coronavirus completely disrupted our

lives

for months we were locked in our homes

unable to meet with relatives and

friends

do proper exercise and even go to work

or school

many of us spent way too much time on

tick tock

the pandemic left

many families heartbroken and

traumatized with almost 5 million deaths

worldwide

despite this there have been some

successes

as a scientist i am thrilled

that my family friends and students are

suddenly familiar with abbreviations

such as pcr

i spent the last three years

working in parliament and still recall

our meetings in early 2020

out of the blue

our political discussions became

scientific

i was having to explain the yarn number

and other aspects of virology to

officials

clearly

in the age of covert many people have

realized how important science has been

is and will be to our society

from apps

that track cases in real time to

diagnostics mathematical modeling new

medications and of course

vaccines

the reason we are here today is because

of scientists and their remarkable

discoveries

scientists have saved the day

now that the whole country is listening

to scientists there is a golden

opportunity to regenerate science

in the uk

i say regenerate because i believe we

need to reevaluate our approach to

science

although it might not seem obvious we

are not going

in the right direction

change is required

i have four concerns that i wish to

explore today

my first concern relates to the

financial investment or lack of

in science

historically

the uk has always championed science

and british scientists including isaac

newton charles darwin alexander fleming

myself and many others

have changed the world for the better i

like to think

the uk has also won the second highest

number of nobel prizes after the us

and in 2018 produced seven percent

of the world's scientific publications

sounds like the uk has done rather well

right

let's now look at it for a different

angle the angle of economic performance

which is widely regarded as the best

indicator of the actual impact of

science on society

the european commission publishes an

annual ranking of the world's best

performing r d research and development

companies

in 2019 not a single uk firm

made the top 25.

economically

whilst london and the southeast are

productive

most uk regions are not

there are significant geographical

imbalances in r d spending

let's explore our science budget in more

detail

in simplified terms

gdp is the total income of the country

currently

the uk spends 1.7 percent of its gdp

on r d

the goal is to increase that to 2.4

percent

by 2027.

