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Paul Johnston

Ambassador to Ireland

Part of UK in Sweden

16th July 2013

Innovation

The 2013 Global Innovation Index lists Sweden and the UK as two of the world’s top three countries for performance in innovation, based on a survey of 84 different measures in 142 countries.

The British Olympics team had the motto “better never stops”. Similarly with innovation, I think: it’s when you’re at or near the top of the league that you need to redouble your efforts to stay there.

With that in mind, the UK invited participants from 22 countries to London for an Innovation Conference last month, as part of our G8 Presidency. There were almost three hundred delegates, more than half from overseas.

Well known UK speakers included Sir Richard Branson, Ron Dennis (Chair of McLaren sports cars) and Thomas Heatherwick (designer of the new London bus). Check out PM Cameron’s speech at the Conference as well as a various other speakers and information from the conference.

The Prime Minister announced a new £1m ‘Longitude’ innovation challenge prize for inventors or scientists who could identify and solve “the biggest problem of our time”, such as curing diabetes or dementia. This was inspired by the Longitude Prize of 1714, which the then British government created to help determine how to work out a ship’s longitude and make long distance sailing voyages safer and more predictable.

The Prime Minister also launched a £50m Global Development Innovation Ventures initiative, also designed to find solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. The Swedish/UK relationship in innovation continues to flourish, following John Gurdon’s Nobel Prize last year.

On 27 June, a British Professor, Colin Carlile, was awarded the Order of the Polar Star by the Swedish Minister for Education and Research, Jan Björklund. The award was recognition of Professor Carlile’s significant contributions to the European Spallation Source project in Lund, a facility for materials research and life sciences.

On 5 September, another British Professor, Dr Peter Morgan, will become the Stockholm Water Prize Laureate 2013 for his work as a sanitation innovator. His efforts are helping to protect the health and lives of millions of people through improved sanitation and water technologies.

So healthy water and healthier lives are the fruits of our innovators: it’s great that Sweden and the UK are good at recognising them.

About Paul Johnston

Paul Johnston joined the UK Civil Service in 1990, working for the Ministry of Defence initially. He has served in Paris and New York and has also had a wide…

Paul Johnston joined the UK Civil Service in 1990, working for the Ministry of Defence initially.

He has served in Paris and New York and has also had a wide range of political and security roles in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London. Paul joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1993 as Desk Officer for Bosnia. As part of this role he was also Private Secretary to EU negotiator Lord Owen and his representative on Bosnia Contact Group.

His first foreign posting was to Paris in 1995-99 as Second Secretary Political. He was Private Secretary to the Ambassador and latterly part of the UK delegation to the Kosovo Rambouillet negotiations. Then he returned to London as Head of the Kosovo Policy Team, leading work on post-conflict policy in the EU, NATO, UN and G8.

Before his second overseas posting to New York in 2005, Paul held a variety of other EU policy and security appointments in London, such as Head of European Defence Section between 2000-01 and Head of Security Policy Department between 2002-04.

As Head of the Political Section in UKMIS New York, he advised on major policy issues for the UK on the Security Council and the UN World Summit, including the UK EU Presidency in 2005.

Paul returned to London in 2008 as Director, International Security for the FCO. He was responsible for policy on UN, NATO, European Security, arms control and disarmament, human rights and good governance.

Paul was British Ambassador to Sweden from August 2011 to August 2015 and then was Deputy Permanent Representative to NATO.

He was UK Ambassador to the EU for Political and Security affairs from 2017 to January 2020 and became Ambassador to Ireland in September 2020.

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cameron Dr Peter Morgan innovation Paul Johnston richard branson Stockholm Water Prize