British Foreign Policy Group urges restoration of long-term worldwide funding to harness analysis power
Science doesn’t play a sufficiently big position in the UK’s “soft power arsenal”, regardless of international recognition of UK analysis excellence, in accordance with a overseas coverage think tank.
In a report published on 23 October, the British Foreign Policy Group additionally known as on the federal government to revive long-term worldwide science funding to strengthen UK scientific collaboration and management.
The report stated the UK’s strategy to science and soft power is “very fragmented, a challenge rooted in the fact that scientific soft power does not have a clear ‘home’ within government”.
It stated the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology “has pressing domestic challenges to address, which sometimes compete with international ambitions for UK science”, and that consequently, “international perspectives and agendas are often deprioritised or siloed”.
‘On the periphery’
The think tank means that scientific soft power “consistently falls through the cracks”.
“While cultural exports such as music, heritage and sport receive considerable, and well-deserved, attention as soft power levers, science has remained on the periphery, despite global recognition of UK excellence in science and technology,” it says.
As an instance, the think tank factors to “relatively limited representation of science” on the UK’s Soft Power Council. In January, the chief govt of Universities UK, Vivienne Stern (pictured far proper), and two teachers have been picked for the 26-strong council.
“Despite the UK’s considerable strengths in science, technology and diplomacy, strategic and structural challenges mean that science continues to be underutilised as a tool in the UK’s soft power arsenal,” the report says.
International funds
While the UK has elevated its funding in R&D in current years, worldwide funds have taken a success, most notably with the shut of the Global Challenges Research Fund and the Newton Fund, as a result of a discount in assist spending.
The British Foreign Policy Group report boosting the UK’s soft power in science would require “consistent and sustained investment”.
“In the current system, frequent budgetary changes and political uncertainty make it difficult for researchers and institutions to plan with confidence or attract long-term partners, having a knock-on effect on ambition and innovation,” the report reads.
Migration insurance policies
Concerns have been raised in current months concerning the authorities’s strategy to migration, regardless of efforts to draw prime analysis expertise from overseas, together with with its Global Talent Fund.
The report notes that this attraction effort is being “increasingly undermined” by the politicisation of migration and the “tightening of UK immigration policies”.
“Decisions being taken across a wide range of government departments are therefore impacting the UK’s scientific soft power, often with little regard to these consequences,” it warns.