Latest news with #PatrickVallance
NDTV
2 hours ago
- Business
- NDTV
India Becoming Powerful Player In Science And Tech: UK Minister
London: The UK must harness scientific and academic relationships with India as it becomes an increasingly powerful player in the science and technology space, Britain's minister for science, research and innovation has said. During a session on 'Unlocking UK-India Collaboration for a New Era of Innovation' at India Global Forum's Future Frontiers Forum at the Science Museum in London on Thursday, Lord Patrick Vallance called for greater mobility of high-skilled professionals through the Global Talent Visa and the need to tap into complementary skills across all sectors. The minister revealed the UK government's much-anticipated Industrial Strategy would be released in a few weeks, forming the blueprint for focus areas for such a partnership with India. "There is already a strong relationship between India and the UK, and I think it's growing," said Vallance. "But government-to-government relationships on science aren't actually what drives everything. It has to be a scientist and a scientist as well. There are important academic links. I'd like to see more of that as India becomes an increasingly powerful player in the science and tech space," he said. The forum was addressed by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal earlier on the sector-wide benefits of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) struck between the two countries, as it "adds value to science and technology and innovation". "A Free Trade Agreement demonstrates to the world that the two countries are friends, allies, and plan to work together closely; they trust each other," said Goyal. Vallance concurred and highlighted: "India has its focus areas, we have ours, now we need to create opportunities across those sectors." Lord Ara Darzi, the British surgeon behind a seminal review of the National Health Service (NHS) and much-needed areas of reform, hailed India's "transformative health solutions" as the "intellectual and production power" the UK must collaborate with. The forum also included a 'Pitchers and Punters' curated showcase of Indian start-ups pitching to a jury of international investors. Among the standout companies were Zypp Electric, Lina Energy, Steamology Motion Ltd and Electric Miles - with Zypp Electric winning this year's Clean Tech Award presented by British renewable energy group Octopus Energy.
Time of India
5 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
India emerging as major science and tech force, says UK minister at London innovation forum
The UK must harness scientific and academic relationships with India as it becomes an increasingly powerful player in the science and technology space, Britain's minister for science, research and innovation has said. During a session on 'Unlocking UK-India Collaboration for a New Era of Innovation' at India Global Forum's Future Frontiers Forum at the Science Museum in London on Thursday, Lord Patrick Vallance called for greater mobility of high-skilled professionals through the Global Talent Visa and the need to tap into complementary skills across all sectors. The minister revealed the UK government's much-anticipated Industrial Strategy would be released in a few weeks, forming the blueprint for focus areas for such a partnership with India. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like The Top 25 Most Beautiful Women In The World Articles Vally Undo "There is already a strong relationship between India and the UK, and I think it's growing," said Vallance. "But government-to-government relationships on science aren't actually what drives everything. It has to be a scientist and a scientist as well. There are important academic links. I'd like to see more of that as India becomes an increasingly powerful player in the science and tech space," he said. Live Events The forum was addressed by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal earlier on the sector-wide benefits of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) struck between the two countries, as it "adds value to science and technology and innovation". "A Free Trade Agreement demonstrates to the world that the two countries are friends, allies, and plan to work together closely; they trust each other," said Goyal. Vallance concurred and highlighted: "India has its focus areas, we have ours, now we need to create opportunities across those sectors." Lord Ara Darzi, the British surgeon behind a seminal review of the National Health Service (NHS) and much-needed areas of reform, hailed India's "transformative health solutions" as the "intellectual and production power" the UK must collaborate with. The forum also included a 'Pitchers and Punters' curated showcase of Indian start-ups pitching to a jury of international investors. Among the standout companies were Zypp Electric, Lina Energy, Steamology Motion Ltd and Electric Miles - with Zypp Electric winning this year's Clean Tech Award presented by British renewable energy group Octopus Energy.
