Science Superpower
The UK’s science superpower ambitions rest on its ability to leverage frontier technologies. Technologies such as AI and quantum will herald a new era of disruption – accelerating scientific progress, transforming warfare, and spurring competition between nations. The countries that lead will gain huge advantages in building prosperity and security. If the UK fails to leverage its strengths, it will miss out on a profound opportunity and risks drifting into long-term vulnerability.
The Conservative government recognised this, identifying five frontier technologies to back – AI, quantum, engineering biology, semiconductors and future telecoms. In retaining the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and the appointment of Patrick Vallance as Minister for Science, one of the architects of this strategy, the new government has signalled its intention to build on this approach.
But achieving a strategic advantage in these five technologies is an enormous task. The UK performs poorly at turning its scientific strengths into tangible power: while it makes up 5% of global R&D, it accounts for just 2.6% of the worldwide output from R&D-intensive industries. And even within specific technologies, it cannot compete on all fronts. China is spending three times more on a single quantum lab than the UK Government’s entire ten-year quantum budget. The EU’s semiconductor commitment is 48 times the size of the UK’s. British business investment in telecoms R&D in the last 12 years was less than Samsung’s in 2023 alone.
The UK’s chronic inability to turn its science strengths into power for three key reasons:
In each of the five priority technologies, Future Frontiers shows how the UK can choose a niche, invest in public goods and unlock private enterprise to build a strategic advantage.
Artificial Intelligence
Niche leadership should be built in foundation models – large-scale AI models that can be adapted to various tasks. AI progress relies on foundation models, but despite the UK’s AI strengths it is falling behind in this key area.
Investing in public goods requires increasing access to compute and making public datasets AI-ready – the UK has the third-largest public data pool globally, and should leverage resources such as UK Biobank and NHS data for AI development. To unlock private enterprise, the UK should maintain its current regulatory stance to attract innovators deterred by burdensome approaches by the US and EU.
● Recommendation 1: The Government should establish a “British Library for Data”.
● Recommendation 2: The Government should launch AI Catalyst – a new scheme to streamline compute access for researchers.
● Recommendation 3: In AI safety, the UK AI Safety Institute is unlikely to lead in safety evaluations and should instead focus on foundational A research and setting international standards.
Quantum
Niche leadership should be built in quantum sensing and photonics. UK sensing companies contribute £14 billion a year, employing 73,000 people, and the UK makes up a tenth of the worldwide quantum sensor industry. Photonics already generates more than £14.5 billion for the UK economy.
Investing in public goods is needed to expand facilities, such as quantum hubs, to unlock commercialisation. Initiatives aimed at boosting entrepreneurial skills, such as reinstating the Quantum Technology Enterprise Centre to upskill scientists an engineers for quantum start-ups are essential too.
The UK has taken a sensible approach to regulation of quantum technologies to unlock private enterprise. The Regulatory Horizons Council set the right course, which the new Government should maintain: focus on the application of quantum rather than the technologies themselves, and where appropriate set a clear direction early to give innovators confidence that the UK will welcome experimentation.
● Recommendation 4: The Government should establish a Quantum Technology Catapult with open-access manufacturing capacity and support for entrepreneurial skills.
Engineering biology
The UK should build niche leadership in the intersection of AI and engineering biology. UK start-ups have raised more than any other European nation, ranking third globally in private financing, behind only the US and China.
Investing in public goods is needed across data, talent and facilities. Large data resources are not AI-ready. There is a pressing need for talent combining AI, biology, and engineering expertise, and a lack of computer science talent is one of the UK pharma industry’s top concerns. Better facilities to support scaling are needed with a deficit across Cambridge and Oxford of two million square feet.
To unlock private enterprise, the UK has often led in bioscience regulation, being the first to approve a CRISPR-based therapy. Yet challenges persist, such as complex and slow regulatory processes, under-resourced regulators, and the risk of falling behind more nations quicker to adopt pro-innovation regulations.
● Recommendation 5: The Government should create a National Engineering Biology Institute focused on supporting talent and driving commercialisation.
