‘Five science and tech priorities for the new government’

With a new Prime Minister and Reform snapping at Labour’s heels ahead of 2029, it has never been more important that science and tech policy is implemented with a long-term view, and is fully joined-up. We must consider the whole chain: from research and university funding through to how technologies are used in industry – both for growth and for proper, robust regulation.

There is recent proof of the importance of this. Those who follow AI news will have seen that the US Government ordered Anthropic to suspend foreign access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5, its most advanced models. Access has since been restored, but the fact it could be switched off at all makes Kanishka Narayan’s push as a DSIT minister on AI sovereignty all the more salient.

It is all well and good having AI models aiding industries such as the NHS and defence. But if we have little control over their development – or, as demonstrated recently, their usage – relying too heavily on a handful of private companies in high-risk areas may come at a very high cost.

1. Empowering AI

Though the view of Scientists for Labour is that the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology should have remained its own department, we have been pleased to see the creation of a Cabinet-level ministerial role for AI. We are also pleased to see it held by Kanishka Narayan, who has demonstrated clear-eyed leadership as a DSIT minister. 

READ MORE: ‘Andy Burnham needs a ‘sovereign and safe AI’ policy’

It has been reported that AI strategy, public-sector adoption and the AI Security Institute will now move to the Cabinet Office, while Narayan’s role sits jointly across the Cabinet Office and the new Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade. That reassurance is welcome. The priority must be to protect AISI’s independence, funding and expertise – but the government must ensure that this departmental reorganisation doesn’t mean vital policy gets bogged down.

It must also continue with sovereign AI, which means retaining enough domestic compute, skills and capability that Britain has genuine choices, rather than assuming foreign-owned models will always remain available on terms we don’t really control.

2. Fixing the foundations: Quality Related (QR) funding

Scientists for Labour recently published a briefing for MPs on this subject. Quality-related research funding gives universities flexible funding linked to research quality. Unlike project-specific grants, it allows institutions to support early-stage ideas, maintain capability between funding rounds and retain expertise that cannot easily be sustained through short-term grants.

Early-career researchers, data specialists and research software engineers (all vital to a robust research ecosystem) can be difficult to maintain if funding remains too tightly coupled to specific projects. We must therefore be cautious about treating QR funding as a “nice to have”. The new government should rebuild it in real terms.

3. Backing scale-ups and start-ups

Britain is good at producing promising research and new companies, but less good at keeping them here as they grow. Bringing science and business policy together in DBIST has great potential to help, provided the science is not crowded out by better-established industries.

The government should join up the UK Research Institute, the British Business Bank, the National Wealth Fund and public procurement, so support does not disappear when a technology leaves the lab. The test should not only be how many start-ups we create, but how many can scale and employ people, especially in regions outside of London.

4. Make regional innovation real

Burnham should build on the devolution of innovation policy already under way. The previous government committed to giving mayors in Established Mayoral Strategic Authorities control over future Local Innovation Partnerships Fund investment after the next Spending Review, alongside closer work with UKRI and Innovate UK. It also encouraged ‘clusters’ such as in Cambridge and Glasgow, which are key engines of growth outside of London. Ensuring proper mapping, monitoring and, importantly – supporting – their growth should be a key part of any new Industrial Strategy and the new Government’s economic policy.

5. Regulation that enables safe growth

Finally, the government must ensure that growth and regulation are not treated as anathema to one another. We endorse the view of the HoC SIT Select Committee, that in health, defence, policing and welfare, government must remain an intelligent customer, ensuring it doesn’t become dependent on suppliers whose systems it cannot properly inspect. 

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That means independent testing, transparency, meaningful human accountability and routes for redress. It also means involving workers and the public early, rather than announcing adoption first and dealing with the consequences later.

Overall, though we believe DSIT should have remained, the new structure can work if the government protects the institutions already delivering and remembers that science policy is about the whole chain. Scientists for Labour looks forward to working with the new government on a science and technology settlement fit for the future.

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