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
"We Now Need to Create Opportunities Across Sectors" - UK Minister Patrick Vallance Urges Deeper UK-India Science Partnerships
Science Museum hosts IGF Future Frontiers Forum spotlighting science, tech & innovation collaboration between India and UK NEW DELHI and LONDON, June 20, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- At the Future Frontiers Forum hosted by IGF London, Patrick J. Vallance, UK Minister of State for Science, Research and Innovation, called for intensified UK–India collaboration in science and technology, urging both nations to align their innovation priorities and unlock sector-wide opportunities. "The industrial strategy coming out in just a couple of weeks which will list the eight sectors we are working on. That's got to be a good foundation for where there can be partnerships," Vallance stated. "India has its focus areas, we have ours, now we need to create opportunities across those sectors." Speaking at the Science Museum, Vallance emphasised the importance of people-to-people scientific ties: "I believe government-to-government relationships in science do not drive everything; we must also create scientist-to-scientist relationships. Academic links and the exchange of people often drive collaborations. Start-ups in particular are becoming central to the innovation ecosystem, and we need more of them in the UK–India mix." The forum, part of IGF London 2025, brought together government leaders, global CEOs, investors, and academics to explore frontier technologies across AI, climate tech, sustainable energy, health innovation, and quantum computing. Opening the event, Sir Ian Blatchford, Director of the Science Museum, celebrated the UK–India Science and Innovation Partnership Roadmap and its focus on critical and emerging technologies. "The Technology Security Initiative is a landmark step," he said. "Imperial College's science hub in Bengaluru will drive collaboration in AI, healthtech, cleantech, and advanced materials, backed by $170 million in joint UK–India funding." India's Commerce & Industry Minister Piyush Goyal highlighted the FTA's role in strengthening innovation ecosystems: "It's not just about trade or investment. The FTA demonstrates that India and the UK are friends and allies. Innovation in India happens at a fraction of global costs. What takes 10x the cost in the US or Europe can be done efficiently in India, with mutual benefit." Sir Oliver Dowden, former UK Deputy Prime Minister, reinforced the values-based alignment between the two democracies: "We must deepen ties with like-minded nations. UK and India share heritage, rule of law, and a commitment to science. Whether it's 6G or quantum, setting international standards together creates a win-win." Health innovation was another key focus, with leaders like Lord Ara Darzi, Alisha Moopen (Aster DM Healthcare), and Monica Huang (Zydus Lifesciences) exploring how India's affordable, tech-driven models could support the UK's struggling NHS. "The NHS isn't in critical condition, but it needs urgent reform," said Lord Darzi. "India's transformative health solutions and COVID-era support show the intellectual and production power we must now collaborate with." A major highlight was the return of Pitchers and Punters, a curated showcase of Indian start-ups pitching to a jury of international investors. Among the standout companies were Zypp Electric, Lina Energy, Steamology Motion Ltd and Electric Miles—with Zypp Electric winning the Clean Tech Award, presented by Octopus Energy. The punters included Neha Manaktala (JP Morgan Climate Tech), Richard Heald (EET), James Edison (Octopus Energy) and Bhavit Sheth (Dream11 & Dream Sports) who praised the depth of Indian innovation in sustainability and AI. Other sessions featured voices like Daniel D'Souza (DreamSetGo), Reena Dayal (Quantum Ecosystems Council of India), and experts from EET, exploring opportunities across deep tech, telecom, and digital health. As global tech landscapes grow more complex and fragmented, IGF London's Future Frontiers Forum showcased a clear vision: the UK and India must build trusted, innovation-led alliances that translate ambition into scalable action. The forum forms part of IGF London 2025. With over 100+ speakers, 1000 participants, and events across iconic venues in London, IGF London 2025 encompasses a spectrum of topics - from technology and trade to culture and commerce. This year's edition marks a powerful milestone - a decade since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's landmark 2015 visit to the UK, and the two nations have finalised the long-awaited Free Trade Agreement. IGF London is the first major international platform to celebrate and analyse this historic achievement, unlock new opportunities that emerge from its conclusion, and shape the next phase of UK-India collaboration. About India Global ForumIndia Global Forum tells the story of contemporary India. The pace of change and growth India has set itself is an opportunity for the world. IGF is the gateway for businesses and nations to help seize that opportunity. To know more, click here. Social Media Handles & Hashtag to Follow Twitter: @IGFUpdates & @manojladwaLinkedIn: India Global Forum#IGFLondon Photo: - View original content to download multimedia:
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
America is hijacking Britain's hopes of a tech revolution
