Johnson sets out plan to make UK ‘science superpower’

Boris Johnson has set out plans to make the UK a “science superpower”, building on the success of the vaccine rollout.

The Prime Minister will chair a new National Science and Technology Council to provide “strategic direction” on how research is used for the “public good”, the BBC reported.

Chief scientific officer Sir Patrick Vallance will lead a new Office for Science and Technology, alongside his current role.

The new office will push forward the government’s research priorities and identify resourced needed to boost the UK’s science capability.

The government aims to increase research spending from nearly £15bn a year to £22bn by 2025.

Johnson said the vaccine rollout had demonstrated what the UK can achieve with speed and scale.  

Writing in the Telegraph today, the PM said: “I cannot think of a time in the past 100 years when the entire population of this country has been so deeply and so obviously indebted to science – and to scientists.”