Professor David Paterson
President, The Physiological Society
Head of Department of Physiology, Anatomy & Genetics at the University of Oxford
This article first appeared in the Summer 2021 issue of Science in Parliament magazine. Printed with the permission of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee.
Introduction
The Parliamentary and Scientific Committee, chaired by Stephen Metcalfe MP, met on Monday 17 May to discuss the role of science in delivering the Government’s ambition to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Physiological Society sponsored the event and, as President, I was pleased to speak alongside representatives from the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, AstraZeneca and the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). In my presentation, I highlighted the central role of physiological research in ‘building back better’ from COVID-19. Whether it is climate change, the ageing population or the pandemic itself, physiologists are working on the grand challenges facing the world today.
Building Back Better
The Government’s Build Back Better plan was published alongside the spring Budget in March 2021 and outlines how they intend to rebuild the UK economy and tackle long-term problems facing the country.
While the vaccines success hopefully means we are reaching the end stages of the pandemic, there has been a heavy toll on lives and livelihoods. In the UK around 1 in 5 people have contracted the virus and there have been almost 130,000 deaths. According to the Office of Budget Responsibility, GDP fell 9.9 % in 2020, the largest decline in the G7.
If we learn the right lessons from the pandemic, then as the country recovers we have the opportunity to rebuild a better economy and society. That means tackling systemic problems such as inequality and listening to the science when it comes to dealing with long-term challenges such as climate change and our ageing population.
To achieve this, investment in science is vital. The Government has recognised the value of R&D throughout this crisis and it is now crucial that we cement this and make the 2020s an R&D decade.
The Physiological Society is aligning its approach to securing the future of physiology along three core themes: visibility, inclusivity and sustainability. These mirror the areas of focus I believe the Government must adopt if it wishes to succeed in cementing the UK as a science superpower.
Visibility
Through the success of vaccinations, science is providing our escape from this crisis. Research and innovation are a visible part of public and political discourse in a way that we have not witnessed in our lifetimes. As Naomi Weir from the CBI noted at our event, in no other era of modern government would the Chief Medical Officer and Chief Scientific Adviser be household names.
While COVID-19 is our short-term priority, long-term societal challenges such as our ageing society have not gone away. Indeed, the correlation of severe implications from COVID-19 with age and frailty shows all too clearly why these issues are closely intertwined.
The demographic challenges facing the UK are stark. The number of people aged 65 and over will increase by more than 40% within 20 years, and the number of households where the oldest person is 85 and over is increasing faster than any other age group. Lifespan has outpaced healthspan and while we should celebrate that people are living longer, all too often they are living longer in ill health.
As we enter the fourth industrial revolution of precision medicine and genomics, the challenge becomes not prolonging lifespan but ensuring our healthcare systems are set up to maximise healthspan.
That means increasing the visibility across government, funders and public policy of the vital importance of understanding the physiology at play. Within R&D, we need to see more funding directed towards the biological processes of ageing, and within public policy we need greater profile given to physiological age, considering healthy ageing across the whole life course. From understanding how maternal diet affects the body’s response to stress through to how shift work affects blood glucose levels, greater visibility of physiological mechanisms will improve the quality of public health interventions and medical treatment that can help us live better for longer.
Inclusivity
The UK’s life science sector is incredibly important to the UK economy, generating £81 billion of turnover and employing a quarter of a million people. And it is set to expand – with the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry predicting that life sciences will add an extra £8.5 billion of growth to the economy and an extra 31,000 jobs by 2025. The UK should be proud of its success in this area, however our life sciences sector and associated investment is heavily concentrated in London and south east England.
To be a science superpower, the UK must harness ingenuity and intellect from across the country. In building back better, the Government must ‘level up’ to unlock potential in underrepresented regions of the country.
In a recent issue of our membership magazine, Physiology News, Parliamentary & Scientific Committee Deputy Chair Chi Onwurah MP wrote that “diversity is not a ‘nice to have’; it is a moral and economic imperative. Without it, innovation is limited and valuable talent is excluded from the workforce.”
In addition to geographic diversity, our research communities must become more inclusive of a wider range of voices and perspectives. All of us involved in science have a responsibility to redouble efforts to promote diversity – not only gender, but also race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, socio-economic status, age and other protected characteristics.
Sustainability
As AstraZeneca’s Steve Rees noted during the discussion meeting, the UK’s fundamental science base is a big draw for pharmaceutical companies to base themselves in the UK. A thriving fundamental research base is essential for a booming life science economy – we cannot afford to let this go.
The UK Government’s commitment to the UK as a science superpower looks beyond COVID-19 and is mentioned across Government – from Build Back Better to the integrated Review of the UK’s defence capacity. It is clear that the UK Government is ‘talking the talk’ when it comes to prioritising science.
We now need to see them ‘walking the walk’ by ensuring the UK has a sustainable, reliable R&D funding model.
The UK punches above its weight in R&D, and we have witnessed the power of science during the pandemic, but it is not possible to turn science on and off like a tap. The delivery of COVID-19 vaccines in less than 12 months was made possible by at least a decade of underpinning science and mechanistic understanding.
The Conservative Party’s manifesto commitment to reach 2.4% of GDP spend on R&D by 2027 is welcome – even if it will only take the UK up to the level of the OECD average – and represents a huge increase in public spending of up to £22 billion per year by 2024-25. However, recent cuts to official development assistance funding as well as uncertainty until the eleventh hour over where Horizon Europe fees will come from has given cause for concern. Two-thirds of the 2.4% will come from private investment, but as of yet there isn’t a cohesive plan to achieve this and businesses look for certainty to invest.
Scientific research operates in a complex ecosystem and the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed stress points, particularly around the quality-related research (QR) funding model for English universities. Medical research charities account for half of publicly funded medical research in the UK but have been forced to cut on average 41% of research spend as philanthropic funding dries up. If the Government wants the UK to be a global science superpower it should consider that no major US competitor would want to be primarily accepting charitable funding based on the UK funding model.
We need confidence in public funding, clarity on plans to attract private investment and support for medical research charities to get them through this crisis. The Government also needs to combine funding commitments with a skills strategy that brings young people through the pipeline.
Build back stronger, safer and more optimistic
UK science has been a shining light during these dark last 18 months of the COVID-19 crisis. Government must not forget that in the months and years following the pandemic.
Science must retain and enhance the visibility it has garnered during this crisis. We all must ensure the research community becomes more inclusive and open to diversity, and Government must ensure R&D has a sustainable funding system.
COVID-19 has exacted a terrible toll in life and livelihoods. And this will not be the last pandemic. From climate change to our ageing society, the challenges we face in the years ahead are multiple and vast. The vaccination drive has shown what can be achieved when political will aligns with scientific prowess and public determination. By grasping the opportunity to put R&D at the heart of post COVID-19 recovery, policymakers can unlock the UK’s potential. With our sights set on cementing our role as a science superpower, the UK can not only recover, but we can build a stronger economy, safer society and more optimistic future.