With its thatched cottages, 11th-century church and grade-II listed buildings, Harwell appears to be the quintessential Oxfordshire village. A brisk stroll through the nearby fields, however, and you will soon find yourself in the beating heart of Britain's scientific community. Harwell Campus, previously a Second World War airfield base for bomber squadrons and gliders, is home to 7,500 scientists and £3bn worth of technological infrastructure. A vast spherical building housing the Diamond Light Source, a powerful particle accelerator, dominates much of the campus. Yet the hub is also home to the UK's National Quantum Computing Centre. This 40,000 sq ft facility, opened by science minister Lord Patrick Vallance last year, is designed to hold 12 cutting-edge quantum computers. These machines, Lord Vallance said in October, would help 'solve some of the biggest challenges we face, whether it's delivering advances in healthcare, enhancing energy efficiency, tackling climate change, or inventing new materials'. The centre is integral to Oxford's hope of succeeding in the global race to crack quantum computing, as it competes with tech giants from both the US and China. These quantum machines should, the theory goes, be able to outperform classical computers many times over by relying on the principles of quantum mechanics. However, it appears the rise of Oxford as a quantum hub has not gone unnoticed. Last week, a 60-person start-up called Oxford Ionics was sold in a $1bn (£730m) deal to US rival IonQ, a $10bn US-listed quantum giant. The takeover, made up almost entirely of the company's shares, landed Chris Ballance and Tom Hart, Oxford Ionics's founders, a paper fortune of $180m. Driving the deal were breakthroughs in developing 'trapped ion' quantum semiconductors, as Oxford Ionics developed chips that were twice as powerful as their rivals and less prone to errors. For a start-up founded in a basement in Oxford, the deal represented quite the outcome. Niccolo de Masi, chief executive of IonQ and a Cambridge University graduate, claimed the deal would create a company 'head and shoulders' above its rivals. He also stressed that Oxford would become IonQ's 'global R&D hub'. However, the deal has renewed questions over whether Britain has the ability to scale cutting-edge start-ups to help them compete on the global stage. 'Oxford Ionics epitomises British innovation,' said Henry Lee, a strategist at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change said last week. 'Brilliant Oxford research. Great early backing. Promising tech. But when it came time to scale? Had to sell to America.' Founders in the nascent quantum sector have similarly mixed feelings about the deal. Sebastian Weidt, the chief executive of Universal Quantum, says the sale was a 'testament to the amazing foundations we have in quantum computing in the UK'. However, he adds it was also an 'example of a long list of companies failing to achieve escape velocity independently in the UK'. Britain was an early mover in quantum technology. In 2014, under David Cameron's coalition, the government earmarked £1bn in state funding for UK scientists and experts in quantum. Rishi Sunak renewed this pledge in 2023 by promising £2.5bn over the coming decade. This helped fund years of learning, as most quantum computers have so far only been useful for esoteric research and experiments, such as complicated maths problems with little practical use. Yet some technology leaders now believe quantum computing technology is at an inflecion point. This includes Jensen Huang, chief executive of $3.5 trillion tech giant Nvidia, who said last week said useful quantum computers were 'within reach'. Inevitably, this has posed questions about whether Britain is ready to capitalise. Late last year, Peter Kyle, Secretary of State for Science, announced £100m to fund five quantum hubs in the UK. Another £121m was set aside in April. However, industry insiders fear this falls short of the amount industry had expected under the £2.5bn strategy set out by Sunak. Ashley Montanaro, co-founder of Bristol start-up Phasecraft, says: 'Delivery of this funding has lagged behind – especially on the software side. 'It's no surprise that UK quantum companies are looking at opportunities beyond these shores.' Oxford Ionics is not the only UK quantum business bought out by a larger US counterpart in recent years. In 2021, Psiquantum, one of the most promising quantum companies founded by Bristol University professor Jeremy O'Brien, moved to Silicon Valley to secure funds. It is now in the process of raising funds at a $6bn valuation. That same year, another start-up called Cambridge Quantum Computing agreed to merge with a unit of US giant Honeywell. Much of its team is now based in the US. Some investors say gaining access to later-stage funding remains a challenge for European businesses in cutting-edge 'deep tech' sectors like quantum. Hermann Hauser, founding partner of Amadeus Partners and an investor in Oxford Ionics, says: 'Finding enough money for European scale-ups is our number one problem.' Rob Jesudason, chief executive of Serendipity Capital, an investor in Quantinuum, says the UK 'still lacks' the 'deep tech-orientated capital to scale these organisations'. Not everyone agrees, including Hussein Kanji, of investment firm Hoxton Ventures, who says that 'too many of us worry that we sell our best companies prematurely'. Meanwhile, Steve Brierley, chief executive of quantum business Riverlane, insists that the Oxford Ionics deal is a 'sign that our quantum sector is maturing and attracting serious international attention'. Rather than this being a problem, he says, 'that is something to be proud of and to build on'. Ballance, of Oxford Ionics, adds that Britain has actually done well to retain such a large proportion of its quantum talent over the past decade. Without the UK championing the technology, he says he would have taken his company to the US a decade ago. Instead, he has built a $1bn business from its base in Oxford, which he says will continue to house its main research centre. Similarly, IonQ's De Massi claims a UK-US tie-up is no bad thing, particularly as the West seeks to defeat China in the race for quantum supremacy. 'We are the best chance at beating China in the quantum space race,' says De Masi. 'This is critical to UK and US national economic security. 'We have to beat those other guys together.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
