challenges of international collaboration, but also, you know, and so the US has similar policy drivers.
But we do need to think through what are the sort of opportunities as well as challenges
like provocation to the audience today is that when we get into the breakout groups,
we really think about both the opportunities and the challenges because I know many policymakers want to see more of this happen.
And what we want to try and do is provide some really interesting insights in that regard.
So I will not hog the floor any further. It is my great pleasure to start this keynote sessions this afternoon by introducing the
chief executive of the UK research and innovation autoline took over relatively recently.
This may feel she's been there for a lifetime, or she might feel she's only been there for two minutes.
So is an extinct distinguished researcher and academic in her own right, certainly in the life sciences work,
and certainly had a pivotal role at the University of Cambridge and has had a number of
senior positions in terms of fellowships at the Royal Society and other organisations.
Has also an affiliation with the US National Academy of Sciences and I'm sure will provide some very fantastic
and rich insights about the ambitions and the policy drivers for UK research and innovation in this space.
So I will now pass over to utterly. Thank you very much.
It's really a pleasure to to be here, albeit virtually, and have this opportunity to contribute to a really interesting discussion,
as has been introduced about the role of research and innovation in economies, societies around the world.
Actually, what I want to start with on on the the next slide is not the policy of the UK government,
but rather the very inspirational letter that Joe Biden wrote to Eric Lander, who is the kind of Patrick Vallance of the US.
It's setting out the priorities that he has, the use of science and technology for major challenges.
Public health obviously very much a focus in the context of the pandemic,
with actually clearly much more broadly than that and a kind of slower burn emergency which nonetheless needs equally urgent action of climate change.
And this the focus around this, I think, is very interesting,
it's not just about delivering these key policy objectives in the context of public health and climate change,
but doing it in a way that also contributes to economic prosperity.
So secure economic prosperity with national security just be mentioned and in a way that shares
the benefits of science and technology equitably around the nation and around the population.
And I think beyond that, one of the many things that has come out of the pandemic is a recognised recognition that the long term health of
the research system is crucial in allowing countries to adapt rapidly to whatever the world might throw at them.
So these key points in the letter, unsurprisingly, may be mirror very closely.
The U.K. response to building back say the plan for growth, for example,
that came out of the U.K. government at the time of the budget earlier this year very closely aligns with this set of priorities.
And so I think we're in a very interesting position from the point of view of economies,
countries around the world seeking to exploit what we've learnt from the pandemic,
as this conference discussed in the previous session, as we build back better.
And in that context of everybody around the world aiming in a similar direction and in the context of really global challenges,
we know that both public health and climate change, for example,
are clearly global challenges and issues around security and the and equality and inequalities around the world are also really global challenges.
It makes a huge amount of sense to think about all of these questions in the context of multilateralism,
and the G7 summit recently very much highlighted that to the next slide.
Includes just a summary of the commitments that came out of that to look for specific opportunities to collaborate,
but also to to work globally to build that long term health of the research and innovation system with ensuring researcher independence, openness,
data sharing and transparency,
which also are important in the context of prosperity and security and initiatives for working in a properly interdisciplinary
way and across the the the key stakeholders that contribute to a really healthy research innovation system.
So as we've talked about before,
that needs to bring together universities and the the fundamental research base with businesses and the private sector research base, which of course,
is always the the bigger share of that system with government to ensure that all of those
things align to allow the delivery of these very ambitious goals for building back better.
So UK research and innovation on the next slide is a really important point in that system.
I think we sit absolutely at the junction of government business and the fundamental research base we
reach right across those sectors in what we do and how we fund and in the communities with whom we work.
So we are the largest public sector funder of research innovation in the U.K. We have a at an eight billion pounds annual budget.
We're relatively young organisation, a bit more than three years old,
now made up of bringing together seven disciplinary research councils so focussed on the physical sciences,
the biological sciences, medical sciences and so on. And.
Including the arts and humanities and the economic and social sciences, so we go right across all of the disciplines.
And we also include Innovate UK, which is the UK's innovation agency that funds a lot of R&D activity in small and innovative companies.
And also key connecting organisations in the UK, the catapult centres that bring together industry and academic actors, and also research England,
which funds block grants into English universities and works very closely with the equivalent organisations in the devolved nations.
And they have a really key role in supporting universities to build their research and innovation policies and also their knowledge,
exchange and policies and activities. So right across the sectors, right across the disciplines and able then to to act as is key join up point,
which is going to be so important in delivering those key outcomes that we all want to see.
And that means that we need to work very closely with all of these sectors with academia,
business, public sector, third, sexual and crucially, international partners.
And we we're very active in trying to build as strongly as possible those networks.
So the next slide? Just outlines our vision and our mission.
So if you go with the first animation of Vision, then is for an outstanding research and innovation system for the UK, but crucially,
that system has got to give everyone the opportunity to contribute and to benefit,
and only through that inclusive approach where we be able to enrich lives locally, nationally, but also internationally.