Semiconductors
The UK should build niche leadership in chip design and next-generation chips such as compound semiconductors. The UK is home to over 100 chip design companies. And nascent UK leadership in compound semiconductors is being met with increasing demand driven by frontier technologies such as quantum computing and AI accelerator chips.
Investing in public goods requires investment in skills and infrastructure. The UK’s semiconductor sector faces a significant skills gap, with some companies operating well below headcount needs and facing chronic challenges to hire staff with the skills they need. Low salaries and high cost of living discouraging international talent are compounding the issue. Infrastructure is also a key challenge. While it is considered strong in facilities for basic and early research stages, the UK has far less availability at later stages such as pilot stages of product development and roll-out.
To unlock private enterprise, the UK must compete with other nations to attract investment from global semiconductor companies. Yet in rejecting the approach of large state subsidies, the UK must find another means to compete, such as tax deductions. But no such offers have been forthcoming.
● Recommendation 6: The Government should establish a new Advanced Semiconductor Research Fund and set specific, sufficiently funded missions for it to build focus across the R&D and chip design efforts.
Future telecoms
While the UK is strong on telecoms research, ranking third for 5G publications, UK business telecoms R&D investment over 12 years is just half of Samsung’s annual R&D spend. Since 2020, there have been nearly 50 times fewer telecoms patents from the UK than South Korea, 40 times fewer than Japan, and five times fewer than Germany. On 6G patents, China makes up 40%, the US 30% American, with Europe as a whole only 8%.
● Recommendation 7: The Government should drop future telecoms as a ‘priority technology’ and instead focus on bolstering telecoms capabilities through international collaboration, such as its efforts via the Future Telecoms UKRI Technology Missions.
Cross-technology
Broader reforms are needed to ensure the UK’s strategy is fit for purpose. With competition fierce, it cannot lead in frontier technologies without attracting the best talent from around the world. Yet elements of its immigration policy are inhibiting this.
● Recommendation 8: The Government should publish an annual report covering its assessment of its priority technologies against a comprehensive analysis of the changing technological landscape.
● Recommendation 9: The Government should expand the Global Talent Visa to cover the Government’s priority technologies, increase its uptake by early-career professionals and researchers, and enhance accessibility by subsidising the Immigration Health Surcharge through endorsing bodies.
The UK is on the cusp of genuine technological leadership. If it can build a leading edge in critical niches of frontier technologies, its ambition of becoming a science and tech superpower is within reach. In the face of intense global competition, the UK cannot afford to fail in this mission
Artificial Intelligence
Niche leadership should be built in foundation models – large-scale AI models that can be adapted to various tasks. AI progress relies on foundation models, but despite the UK’s AI strengths it is falling behind in this key area.
Investing in public goods requires increasing access to compute and making public datasets AI-ready – the UK has the third-largest public data pool globally, and should leverage resources such as UK Biobank and NHS data for AI development. To unlock private enterprise, the UK should maintain its current regulatory stance to attract innovators deterred by burdensome approaches by the US and EU.
● Recommendation 1: The Government should establish a “British Library for Data”.
● Recommendation 2: The Government should launch AI Catalyst – a new scheme to streamline compute access for researchers.
● Recommendation 3: In AI safety, the UK AI Safety Institute is unlikely to lead in safety evaluations and should instead focus on foundational A research and setting international standards.
Quantum
Niche leadership should be built in quantum sensing and photonics. UK sensing companies contribute £14 billion a year, employing 73,000 people, and the UK makes up a tenth of the worldwide quantum sensor industry. Photonics already generates more than £14.5 billion for the UK economy.
Investing in public goods is needed to expand facilities, such as quantum hubs, to unlock commercialisation. Initiatives aimed at boosting entrepreneurial skills, such as reinstating the Quantum Technology Enterprise Centre to upskill scientists an engineers for quantum start-ups are essential too.
