Government changes to science and research: what BSI members need to know
The government has announced significant changes to the organisation of science, research, and technology across Whitehall. These changes are significant to BSI members because decisions about departmental responsibilities, research funding, and long-term Research and Development (R&D) strategy are likely to shape the environment in which immunology research takes place.
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) is being disbanded, with its responsibilities divided between several parts of government. While the broad direction of the machinery-of-government changes is now clearer, further detail will be needed to understand how they will operate in practice.
Responsibility for science and innovation will move into the Department for Business and Trade, which will become the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (BIST). Led by Jonathan Reynolds MP, the justification for this change is that the new department will bring the UK’s science and research base more closely together with business policy, industrial strategy, commercialisation, and job creation. Lord Patrick Vallance has left his role as Science Minister and has since been appointed Chair of the new Prime Ministerial AI Taskforce, reporting directly to the Prime Minister. Several junior ministers have now been appointed to BIST, although their specific portfolios have not yet been confirmed. It therefore remains unclear which minister will hold responsibility for UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
Artificial intelligence strategy, public sector AI adoption, and the AI Security Institute will move to the Cabinet Office. A new AI Taskforce will sit within the Office for the Prime Minister and the Cabinet, while Kanishka Narayan MP has been appointed Minister for Artificial Intelligence and will attend Cabinet. Other digital responsibilities, including digital transformation, inclusion and skills, information resilience and online harms, will transfer to an expanded Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
Bringing science and business policy together could provide opportunities for stronger links between research, innovation, commercialisation and the government’s wider economic strategy. However, the scale of the change means it will be important to understand how the new arrangements protect the full breadth of the research system, including fundamental discovery science as well as translational and applied research. Further clarity will be needed on the future oversight of UK Research and Innovation, research funding decisions and long-term R&D strategy.
The Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE) has welcomed the potential for closer alignment between research and economic policy, while emphasising the importance of supporting the whole R&D system, maintaining stable long-term investment and protecting curiosity-led and discovery research within the larger department. These points are particularly relevant to immunology, where progress often depends on sustained support across the pathway from fundamental research to clinical and public health impact.
The BSI is monitoring these developments closely. Through the BSI’s partnership work with organisations including CaSE, the Association of Medical Research Charities and the Royal College of Pathologists, we are sharing intelligence and coordinating with organisations across the research and health sectors. These relationships help us to ensure that the interests of immunology and our members are represented as the new government develops its approach to science, research and innovation. As the new arrangements take shape, collaboration between researchers, funders, learned societies, charities, industry and government will be essential to ensuring the UK research system continues to support both discovery science and innovation.