Brown Pledges Science Support

Delivering the Romanes Lecture at the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford, Gordon Brown said the Government will meet its ten-year commitment to maintain science spending and will continue to ring-fence funding for the scientific community.

He announced that Foreign Secretary David Miliband will appoint the UK’s first ever Chief Scientific Adviser at the Foreign Office to work with Hilary Clinton’s Chief Science Adviser.

Ministers will also look for new ways of working with the American Government to take advantage of investment from President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package.

The PM said:

“With the strength of our scientific community, our commitment to invest in the future of science and our steadfast determination to build a global partnership of nations succeeding together not falling apart, Britain can be an international hub for scientists around the world.”

Mr Brown also announced a national ambition to offer classes in the three sciences, rather than a combined science course, in 90 per cent of all state schools within five years. It is hoped that the move will boost the number of youngsters who continue to study science after leaving school.

The lecture, named after the biologist George Romanes – a contemporary and friend of Charles Darwin – was delivered as the PM visited Oxford on Friday 27 February.

Earlier in the day, he took calls from BBC Radio Oxford listeners and met students and professors at Oxford University’s new biochemistry laboratory.

Following the lecture, Mr Brown toured the cancer unit and the radiology department at the city’s Churchill Hospital.

By 10 Downing Street