In a speech earlier this week, Universities and Science Minister David Willetts laid out the government’s ambition to make the UK “the best place in the world to do science.” However, he offered no new funding or support and spoke mostly about broad aims for growth.
There were eight principal points from the speech. The Minister:
- Set the Government’s goal that the UK should be the best place in the world to do science
- Released a series of reports showing what the research sponsored by the Research Councils is achieving
- Set out the government’s ambition to have more universities in the world’s top 100
- Announced that the government has invited proposals for new types of university with a focus on science and technology and on postgraduates
- Announced the government’s ambition for universities’ knowledge exchange funding from external sources to grow by 10 % over the next three years
- Announced that the next Catapult Centre will be in the application of satellite technology
- Announced the seting up of leadership councils in e-infrastructure and in synthetic biology
- Released a new report on e-infrastructure strategy
Happily, the aim to attract more international partnerships is exactly what the Science and Innovation Network was set up to achieve.