And we have a whole range of levers that will allow us to help to do this.
So the next build this phase, we can convene and catalyse and of course, we can invest.
But crucially, in close collaboration with others to build a thriving and inclusive research
and innovation system that connects discovery to prosperity and public good.
And I just want to dig into that last point a little bit because I think, well,
we always talk about it in that way and we imagine it on the next slide.
Please, as this kind of linear process where you start with discovery and something rather happens when you wind up with a product or a public
service and the and that that linear thinking really shapes the way we think about how we invest and how we measure what we're doing.
Everybody also in their heart knows that this is not this linear relationship is definitely not what happens.
And I think one of the key things that we all need to do around the world to deliver on those key points from the Biden letter is to stop
thinking about you to assist in your process and appreciate and fully take on board that it's a deeply connected and complex system.
And until we think about it from that systemic point of view,
I don't think we will create the connectivity across the system that can deliver the outcomes that we all want to see.
So what it really looks like, I think, is much more illustrated on the next slide.
And we need to zoom out and think about all of that around what we now consider to be the core
research and innovation system involving clever researchers and innovators beavering away in labs and
libraries and in companies making products and think about all the other skills and all the other
people and all the other infrastructures and that go around them without whom none of that will work.
So go to the next slide, please. I think we need to think very hard then about the people whom we need in the system,
how to support the ideas that there are that arise from these people and the infrastructures that they need to make those ideas a reality.
And crucially, how all of those things join up. So the connectivity between them.
And then we need to have really good ways of targeting all of that extraordinary
creativity and opportunity on the priorities that really matter to us here and now,
like net zero. And so these are the things that we focus on, on on funding or incentivising and so on.
And in order to do that well, to build that properly connected system,
then I think we have to think about all of those things from the lens of, I to say, four fundamental principles which are on the next slide.
So we have to think about diversity. We cannot think, you know,
we have a tendency in research innovation to define excellence in a very narrow
way and to argue that active competition is what you need to to drive up.
The excellence and competition is a really important part of our system.
And there will always be competition because because there will never be enough money to fund everything that people want to do.
But if you have competition with narrow success criteria, you will crush diversity.
You will inherently wind up with a relatively small range of things being funded.
And I don't think that's a successful strategy.
I think we need to think very carefully about the portfolio of the kinds of things that need to to happen.
We need diversity in the type of ideas we fund, diversity in the type of organisations that we fund, diversity in the type of people that we fund.
And without thinking really hard about that, we will not create that.
The creative, vibrant system that we need that diversity will be no good unless we also have very
high quality connectivity and collaboration between the different parts of the system.
So we need to put in place incentives and mechanisms that drive diversification with connectivity and collaboration.
I think we tend to want to focus too much at the moment on one kind of sharp
elbowed competition which tends to drive Balkanisation and also homogenisation.
So a shift away from that to a more diverse, more connected system, and only through that will we achieve resilience.
I think the pandemic has shown us where we have weaknesses in our system.
I'm thinking very hard about building a much more resilient system, which connected diversity can do.
None of that's possible without deeply engaging with all the relevant stakeholders,
including the wider publics, so that it is really clear that everybody is involved.
So you go to the next slide, please. If we think about this in the context of these five Biden points, I would argue that, you know,
maybe it's relatively straightforward to think about the key, the research and innovation challenges we face.
So on the next slide in the context of public health.
We have already a lot of exciting multilateral collaborations around the world supporting global health challenges.
We work with the NIH, for example, and global research collaboration for infectious disease preparedness has emerged very rapidly.
I'm thinking about the pandemic and how we would prepare for future ones.
And then, of course, as key international programmes like the Human Frontiers Science Programme,
which funds a lot of collaborative research in the space. So a lot of these types of challenges where the research community,
which is already hugely international and collaborative, can join up and bring forward it.
That it's exciting that there is this greater focus now on international collaboration.
And it's important to keep the momentum going. But it's it's not something that I think needs a radical rethink.
The same in many ways for climate change.
Although climate, the climate change imperative, which is on the next slide, clearly needs a major focus because it's such a priority.
So we're seeing increasingly the impacts of global warming right across the world.
But nonetheless, the research community and innovation community already very clearly aligned behind that.
We have quite a lot of ongoing collaborations again with with the US in this area,
like the Thwaites Glacier collaboration and all kinds of work on oceanography.
A whole variety of examples. So I think those top two areas, it's about keeping the momentum going and ensuring our focus is is right,
that it's that the other Biden imperatives that I think are perhaps areas where there's been less focus until recently in the international community,
and I'm really interested in how we build those as we move forward.
So in the context of security, as was highlighted, and it's on the next slide.
Oh, I missed out prosperity. How could I? OK,
so there's prosperity and security that the approach of that next bullet so and everywhere around the world is is really focussing on how
they connect up their research innovation systems to better to get from the two to join up the discovery research base with innovation,
commercialisation and translation. And I'm very much enjoying our membership, for example, of the this that of 10 years,
which is a collaboration of innovative clusters in the UK and the US for sharing best practise on how to to get that join up really humming.
