Recommendation 7

The Government should move beyond its opportunistic approach to international agreements in science and technology. It should, in its response to this report, commit to establishing and publishing clear criteria for decisions on its science partnerships. This should include explicit strategies for engagement with the US, the EU, Commonwealth partners, other middle powers, and competitor states such as China and Russia. Within this framework, the government should set out: 38 • How it intends to define and pursue technology sovereignty, including the balance between domestic capability, bilateral dependencies with trusted partners, and participation in wider networks of allied nations; • Its strategy for talent development and recruitment, including the balance between building domestic capability and attracting international expertise; and • Its approach to risk, including the degree to which UK intellectual property should be protected in collaborative arrangements, and the extent to which the UK faces technological competition or hostile activity from partner and competitor states. Based on this, the UK Science and Technology Network should be given a more significant role in setting direction, tasked with reviewing and rationalising its country portfolio in line with these priorities. (Conclusion, Paragraph 48)