Out and About STEM: Why visibility of LGBT scientists is important

By Dorieke Grijseels, University of Sussex

February marks LGBT history month, a month in which we remember and celebrate lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender history. It is great to see the lists of many important figures in LGBT history appearing on blogs and social media. As a scientist, one thing that strikes me, is that the lists rarely includes more than one or two scientists.

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Biochemical SocietyFebruary 14, 2018February 14, 2018Leave a comment

Industry, Policy

Building our Industrial Strategy: Investing in science, research and innovation

By Dr Kelly Davidge, Research and Development Manager at Kirkstall Ltd

In the Government’s recently published Green Paper on building the UK’s industrial strategy, they recognise the importance of investment in science, research and innovation and have committed to a number of strategies to boost the UK innovation economy. Although the UK has three of the top 10 and 12 of the top 100 world universities, we lag behind other countries when it comes to investment in innovation through research and development (R&D):

1.7% of UK GDP- gross domestic product- is invested in R&D funding, compared with the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) average of 2.4%;
business investment in R&D is 1% in the UK, but 2% in Germany, 2.5% in Japan and over 3% in South Korea;
the UK produces a similar number of spin-off companies to the US but registers fewer patents;
none of our universities feature in the top 10 of Reuters Top 100: The World’s Most Innovative Universities – 2016, a list that ranks the educational institutions doing the most to advance science, invent new technologies and drive the global economy.

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