The UK has taken a sensible approach to regulation of quantum technologies to unlock private enterprise. The Regulatory Horizons Council set the right course, which the new Government should maintain: focus on the application of quantum rather than the technologies themselves, and where appropriate set a clear direction early to give innovators confidence that the UK will welcome experimentation.
● Recommendation 4: The Government should establish a Quantum Technology Catapult with open-access manufacturing capacity and support for entrepreneurial skills.
Engineering biology
The UK should build niche leadership in the intersection of AI and engineering biology. UK start-ups have raised more than any other European nation, ranking third globally in private financing, behind only the US and China.
Investing in public goods is needed across data, talent and facilities. Large data resources are not AI-ready. There is a pressing need for talent combining AI, biology, and engineering expertise, and a lack of computer science talent is one of the UK pharma industry’s top concerns. Better facilities to support scaling are needed with a deficit across Cambridge and Oxford of two million square feet.
To unlock private enterprise, the UK has often led in bioscience regulation, being the first to approve a CRISPR-based therapy. Yet challenges persist, such as complex and slow regulatory processes, under-resourced regulators, and the risk of falling behind more nations quicker to adopt pro-innovation regulations.
● Recommendation 5: The Government should create a National Engineering Biology Institute focused on supporting talent and driving commercialisation.
Semiconductors
The UK should build niche leadership in chip design and next-generation chips such as compound semiconductors. The UK is home to over 100 chip design companies. And nascent UK leadership in compound semiconductors is being met with increasing demand driven by frontier technologies such as quantum computing and AI accelerator chips.
Investing in public goods requires investment in skills and infrastructure. The UK’s semiconductor sector faces a significant skills gap, with some companies operating well below headcount needs and facing chronic challenges to hire staff with the skills they need. Low salaries and high cost of living discouraging international talent are compounding the issue. Infrastructure is also a key challenge. While it is considered strong in facilities for basic and early research stages, the UK has far less availability at later stages such as pilot stages of product development and roll-out.
To unlock private enterprise, the UK must compete with other nations to attract investment from global semiconductor companies. Yet in rejecting the approach of large state subsidies, the UK must find another means to compete, such as tax deductions. But no such offers have been forthcoming.
● Recommendation 6: The Government should establish a new Advanced Semiconductor Research Fund and set specific, sufficiently funded missions for it to build focus across the R&D and chip design efforts.
Future telecoms
While the UK is strong on telecoms research, ranking third for 5G publications, UK business telecoms R&D investment over 12 years is just half of Samsung’s annual R&D spend. Since 2020, there have been nearly 50 times fewer telecoms patents from the UK than South Korea, 40 times fewer than Japan, and five times fewer than Germany. On 6G patents, China makes up 40%, the US 30% American, with Europe as a whole only 8%.
● Recommendation 7: The Government should drop future telecoms as a ‘priority technology’ and instead focus on bolstering telecoms capabilities through international collaboration, such as its efforts via the Future Telecoms UKRI Technology Missions.
Cross-technology
Broader reforms are needed to ensure the UK’s strategy is fit for purpose. With competition fierce, it cannot lead in frontier technologies without attracting the best talent from around the world. Yet elements of its immigration policy are inhibiting this.
● Recommendation 8: The Government should publish an annual report covering its assessment of its priority technologies against a comprehensive analysis of the changing technological landscape.
● Recommendation 9: The Government should expand the Global Talent Visa to cover the Government’s priority technologies, increase its uptake by early-career professionals and researchers, and enhance accessibility by subsidising the Immigration Health Surcharge through endorsing bodies.
The UK is on the cusp of genuine technological leadership. If it can build a leading edge in critical niches of frontier technologies, its ambition of becoming a science and tech superpower is within reach. In the face of intense global competition, the UK cannot afford to fail in this mission
Allan Nixon, Head of Science and Technology, said: “It’s hard to understate how important frontier technologies will be to UK prosperity and security in the years to come. And Britain has all the right ingredients needed to seize this opportunity. But we’ve got to get real about our limitations.
“In this report, we’ve set out an ambitious, but realistic, plan. I hope the Government looks at our findings and recommendations closely.”
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