The British prime minister, Gordon Brown, today promised to invest record amounts of money into basic and applied science to supply the jobs of tomorrow.
鈥淲e will invest more than at any time in our country鈥檚 history to make the next decade a decade where British scientific genius can create the low-carbon, high-skill, digital economy that we need,鈥� , speaking at the University of Oxford.
鈥淥ur future must be one that will give us the benefits of globalisation while minimising the risks, an economy more about robotics engineering than financial engineering, more about low-carbon than high-finance, a future where the financial sector is the servant of industry, and never its master.鈥�
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But in his speech, which echoed many of the pro-science sentiments of Barack Obama in his inaugural address as president on 20 January, Brown made no specific promises about funding.
Instead, he promised to 鈥渆ntrench investment in science as a national priority, maintaining our commitment to continue our path of raising investment in science across the board, targeting specifically the key sectors where we have a strong competitive advantage鈥�.
Science for the future
Brown promised not to 鈥渁llow science to become a victim of the recession鈥�, vowing like Obama to use it instead as the foundation for rebuilding the economy.
鈥淭he downturn is no time to slow down our investment in science, but to build more vigorously for the future,鈥� he said.
Brown pointed out that since the Labour government came to power in 1997, investment in science has 鈥渕ore than doubled in cash terms 鈥� an 88% real-terms increase rising to almost 拢6 billion a year by 2010-11鈥�.
鈥淲e will maintain the ringfence we have placed around science funding, protecting money for science from competing demands in the short term and providing the sustained support the research community needs to deliver world-class results in the medium and long term,鈥� he said.
No stimulus?
But some were disappointed that there were no signs of a stimulus plan like the one Obama has promised, which includes $10.4 billion over two years on top of an existing annual budget of about $30 billion for medical science funded by the National Institutes of Health.
鈥淚t鈥檚 generally positive, but there鈥檚 no strong hint of a major boost to match what other countries are doing,鈥� says Nick Dusic, director of the (CASE) pressure group in the UK. 鈥淚t鈥檚 more reassuring than anything else, but anything less would have been disastrous.鈥�
Brown said that the world economy will double in the next 20 years as China and India expand, and this will provide huge new opportunities for Britain and other industrialised countries to cash in on high-value, science and technology based products and services. 鈥淚ndependent projections suggest there will be almost 3 million science, maths and technology related jobs in Britain by 2017,鈥� he said, 鈥渟o we鈥檙e going to need to unlock the very best of British scientific talent in the years ahead鈥�.
Ironically, Brown wants some of the expertise to drive redeployment into science teaching of scientists and technologists made redundant in the current downturn. He unveiled a new programme to enable rapid training of potential recruits.
Restoring science
More generally, he seized the opportunity to echo Obama鈥檚 promise to 鈥渞estore science to its rightful place鈥� after eight years of ideological tampering by George W Bush.
鈥淚 believe that it鈥檚 precisely 鈥� and only 鈥� by enlisting science in the service of humanity that we can hold out the hope of reaching the great progressive goals of our time,鈥� said Brown. 鈥淎nd that is our challenge today, as a nation and, increasingly, as a global society.鈥�
Brown said 鈥渟cience alone gives us hope鈥� that we can eliminate poverty, tackle climate change and mitigate the impact of disease around the world.
