Tag Archives: George Freeman

Council of Canadian Academies (Eric Meslin) converses with with George Freeman, UK Minister of Science (hybrid event) on June 8, 2023

I think this is a first, for me anyway, a Council of Canadian Academies (CCA) event that’s not focused on a reports from one of their expert panels. Here’s more about the ‘conversation’, from a June 2, 2023 CCA announcement (received via email),

A conversation with George Freeman, UK Minister of Science (hybrid event)

Join us for a wide-ranging chat about the challenges and opportunities facing policymakers and researchers in Canada, the UK, and around the globe.
(anglais seulement)

Thursday, Jun 8, 2023 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM EDT
Bayview Yards
7 Bayview Station Road
Ottawa, ON
(and online)
 
The CCA is pleased to invite you to a conversation with George Freeman, MP, UK Minister of Science, Research and Innovation. Minister Freeman will join Eric M. Meslin, PhD, FRSC, FCAHS, President and CEO of the CCA, at Bayview Yards for a wide-ranging chat about the challenges and opportunities facing policymakers and researchers in Canada, the UK, and around the world.
 
Minister Freeman and Dr. Meslin will address a host of topics:

  • The state of science, technology and innovation policy and performance on both sides of the Atlantic;
  • Opportunities to create effective international collaborations;
  • National strategies to harness the power of quantum technologies;
  • Antimicrobial resistance and availability;
  • Arctic and Northern research priorities and approaches; and
  • Biomanufacturing and engineering biology.

Advanced registration is required.

Register for the in-person event: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/a-conversation-with-george-freeman-uk-minister-of-science-in-person-tickets-646220832907

Register to attend virtually: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/a-conversation-with-george-freeman-uk-minister-of-science-virtual-tickets-646795341277

Why listen to George Freeman?

Ordinarily being a Minister of Science would be enough to say ‘Of course, let’s hear what he has to say’ but Mr. Freeman’s ‘ministerial’ history is a little confusing. According to a September 24, 2021 article for Nature by Jonathan O’Callahan,

The United Kingdom has a new science minister [emphasis mine] — its ninth since 2010, following a reshuffle of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s cabinet. George Freeman, a former investor in life-sciences companies, takes the role at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has renewed focus on research. But there are concerns that the Conservative government’s ambitious target for research spending will not be met. …

Chris Havergal’s Sept. 17, 2021 article for the Times Higher Education is titled, “George Freeman replaces Amanda Solloway as UK science minister; Former life sciences minister founded series of Cambridge biomedical start-ups before entering politics.”

For further proof of Freeman’s position, there’s this November 21, 2022 “Royal Society response to statement made by George Freeman, Minister of State (Minister for Science, Research and Innovation)”

Responding to today’s [November 21, 2022] announcement from George Freeman, Minister of State (Minister for Science, Research and Innovation), Professor Linda Partridge, Vice President of the Royal Society, said: “Last week the Government committed to protecting the science budget. Today’s announcement shows the Government’s commitment to putting science at the heart of plans for increasing productivity and driving economic growth.

“The ongoing failure to associate to Horizon Europe [the massive, cornerstone science funding programme for the European Union] remains damaging to UK science and the best solution remains securing rapid association. In the meantime, the funding announced today is a welcome intervention to help protect and stabilise the science sector.”

Oddly, Mr. Freeman’s UK government profile page does not reflect this history,

George Freeman was appointed Minister of State in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology on 7 February 2023 [emphasis mine].

George was previously Minister of State in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from 26 October 2022 to 7 February 2023, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from 17 September 2021 to 7 July 2022 [emphases mine], a Minister of State at the Department for Transport from 26 July 2019 to 13 February 2020, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Life Sciences at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Department of Health from July 2014 until July 2016. He also served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of State for Climate Change from 2010 to 2011.

He was appointed government adviser on Life Sciences in July 2011, co-ordinating the government’s Life Science and Innovation, Health and Wealth Strategies (2011), and the Agri-Tech Industrial Strategy (2013). He was appointed the Prime Minister’s UK Trade Envoy in 2013.

How did Nature, Times Higher Education, and the Royal Society get the dates so wrong? Even granting that the UK had a very chaotic time with three Prime Minister within one year, Freeman’s biographical details seem peculiar.

Here’s a description of the job from Mr. Freeman’s UK government profile page,

Minister of State (Minister for Science, Research and Innovation)

The minister is responsible for:

More about this role

Department for Science, Innovation and Technology

Doesn’t ‘Minister of State’ signify a junior Ministry as it does in Canada? In any event, all this casts an interesting light on a January 17, 2023 posting on the Campaign for Science and Engineering (CASE) website,

Last week George Freeman, the Minister of State for Science, Research and Innovation, gave a speech to the Onward think tank setting out the UK Government’s ‘global science strategy’. Here our policy officer, Camilla d’Angelo, takes a look at his speech and what it all might mean.  

In his speech, the Minister outlined what it means for the UK to be a ‘Science Superpower’ [emphasis mine] and how this should go alongside being an ‘Innovation Nation’, highlighting a series of opportunities and policy reforms needed to achieve this. In the event the UK’s association to the EU Horizon Europe programme continues to be blocked, the Minister outlined an alternative to the scheme, setting out the UK Government’s vision for a UK science strategy. Freeman reiterated the UK Government’s commitment to increasing R&D funding to £20bn per year by 2024/25 and a plan to use this to drive private investment. It is now widely accepted that the UK is likely spending just under 3% of GDP on R&D, and the UK Government is keen to push ahead and extend the target to remain competitive with other research-intensive countries. It is positive to hear a coherent vision from the UK Government on what it wants increased R&D investment to achieve.  

Becoming a Science Superpower is required to solve societal challenges  

The Science Minister highlighted the central role of science and technology in solving some of the world’s most pressing challenges, from water security through to food production and climate change. In particular, he stressed that UK research and innovation can and should have a bigger global role and impact in helping to solving some of these challenges. The view that the UK needs to be a science and technology superpower was also echoed by a panel of R&I experts. 

George Freeman outlined some of the important dimensions of what it means for the UK to become a ‘Science Superpower’ and ‘Innovation Nation’. The UK is widely held to be an academic powerhouse, with its academic science system one of its greatest national strengths. A greater focus on mission-driven research, alongside investment in general purpose technologies, could be a way to encourage the diffusion and adoption of innovations. In addition to this, other important factors include talent, industrial output, culture, soft power and geopolitical influence, many of which the UK performs less well in. 

Are the Brits going to encourage us be a science superpower too? If everyone is a science superpower, doesn’t that mean no one is a science superpower? Will the CCA one day invite someone from South Korea to talk about how their science policies have turned that country into a science powerhouse?

What advice can we expect from George Freeman? I guess we’ll find out on June 8, 2023. For those of us on Pacific Time, that means 11:30 am to 12:30 pm.

Don’t forget, there are two different registration pages,

Register for the in-person event: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/a-conversation-with-george-freeman-uk-minister-of-science-in-person-tickets-646220832907

Register to attend virtually: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/a-conversation-with-george-freeman-uk-minister-of-science-virtual-tickets-646795341277