By Tom Addison, Policy Manager, The Physiological Society
The House of Commons Science & Technology Committee is currently seeking written evidence for an inquiry into “A new UK research funding agency” until 31 July 2020. The Physiological Society’s response will be published along with other organisations’ contributions as part of the Committee’s timetable, and this article has been adapted from that response.
“Events dear boy, events.” Like all great political soundbites, not even his biographer can be certain if, or when Harold Macmillan gave his oft-quoted thoughts on what was most likely to knock governments off course. Nevertheless, the UK Government’s announcement of “a new approach to funding emerging fields of research and technology…providing long–term funding to support visionary high-risk, high –pay–off scientific, engineering, and technology ideas” in the 2019 Queen’s Speech seems to be from a different era. The Speech’s accompanying notes explained that this would be “broadly modelled’” on the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) the agency of the United States Department of Defense.
Whether this £800m “blue skies’” funding agency survives the economic shock of coronavirus in its stated guise remains to be seen but the Government’s recently published UK Research and Development Roadmap did make reference to pursuing “ambitious new goals – the ‘moonshots’ that will define the next decade and beyond” (1). As such, it is worth exploring what this could mean for future investment in fundamental research and physiology.
DARPA and its successes
DARPA in the United States employs ‘programme managers’ on three to five contracts to fund high-risk, high-reward research with an annual budget of approximately £2.65 billion.
Successes of DARPA as listed on its own website include satellite navigation, microelectronics, drones and ARPANET ‘which led directly to the now ubiquitous Internet’ (2). All the technologies listed were designed to meet a military need that have found commercial success in the civilian market (much like radar, the jet engine and the mass production of penicillin during the Second World War).
It is not clear whether the UK Government has a similar ambition to use military technology spending as a launch pad for blue skies research. Nevertheless, a new agency, created with the express purpose of supporting “visionary high-risk, high-pay off scientific, engineering, and technology ideas” is something that could have huge potential for physiology and the Government’s “Ageing Society’” Grand Challenge mission.
“Ageing Society”
As part of its post-Brexit Industrial Strategy, the UK Government, led by the then Business Secretary and now Chair of the Commons Science and Technology Committee, Greg Clark MP, outlined four Grand Challenges designed to “put the UK at the forefront of the industries of the future, ensuring that the UK takes advantage of major global changes, improving people’s lives and the country’s productivity.” The four Grand Challenges are:
- Artificial Intelligence and data
- Ageing society
- Clean growth
- Future of mobility
Current funding for the Industrial Strategy Grand Challenge mission for ‘Ageing Society’ is focused predominantly on applied science in healthy ageing, particularly in the context of promoting the UK service sector overseas as a post-Brexit UK export to other economies with a significant ageing population such as China, India and Japan. As such, investment in the ‘Ageing Society’ Grand Challenge has to date largely focused on assisted living products and accessible homes (3).
While undoubtedly laudable aims, as we noted in our report into healthy ageing last year Growing Older, Better these design innovations alone will not be sufficient to meet the Government’s own target that people should be living ‘five healthier, more independent years by 2035’, nor will it likely reduce the significant inequality gap that exists between socio-economic groups. A new DARPA-style organisation has the opportunity to invest in cutting-edge research that could lead to the step change required in order to meet this goal without the need to guarantee short term financial return on investment.
The Government’s own target means engaging with people that are at least a decade away from the State Pension age as well as those who are experiencing age-related conditions. Understanding the mechanisms behind ageing and age-related conditions will be crucial to improving the health and wealth of the nation in older age.
Reaching 2.4 per cent in a balanced manner
An ARPA-style organisation will need to have significant financial resources at its disposal in order to deliver on its potential. An ARPA-style agency has the potential to make a significant contribution to the Government’s commitment to reach the target of 2.4% of GDP being spent on R&D by 2027, particularly if part of its mission is to offer initial investment to small and medium sized enterprises and start-ups that could then seek additional finance from the private sector.
Funding for ARPA should not, of course, replace other established approaches to research funding, which would remain a vital part of the research and development ecosystem. Budgets for UKRI and ARPA should be entirely separate, to avoid competition over funding streams during budget-setting. A new agency should however, have the capacity to fund projects over a longer time frame than most current UKRI grants. Many areas of bioscience, including physiology, require longer funded periods to accomplish full projects – this could be accommodated where necessary in funding stream.
The new agency should also encourage equality, diversity and inclusion and could be used as an opportunity to promote high-risk research among principle investigators that reflect these key objectives to diversify thought and approach in research. Its operations must allow both the high failure rate inevitable with risky research, and for the agility and flexibility to act on unexpected results or promising avenues of innovation when they arise.
The (blue) sky’s the limit
Even before the outbreak of COVID-19, the Government – bolstered by 2019’s electoral gains – had plans for big rises in spending with the stated ambition to “level up” the country through large scale projects. While the full economic impact of coronavirus is yet to be felt, investment in R&D that has the potential to get to the heart of the Government’s “Ageing Society” Grand Challenge while at the same time boost investment in places right across the country, is an opportunity the Government should grasp with both hands.
References
- https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-research-and-development-roadmap/uk-research-and-development-roadmap
- https://www.darpa.mil/attachments/DARPAAccomplishmentsSeminalContributionstoNationalSecurity.pdf
- https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/industrial-strategy-the-grand-challenges/missions#healthy-lives