The Independent
22-05-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Johnson favoured ‘authoritarian approach' to pandemic punishments, inquiry told
Former prime minister Boris Johnson favoured an 'authoritarian approach' to punishing people who failed to isolate during the pandemic, the Covid-19 Inquiry has heard. Policymakers also preferred punishment over incentive, despite scientists arguing that 'support and engagement' were 'very important to get adherence up'. Diary entries written by the then chief scientific adviser Lord Patrick Vallance revealed that those making decisions 'always want to go for stick, not carrot'. On Thursday, Lord Vallance, now science minister, gave evidence to the seventh module of the inquiry which is examining the approach to testing, tracing and isolating. A series of extracts were shown from his so-called evening notes, which Lord Vallance described as 'spontaneous ways to sort of decompress at the end of the day'. The inquiry heard that members of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) 'suggested more carrot and incentives required to make people take a test, self-isolate, etc, but they always want to go for stick, not carrot'. Asked by inquiry counsel Sophie Cartwright who 'they' referred to, Lord Vallance replied: 'I think in this case, it would have been the decision makers for policy.' One entry from September 25 2020 shows Mr Johnson suggesting 'more punishment' for those not following rules. It said: 'PM: punish people who won't self-isolate. Punish people who aren't doing the right thing. 'Close some pubs and bars. We need a lot more punishment and a lot more closing down.' Lord Vallance wrote: 'I put a message in chat that support and engagement very important to get adherence up. PM ends with: 'massive fines, massive fines'.' An entry from January 7 2021 gave details of a meeting on testing which included Mr Johnson. It said: 'Testing performance looks much better. Now the challenge is self isolation.' It added that Dido Harding, who ran the test and trace programme in England at the time, called for better schemes to help people isolate. Lord Vallance wrote: 'PM says: 'We haven't been ruthless enough. We need to force more isolation. I favour a more authoritarian approach'. 'Rather late in the day, the PM is understanding that incentives (or removal of disincentives) need to be in place to help people. 'Those instincts are punishment, not help. Sounds like a good testing system is gradually coming together and will be ready when lockdown released.' Former health secretary Matt Hancock raised concerns that the country's ability to scale up testing and tracing has been 'dismantled' and will be hard to achieve again in a future pandemic. He wrote in his witness statement that 'the key lesson for the future is that a rapidly scalable testing and tracing infrastructure should be maintained ready for urgent expansion'. Reading the statement aloud, Ms Cartwright said: 'You say this: 'I'm concerned at present, our current capacity has been dismantled, and we'll find it much harder to scale again in the future as a result'.' Mr Hancock said it would be 'hard to make the case' for large and permanent factory-scale testing in preparation for the next pandemic. 'That would be, in a perfect world, what you'd have, in the same way that you have a standing army,' he added. 'There is a case for it, but there's also a case against because it's expensive. 'What, in my view, there is absolutely no case against is having a plan and a system ready to go to build those factories; to take the units, to bring in the PCR testing machines, or whatever the latest technology is, and to be ready to go.' Mr Hancock was asked about ex-MP Owen Paterson's involvement with a company awarded a contract to supply millions of Covid tests. Mr Paterson quit as an MP in 2021 after he was found to have breached rules on paid advocacy when he lobbied ministers on behalf of Randox. Ms Cartwright asked: 'Do you accept, Mr Hancock, that, at the very least, to maintain public confidence, a contract of that scale should have been handled with maximum transparency as part of the creation of the test, trace, isolate system?' He replied: 'In a utopia? Yes, but we weren't living in a utopia. People were dying every day, and Randox had the capacity to radically increase the number of tests available, along with the other testing companies.' Mr Hancock praised the company which 'did an amazing job during this period'. Mentioning Mr Paterson, Ms Cartwright went on: 'There were plainly ministerial meetings that were not recorded, that have also been commented about. Were you at the time aware that those meetings had not been properly recorded?' 'No, not that I can recall,' he replied. Former health minister Lord James Bethell was asked if there was 'sufficient consideration given to working with universities as laboratories'. He said 'a huge amount of effort went into not just universities, but hospital pathology labs, animal pathology labs, all manner of private, public and university testing laboratories', and that he was 'lobbied on an hourly basis by just about everyone who had a PCR machine'. He told the inquiry he 'spent a huge amount of effort to try to figure out a way of creating an Uber for diagnostics' but 'it was a total disaster'. 'It just didn't work. They were regularly late. They regularly lost tests. The turnaround times weren't quick enough. The data got in a mess. It was very, very expensive. 'And I would have loved for that effort to have worked.'