is this ambitious

well

let's try and contextualize this number

austria sweden switzerland germany japan

already spend over three percent

of their gdp on r d

south korea over 4.5 percent

it seems strange to me that we are

aiming for a target far below

many countries

if the uk is to make the major

discoveries that could transform the

world whether that's new drugs

against diseases or new solutions to

combat climate change i believe we must

triple

our science budget in the next five

years

more specifically we should be spending

five percent plus

of our gdp

on science the highest globally

my second concern relates to the way in

which scientific advice is implemented

in government decision making

during a pandemic we observed some of

the greatest scientific successes of our

lifetimes including the super-fast

development of vaccines

normally it takes 10 years

we managed it in 10 months

the uk and the us were both labeled the

best prepared countries in the world to

respond to a pandemic by the global

health security index

and yet

we have one of the worst covered death

rates globally

our vaccine success has been

overshadowed by a horrific

mortality rate

in my view there were mainly many

failures that ultimately proved

catastrophic

for example

many studies confirmed that mandatory

face masks on public transport and in

shops reduced new infections in germany

by 45

but the uk rejected the use of face

masks at the beginning of the outbreak

was this really

a good decision

south korea experienced mers another

coronavirus in 2015

and so they knew

they had to monitor and follow up every

case very carefully right from the start

as a consequence

south korea did not implement a single

national lockdown

in contrast the uk had free as we all

know too well

now

there were benefits to lockdown

i too enjoyed making banana bread and

not using the piccadilly line to get to

work

but why didn't the uk

use south korea's test and trace model

until may last year

uk's mortality rate is now 55 times

higher than south korea's

of course

it's wrong and unhelpful to blame

individuals but moving forward full

transparency is required

new systems should be put in place to

improve decision making and

communication

so that we can properly prepare

for future

emergencies

my third concern

is that investment in medical research

does not always reflect population need

of course when i say we should invest in

science i don't just mean biological

sciences

chemistry physics engineering all

require more financial support

i would like to use hearing loss as a

case study to illustrate my point

hearing impairment is the most common

form of sensory impairment in humans

but is one of the most underfunded

disorders

uk research health analysis

shows that 83 pence is spent on hearing

research for every person affected

over 16 pounds is spent on vision

research for every person with sight

loss

still low but significantly more and

we now have gene therapy for blindness a

fantastic achievement

but actually

hearing research attracts a low amount

of funding

relative to the scale

of the problem

in the uk

2 million people suffer from vision

impairment

12 million people suffer from hearing

loss

ranging from mild auditory impairments

to complete deafness

imagine

if he could take a pill and hear

perfectly again

so

why do we neglect this problem so much

one reason

is that our politicians are not

particularly interested in investing in

research they will not get credit for

the average length of a british prime

minister in office is around 5 years

the average length of a secretary of

state is two years and science requires

time and patience to achieve results

a scientific development normally takes

17 years

by the time results are produced and

published there may be another prime

minister in downing street who will

benefit from those discoveries

i believe we need long-term science

secretaries who are

science experts

the last concern i would like to raise

is the unhealthy environment scientists

experience

i would briefly like to mention

scientists in training often referred to

as phd students

doctoral researchers can work in both

academia or industry and are known for

their excellent analytical skills

logical and independent mind and great

attention to detail