Now our collaboration with Nest is very exciting, particularly in the area of advanced manufacturing.
So lots of international collaboration on how to do that well.
And then the next slide is about security, where there is a renewed focus and interest and research.
Innovation has has moved into a more central position in that context,
partly because there's a lot of perception that not only are technologies a new way for hostile actors to compromise the other states,
but also because. The global competition in research and innovation in technology capture becomes almost an issue of sovereignty,
so national and international capabilities, I think, become really important.
And one of the reasons why there is this ramped up interest in research and innovation from a government investment point of view is in allowing
nations to maintain their their prosperity rather than be dependent on other nations with whom their values may not align for technological expertise.
So I think this area has become really an interesting one, and it's it's it's complicated and difficult to navigate.
And that's another really interesting topic of conversation.
I think for this forum would be how we do that well, how we maintain the shared commitment to keeping collaboration open,
whilst at the same time recognising the security issues we have a representative in in the Five Eyes collaboration,
which is very focussed on this activity. And as was mentioned at the beginning, the UK government's integrated review,
I think provides a really valuable lens through which we can look at these a lot,
quite complex issues that we need to consider simultaneously in promoting global collaboration in the use of
research and innovation as a bridge for building some international strengths and alliances and collaboration,
whilst at the same time acknowledging that there are security risks that we need to to navigate.
So prosperity and security are important and really interesting areas where we can discuss these,
the opportunities for multilateralism in thinking about those things.
To my mind, a really major emergent feature that was very strong before the pandemic and is even stronger now is how we do all of this.
How do we do all of this in a way that is inclusive in a way that reduces inequalities in the UK?
The political languishes level up. It's not about taking anything away from the really successful parts of our economy or our countries.
It's about levelling up. It's about distributing the benefits of all of this innovation much more equitably than has been the case.
And I think, as I say, the pandemic has amplified trends that we've seen in our societies for quite a long time.
Certainly in the UK and in the developed world.
So the next slide illustrates in the UK that wage inequality has been increasing
over the years and this is associated with productivity inequality between firms.
So we have very productive, highly R&D intensive firms that are providing high quality jobs with high wages.
And we also have a huge number, an increasing number of people in in firms that are less productive,
less invested in R&D and then having a lower wage situation.
And so we're increasing the divide between the haves and have nots, and this is true within places, but also between places.
So in the UK, if you come the next slide that there's huge variation in productivity across the country that maps onto those points that I just made.
And on the next slide. The gap is emerging this economic gap at a time of very rapid social and technological change.
And this is driving a situation where many people feel left behind and that for the first time,
for many generations, their children will be worse off than they are. And it is in this context that I think the next slide.
We really need to to to think about how we develop the research and innovation system.
We need to.
Shift the societal position of research and innovation system away from it being the kind of province of this highly elite group of people towards
a much more inclusive concept that the range of skills and the range of jobs that will be created in an innovative economy is very broad.
And it's not just the boffin types. It really is for everyone, but for as long as it's perceived as being it's elitist activity,
then the the next generation will not be excited and supported about coming into research and innovation.
And rather, we will maintain this division.
And I think it's very interesting that whilst the national survey of people in the UK,
everybody acknowledges that science and technology are crucial for remaining competitive.
When you ask people what they think that will mean for jobs, people mean there will be fewer jobs for them rather than more jobs for them,
and that that perception gap is a real problem because it widens this kind of disenfranchised feeling for a large proportion of the population.
Even when the economy really is going to create this extraordinary range of jobs, so back to the iceberg picture on the next slide.
There are many, many roles of a whole variety of sorts in this iceberg,
and we if we reconceptualize the research and innovation systems, including all of these people,
which we should because it cannot happen without them,
we can build that much more inclusive vision of the system and think much harder on the next slide.
About the diversity and the connectivity and the resilience and the engagement that we need to build that much more connected system.
And I think that the health of the research system that was the last point in the Biden letter that is so important
is entirely dependent on that reconceptualize sexualization of the system so that it really includes everybody.
Driving up diversity in a way that's connected. And I that for me is a really cool goal for the international research and innovation community,
and I'm really interested in other people's views on how we can do that.
And I'll stop there. Thank you. Thank you.
What a fantastic tour de force of various different elements, I am sure.
In a few minutes, once we have made the keynote,
there will be lots of questions and certainly you have a number for me, certainly around those principles.
I think those principles of diversity, connectivity, resilience and engagement, I think, are really important for us both in the UK.
But I think more widely and I think in the context of the left behind,
I know the prime minister was giving a speech in the UK today about levelling up,
but it is clear that there are a number of left behind groups and in all sorts
of that actually in the southeast as much as there is in other parts of the UK.
But I but I also think your point is really validates if we are going to move to a knowledge economy,
this should be a knowledge economy for everyone, not just for the few. So thank you for that.