What has science ever done for us? That was one of the questions I raised yesterday in my debate on the role of the Treasury in supporting science in the United Kingdom.
Well, what has it done for us? Why do we need to use public funds, taxpayers’ money, to support research and development in the UK?
The answer, of course, is that science is embedded at the heart of our society and has made a huge contribution to shaping the society we live in today. It has given us world-changing discoveries, such as penicillin, a discovery which has had a huge impact on medicine and saved countless lives.
My home city of Sheffield, for instance, is where stainless steel was discovered. Just think, for a moment, what that has meant for modern society, from cutlery through to surgical instruments and surgical implants – we find stainless steel everywhere.
So science is a part of our everyday lives and that is precisely why it is critically important to the future of our economy. Medicine, manufacturing, agriculture, communications, travel, sport, culture – everything we do owes a debt to science and every aspect of life in the future will be informed by research and development.
To put it simply, science shaped our past, our present and it will shape the future.
We also excel at it here in the UK. The UK represents 0.9 per cent of the global population but accounts for 15.9 per cent of the world’s most highly cited scientific research articles. We are ranked first in the world for the impact of our science and we can lay claim to 78 Nobel prize winners. It cannot be argued, either, that we excel in only a few of the scientific disciplines; our strength is across the board and relates not just to applied science but to fundamental research too.
Remember, it was here in the UK that Newton discovered gravity and Faraday made those first major steps in harnessing the power of electricity. This latter discovery was driven by curiosity, by the need to know and understand, and yet it has revolutionized the world we live in. If the impact of Faraday’s research could be measured in terms of economic growth, I am sure we would be looking at very big figures.
The UK’s position as a leading nation in research and development is under threat however, as the long term effect of cuts to public funding will be to endanger our proud position as a nation that does science well. Our international competitors invest more than us; Germany and the United States invest 2.8 per cent of GDP in science, compared with 1.7 per cent of GDP here in the UK. Our levels of investment have in fact fallen gradually since the mid-eighties, to the extent that we are now sixth in the G7 for overall spending.
George Osborne’s comprehensive spending review gives us the opportunity to halt the decline in public investment that we have seen in recent years. We need a commitment in the review to keep the science budget ring-fenced. Moreover, we need a commitment to protect it in real terms and to an ambition to increase investment in science as sustained economic growth returns.
If Osborne really believes in his oft repeated ‘long term economic plan’ and if he really wants to rebalance the economy, he needs to invest in research and development, which is the feedstock for our manufacturing base and for better, more efficient, public services. Our modern knowledge economy is underpinned by a science base which more than pays it way; it sustains a third of businesses in the UK and its highly skilled and highly trained workers boost our productivity.
Yesterday’s debate called for a Treasury ministerial response, because of course it is the chancellor and his team who will determine the level of funding to be enjoyed by science in the coming years.
What we got, however, is a response from a minister in the business department.
That is fine. As long as he does what we asked him to do today – go to the chancellor, act as an ambassador for science and make it absolutely clear that we must fund research and development properly.
For the sake of our economy and our future prosperity, let’s hope he does that and that the chancellor listens.
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Angela Smith MP is member of parliament for Penistone and Stocksbridge
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