November E-bulletin
Spending Review  | New Chair of Trustees | Annual Lecture | Regional R&D growth
Spending Review 2020
The Government yesterday published its 2020 Spending Review, including £14.6 billion for R&D investment in 2021-22. Given the tight financial circumstances, CaSE welcomed the announcement, which keeps the UK on track to reach the goal of £22bn invested in R&D by 2024-25.

CaSE also welcomed the multi-year settlement for UKRI set out in the Spending Review and the focus given to the Government's 'levelling-up' agenda, which follows on from the publication of our Power of Place report earlier in the year.
CaSE appoints new Chair of Trustees
CaSE are delighted to announce that Dr Bob Sorrell has been made the new Chair of Trustees. Dr Sorrell has 30 years’ experience in science and engineering policy, having worked at BP since 1987, as well as serving in a variety of expert and advisory roles, including six years as a CaSE trustee. 

Dr Sorrell replaces Professor Graeme Reid, whose term as Chair has now expired. Under the stewardship of Professor Reid, CaSE has excelled in fulfilling its mission as a champion for UK science and engineering. The Board of trustees and CaSE thank Graeme for his leadership as Chair over the last six years.

The appointment took place at this week's CaSE AGM, which also included the appointment of new trustees to the Board. You can find full details about our Board here.
CaSE Annual Lecture 2020 with the Chief Executive of UKRI
This month saw the CaSE Annual Lecture 2020, given by the Chief Executive of UKRI, Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser. Although CaSE has been running Annual Lectures for over 30 years, this was first of these events to be held online.
 
Over 500 invitees from across the science and engineering community watched Professor Leyser's live lecture, setting out her thoughts on the future direction of the relationship between science and society, and the role UKRI can play in this. The lecture was followed by a Q&A with the audience, chaired by CaSE Executive Director Dr Sarah Main, and kindly sponsored by Elsevier.
Put R&D at the heart of 'levelling-up 'agenda, CaSE urges Minister
CaSE has written to the Minister for Regional Growth and Local Government, highlighting the importance of structural funding to drive forwards the Government’s ‘levelling-up’ agenda by supporting R&D.

With EU structural funding coming to an end once the UK leaves the EU, CaSE has called on the Government to re-commit to its proposed UK Shared Prosperity Fund and give greater emphasis towards supporting scientific research and innovation to tackle regional inequalities and promote UK-wide economic growth.

This follows our recent report, The Power of Place, that set out a number of recommendations on how the government could maximise the local economic impact of greater R&D intensity across the UK. We were pleased to see several of these recommendations included in the Government's R&D Roadmap.
Engaging with the Sector
CaSE's Executive Director met with the Chair of the Commons Science and Technology Select Committee to discuss the ongoing work of the Committee and how CaSE can best support it. The Executive Director also took part in a UKRI roundtable on the Place Agenda

CaSE has published its submission to the Government's R&D roadmap. We were pleased to see the roadmap include many of the recommendations from our recent report The Power of Place on regional R&D investment.

We've also held a series of virtual one-on-one meetings with members and the wider sector, including Babraham Institute, the BioIndustry Association, Cardiff University, University of Dundee, the Royal Academy of Engineering, EngineeringUK, Jisc, the National Measurement Laboratory, the Academy of Medical Sciences, NCUB, The Physiological Society, Research on Research Institute, the Association for Science Education, and the Zoological Society of London.
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