Today we’ve released a collection of essays with the Tony Blair Institute, setting out ideas for how to meet the ambition of making the UK a ‘science superpower’. It includes a preface from Tony Blair and a foreword from Stripe co-founder Patrick Collison.
Be warned! This is an anti-cheems mindset report. But I don’t think it’s unrealistically optimistic. We’re aiming to be solutionists. As Jason Crawford writes this week for MIT Technology Review: “Solutionists may seem like optimists because solutionism is fundamentally positive. It advocates vigorously advancing against problems, neither retreating nor surrendering.” The alternatives – taking a consistently optimistic or pessimistic stance are common, but unhelpful for actually making the world a better place.
Rather than read a summary of ‘The Way of the Future: Supercharging UK Science and Innovation’, I would prefer you read one of the essays. They aren’t too long. Just click on whatever interests you most from the list below.
Preface: Tony Blair
Foreword: Patrick Collison, Co-founder, Stripe
A Digital State: Kirsty Innes and I highlight the benefits for individuals and entrepreneurs of moving to a truly digital state.
The UK Research Cloud: Seb Krier explains why treating cloud compute power as a new form of digital infrastructure could unlock innovation, reduce bias, and promote diversity in AI research.
Procuring Innovation: Chris Haley explains how effective public procurement can improve public services, reduce costs, and drive innovation in the wider economy.
Embracing Experimentation: José Luis Ricón Fernández de la Puente and Joao Pedro De Magalhaes make the case for adopting a more experimental approach to funding research.
Omics UK: Saloni Dattani and Henry Fingerhut explore how a multi-omic research centre would help accelerate targeted treatment design.
The Atlas Institute: Henry Fingerhut and Benedict Macon-Cooney argue that we need a roadmap for scientific discovery to help us explore the dark corners of knowledge.
Building Talent Density: Matt Clifford MBE argues that talent density is key to entrepreneurial success.
Upstream Innovation: Anton Howes calls for the return of the great exhibition and a new order of chivalry to raise the visibility and status of innovation.
Operation Paperclip 2.0: Anton Howes, Sam Dumitriu and I argue we should proactively pave the way for the globe’s brightest to come to the UK.
Testbed Nation: Anton Howes and Sam Dumitriu make the case for why Britain should become a nation of early adopters.
You can also read a Twitter thread here, read Sam Dumitriu's City AM article here, read Sam, Anton Howes and me in CapX on why Britain should actively recruit foreign talent here, and read write-ups of the report on Yahoo Finance here, the Express here and Business Leader here.
As always, sharing the report via email or social media would be greatly appreciated. And if you want to get early notification of our reports, you should sign up as a Member (for free) here.
This was a really fun one for us all to research, write and publish. As I’ve written here in the past, the Tony Blair Institute is really impressing me, so don’t be surprised to see future collaborations.