FST JOURNAL

In June 2021, the Prime Minister announced the creation of a new National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), to “provide strategic direction on the use of science and technology as the tools to tackle great societal challenges, level up across the country and boost prosperity around the world”. He also announced the creation of a new Office for Science and Technology Strategy (OSTS), to be based in the Cabinet Office, which would “drive forward the strategy of Whitehall’s science and technology priorities from the centre”. The OSTS would be headed up by a National Technology Adviser and Sir Patrick Vallance was appointed to that role.

On 26 January 2022, The Foundation for Science and Technology held an event to discuss the establishment of the NSTC and OSTS, their emerging priorities, and how they needed to work with other structures within the UK’s science, technology and innovation ecosystem and with industry. The speakers at the event were Sir Patrick Vallance (National Technology Adviser), Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser (Chief Executive of UKRI), Naomi Weir (Programme Director – Innovation at the CBI) and Professor James Wilsdon (University of Sheffield). A video recording, presentation slides and speaker audio from the event are available on the FST website: www.foundation.org.uk/Events/2022/How-can-the-National-Science-and-Technology-Counci