but alarmingly

70 percent quit academia

soon after passing their phds

this requires urgent attention we need

to ask ourselves why so many talented

individuals are discouraged from

pursuing their scientific ambitions

the reasons are complex

common justifications include poor pay

poor work life balance inadequate

supervision

career uncertainty a toxic environment

a survey performed by nature

shows that one in five experience the

bullying or harassment

during their programme

one in three required treatment for

depression and all anxiety

the central theme is clear

scientists in the uk do not feel valued

enough

scientists in the uk are also underpaid

on average data engineers in germany

earn almost 18 000 pounds more than in

the uk

uk lecturers earn 45 percent less than

canadian lecturers 34 percent less than

americans and 16 percent less than

australians

the uk is a country of services

we pay our bankers lawyers etc

good salaries and that's excellent

the uk should also be a country of

research and development

to begin the process of science

regeneration we first need a culture

change

investing in scientists emotionally and

financially is important

science driven innovation fuels economic

growth and supports trade manufacturing

and national security

without science there is no medicine

without science there is no nhs

whilst we do not know

what the next 50 years of discoveries

will bring

let's be ambitious and address global

challenges collaboratively and

professionally

let's give our scientists a chance let's

invest properly thank you very much

{{}}

冠状病毒彻底打乱了我们

几个月的生活，我们被锁在家里，

无法与亲友见面，无法

进行适当的锻炼，甚至无法上班

或

上学 尽管如此，全球仍有近 500 万人死亡，

作为一名科学家取得了一些成功，我很

高兴我的家人朋友和学生

突然熟悉

pcr 等缩写词，

我在过去三年

在议会工作，仍然记得

我们在 2020 年初的会议

我们的政治讨论变得

科学化了，

我不得不向官员清楚地解释病毒学的纱线数量

和其他方面

在隐蔽的时代，许多人

已经意识到

科学对我们社会的重要性，以及

追踪病例的应用程序对我们社会的重要性 实时

诊断 数学建模

新药当然还有

疫苗 原因 我们今天在这里是

因为科学家们和他们的非凡

发现

科学家们拯救了这一天

现在全国都在

倾听科学家们的声音 在英国这是一个重振科学的黄金

机会

我说重生是因为我相信我们

需要重新评估我们的方法

科学

虽然我们似乎没有

朝着正确的方向前进，但

需要

做出改变 我今天想探讨四个问题

我的第一个问题与

金融投资或

缺乏科学有关 从

历史上看

，英国一直支持科学

和英国 包括艾萨克·

牛顿·查尔斯·达尔文·亚历山大·弗莱明在内的科学家

和其他许多人

已经让世界变得更好我

认为英国还获得了仅次于美国的第二

高诺贝尔奖，

并且在 2018 年产生

了世界上 7% 的科学出版物

听起来 就像英国做得很好一样，

现在让我们换个

角度看 经济绩效的角度

被广泛认为是科学对社会

的实际影响的最佳指标

欧盟委员会发布了 2019 年

全球表现最佳

的研发

公司

的年度排名，没有一家英国公司

进入前 25 名。

在经济上，

虽然伦敦和东南部是

多产的，但

大多数英国地区的研发支出并

没有明显的地理

失衡

让我们更详细地探讨我们的科学预算，

简而言之，

gdp 是该国目前的总收入，

英国将其 gdp 的 1.7%

用于 rd

的目标是到 2027 年将这一比例提高到 2.4

%

。这

是一个雄心勃勃的

井吗？

让我们尝试将这个数字背景化

奥地利 瑞典 瑞士 德国 日本

已经在 rd 上花费了超过 3

% 的

gdp 韩国 超过 4.5%

对我来说，我们似乎很奇怪

如果英国要取得重大

发现，目标远低于许多国家 可以改变

世界，无论是

针对疾病的新药还是应对

气候变化的新解决方案

关注与在大流行期间政府决策

中实施科学建议的方式有关

我们观察到

了我们一生中最伟大的科学成就，

包括疫苗的超快速

开发

通常需要 10 年

我们在 10 个月内完成

了英国 美国都被全球卫生安全指数标记为

世界上应对大流行病准备最充分的国家

，但

我们的死亡率是全球最差的国家之一，在我看来

，

我们的疫苗成功

被可怕的死亡率所掩盖

主要有许多

失败最终证明是

灾难性

的，例如

许多研究证实

公共交通工具和商店强制佩戴口罩使

德国的新感染人数减少

了 45 人，

但英国

在疫情爆发之初拒绝使用口罩，

这真的

是一个很好的决定，

韩国在 2015 年经历了另一种

冠状病毒

，所以他们知道

他们必须

从一开始就非常仔细地监控和跟进每

一个案例，因此

韩国没有实施单一的

全国封锁

，而英国则有免费的，我们都

知道

现在

封锁有好处

我也很喜欢做香蕉 面包，而

不是使用皮卡迪利线

上班，

但为什么英国

直到去年

五月才使用韩国的测试和追踪模型 英国的死亡率现在是

韩国的 55 倍

当然责怪个人是错误和无益的，

但是 推进完全

透明化是必要的

e

对于未来的

紧急情况，

我的第三个担忧

是，对医学研究的投资

并不总是反映人口

需求当然当我说我们应该投资于

科学时，我不仅仅是指生物

科学、

化学物理工程都

需要更多的财政支持，

我想使用 听力损失作为一个

案例研究来说明我的观点

听力障碍是人类最常见

的感觉障碍形式，

但却是资金最不足的

疾病之一

英国研究健康分析

表明，每个体重超过 16 磅的人花费 83 便士进行听力

研究

用于每个视力丧失的人的视力研究

仍然很低，但要多得多，

我们现在有基因治疗失明是一项

了不起的成就，

但实际上

听力研究吸引的资金

相对于

英国

200 万人的问题规模而言很少 患有视力

障碍

1200 万人患有轻度听力

损失

完全耳聋的语言障碍

想象一下，

如果他可以吃药并再次听力正常

，

那么

为什么我们如此忽视这个问题，

一个原因

是我们的政治家

对投资研究不是特别感兴趣，

他们不会

因为平均时间长度而受到赞扬 英国

首相在位时间约为 5 年

国务卿的平均任期

为两年 科学需要

时间和耐心才能取得

成果 科学发展通常需要

17 年

才能产生和发表成果

可能会有另一位

首相 在唐宁街，谁将

从这些发现中受益

我相信我们需要长期

担任

科学专家

的科学秘书 我要提出的最后一个问题

是不健康的环境

学生

博士研究人员可以在

学术界或工业界工作，并以

他们出色的分析能力

逻辑和独立的思维以及

对细节的高度关注，

但令人震惊的是，

70% 的人

在通过博士学位后不久就退出了学术界

这需要紧急关注 我们

需要问自己为什么这么多有才华的

人不鼓励

追求他们的科学

抱负 原因很复杂

常见 理由包括工资

低 工作生活不平衡 监督不足

职业不确定性 有毒环境

大自然进行的一项调查

显示，五分之一的人在他们的计划中经历过

欺凌或骚扰

三分之一的人需要治疗

抑郁症和所有焦虑症

中心主题是明确的

科学家 英国人认为英国的

科学家们被低估了 英国的科学家

平均工资也偏低 德国的数据工程师的

收入比英国高出近 18 000 英镑

英国讲师的收入比加拿大讲师低 45%

比美国人低 34%

比澳大利亚人低 16%

英国是一个 服务国家

我们付给银行家律师等

高薪，这

很好 英国也应该是一个研发国家，

开始科学再生的过程

我们首先需要文化

变革

在情感和经济上投资于科学家

是重要的

科学驱动的创新燃料 经济

增长和支持贸易 制造业

和国家安全

没有科学 没有科学就没有医学

就没有国民保健服务

我们不

知道未来 50 年的发现

会带来什么

让我们雄心勃勃，以

合作和

专业的方式应对全球挑战

机会让我们

好好投资，非常感谢