The chemical sciences have a critical role to play in the global challenges we face and in the technological advances being developed to help meet these challenges.
We are calling on the new government to place science and technology at the heart of the political agenda to create a resilient, sustainable economy and allow UK science to thrive.
We鈥檙e calling on the new government to:
Chemistry makes a significant contribution to the UK economy, so it is vital that government creates the right conditions for chemistry-using companies, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), to flourish and educate the current and future chemistry workforce.
Research by Cambridge Econometrics for the 欧美AV in 2020 showed that over the period 2013-19:
£83 billionChemistry workforces' annual contribution to UK GDP
£39 billionChemistry sector's average contribution to GVA
We need the new government to support science, from discovery to applications, to effectively tackle climate change and ensure that chemicals, resources and waste, and environment policies are informed by the best evidence and up-to-date science as possible. The UK needs to move towards a circular economy to create a healthy environment for healthy people and wildlife.
1. Create an ambitious, inclusive, and stable R&D policy environment for UK science and innovation to thrive
- advancing economic growth and productivity, maximising the benefits created by R&D and becoming a leading science and technology nation globally.
Funding and landscape
- Enable the UK to be a leading G7 country in R&D investment and aim to be among the top science and innovation nations globally.
- Provide clarity on long-term investment plans. Once the Government has achieved its commitment to invest £20 billion per year on R&D by 2024/25, this should increase to £22 billion per year by 2026/27, in line with previous commitments.
- Create a stable R&D policy environment to boost confidence in the UK for public and private investors, and high-skilled workers, to locate their lives and businesses in the country.
- Ensure that increased investment and support are felt across all regions and nations of the UK and support a science culture that prioritises good scientific practice and individual wellbeing, as well as heightening participation in science and innovation.
- Support UK researchers and businesses to make the most of Horizon Europe participation and ensure any underspend is ringfenced for R&D.
Talent and workforce
- Attract the best-talented researchers and innovators through an internationally competitive visa scheme and ensure the UK workforce is equipped with skills to tackle the health and sustainability challenges of our time and to make the most of the opportunities and manage the risks that new technologies present in the chemistry sector.
- Implement an immigration system that supports R&D activity in the UK to enable economic growth. It must be flexible, affordable, and welcoming.
- Increase provision of skills required for green jobs in the future via an updated curriculum to avoid a potential knowledge gap.
- Work with leaders in diversity and inclusion and organisations in the research landscape to ensure that policy levers and organisational practice make a step change in diversity in R&D environments.
Ecosystem and resources
- Address the critical shortage of laboratory facilities in the UK, ensuring chemical scientists can access appropriate laboratory space across the country.
- Mandate sustainable laboratory practices that are realistic, ambitious and embed sustainability in organisational culture.
- Increase financial support for innovative R&D-driven SMEs, particularly at the scale-up stage to maximise economic growth and allow for SMEs to thrive.
2. A world-class chemistry education for all
- ensuring that future generations are equipped for the emerging economy to guarantee an effective labour pipeline and maintain the strength of the chemical sciences.
A relevant and adequately resourced curriculum
- Reform the curriculum to ensure it is fit-for-purpose, engaging and relevant, while avoiding content overload; it should provide young people with skills and understanding that enables them to become scientifically literate citizens, and that prepares them for further study and/or careers in the chemical sciences.
- Prepare all young people to fully participate in efforts to tackle climate change and sustainability challenges.
- Include relevant and regular practical chemistry activities which are sustainable, inclusive, accessible and have a clear purpose, and whose consumables and equipment are sufficiently funded.
- Foster a sense of identity and belonging in the chemical sciences through better use of contexts, examples and role models; students see that a future in chemistry is ‘for people like me’.
Accessible routes and equitable pathways
- Equip students with core chemistry knowledge and skills that are understood and valued by employers, via both academic and vocational options at level 3 and above.
- Adopt a ‘single route’ science qualification to the age of 16, giving learners equal opportunity to study science by addressing existing gatekeeping and perception problems.
- Broaden children’s horizons and ambitions by ensuring they understand the wide range of careers and opportunities that science enables.
- Teachers and careers professionals are confident to talk about the full range of academic and vocational routes to those careers.
An empowered expert workforce
- Ensure teachers and technicians have the resources, skills, expertise and motivation so that all students have access to an excellent chemistry education.
- Address the teacher recruitment and retention crisis with long-term solutions that can withstand population and economic fluctuations.
- Invest in high-quality, subject-specific professional development for teachers.
- Address the shortage of school science technicians through improvements in conditions and pay.
3. A strategic approach to the management of chemicals and resources for a robust and sustainable economy
- protecting our health and environment by driving a just transition to a circular economy of materials.
Chemicals Strategy and management
- Give a timeframe for the release of the long-awaited chemicals strategy.
- Provide necessary bespoke training and upskilling of regulatory professionals to deliver high-quality regulatory regimes for chemicals.
- Set up a national Chemicals Agency to develop a more streamlined, coherent and effective regulatory framework that protects human health and the environment, drives innovation and economic growth, and delivers taxpayer value for money.
- Improve the quality of drinking water by lowering safe thresholds for PFAS in drinking water, maintaining a national inventory, and imposing stricter limits on PFAS discharges.
International cooperation and leadership on chemicals
- Continue to support UK leadership in UNEP’s work in global framework for chemicals (GFC) and the process of developing the UN Science Policy Panel (SPP) on chemicals, waste and pollution prevention.
- Show leadership on the global pollution and waste crisis driven by excessive use of problematic, unnecessary and avoidable plastics, by continuing to engage with the international plastics treaty process, and acting decisively in the UK to enable a circular economy of plastic.
- Strengthen research and development efforts into long-term monitoring programmes and measurement technologies that increase our understanding of the impacts of indoor and outdoor air quality.
- Continue commitment to international collaborations regarding antimicrobial resistance (AMR) research and surveillance programmes, and to maintain a strong science base to enable a comprehensive approach to AMR.
Transition to a circular economy of materials
- Improve data collection, including the mapping and tracking of critical mineral and other material streams within renewable energy, electrical and electronic equipment, and other key technologies and sectors.
- Support world-class research into sustainable materials, including those limiting emissions along entire material and product lifecycles.
- Invest in and incentivise resource-efficient design, production and processes, alongside assessments of criticality and substitutability of materials, taking into account the needs of different sectors.
- Invest in infrastructure to support the re-use, repair and re-manufacturing of products according to the waste hierarchy, as well as in recycling infrastructure and technologies to enable the increased recovery of critical minerals and other materials to be used as secondary resources and prevent their leakage from the economy.
Please write to your newly elected MPs to ask them to support the issues that matter to our community.