The department for business, energy and industrial strategy said that the coronavirus pandemic has demonstrated that major challenges can be resolved by “ambitious” investment in innovation. The plan says that the crisis had proven that the UK can deliver when given the necessary support, freedom and risk tolerance, giving the example of the national vaccine taskforce which is composed of both public and private bodies.
Riding on the back of this success, the government will lay out “innovation missions” to set direction, urgency and pace on issues confronting the UK. These will be determined by the new National Science and Technology Council and supported by the Office for Science and Technology Strategy.
The government is also outlining seven strategic technologies in which the UK already has a competitive advantage: advanced materials and manufacturing; AI, digital, and advanced computing; bioinformatics and genomics; engineering biology; electronics...