ARIA: Scoping Our Planet Programme

Debate between Lord Patel and Lord Vallance of Balham

Tuesday 8th July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

I thank the noble Lord for his question. I know that he is prone to shaking his head when Ministers answer. I fear that I may give him a neck injury during this answer.

Of course we are committed to transparency, but we have no plans to bring ARIA into the scope of the FoI Act. ARIA is a unique organisation with unique freedoms; it has been designed deliberately to be a small, agile body with limited administrative capacity so that most of its efforts can be spent devoted to finding the answers to some of the missions that it funds —long-term transformation research for the benefit of the UK. However, both the Government and ARIA understand the importance of transparency, and ARIA publishes all its information on recipients of programme funding, transactional information on its operational costs, and data on the regional distribution of its programmes and funding. It complies with the Environmental Information Regulations, is audited annually by the NAO, and publishes its annual reports and accounts.

[Lord Patel (CB)]

My Lords, I support what the Minister just said about the transparency that ARIA has managed to establish, despite the absence of freedom of information legislation. Its work in terms of requests for research and the research funding awarded are all available on its website. Would the Minister agree that ARIA has been a great success hitherto in establishing strong co-operation and relations, nationally and overseas, and bringing in some inward investments from overseas? The current CEO, Ilan Gur, should be congratulated on doing so, as he is leaving his job for personal reasons to go back to the United States.

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

I thank the noble Lord for his comments. I agree that ARIA has got off to a tremendous start under the leadership of Ilan Gur, who will leave his role when a new CEO is appointed—he will stay up until that point. ARIA has done a number of things, including training a whole group of people who otherwise would not be entrepreneurial scientists to be entrepreneurial scientists. Eight new start-ups have occurred as a result of this, and seven UK subsidiaries of global companies have come to the UK. The projects are all at an early stage, but there are some very exciting pieces of work that are now recognised and admired globally.

Science and Innovation: Alan Turing Institute

Debate between Lord Patel and Lord Vallance of Balham

Monday 19th May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

I agree that those areas are important. They are, of course, part of the system, including other matters such as procurement of innovation and the skills we need. On the regulatory side, the Regulatory Innovation Office is there to try to free the obstructions that exist to some innovation. The need to reduce reliance on gas and increase our ability to have a domestic supply is crucial to get energy prices to the right place. All these things are important. It is not just the initial science; it is the ability to turn that into companies that can subsequently scale.

[Lord Patel (CB)]

My Lords, I agree with what the Minister said about why the Alan Turing Institute ran into trouble. It was partly because of poor governance—it was thinly spread, as he said—but he also mentioned that the institute is independent and will therefore reform itself. What oversight does his department have to ensure its governance works this time?

Artificial Intelligence: Regulation

Debate between Lord Patel and Lord Vallance of Balham

Monday 10th February 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

As the noble Viscount says, this is an urgent matter. A summit is going on in Paris at the moment discussing many of these issues. We remain committed to bringing forward legislation. We are continuing to refine the proposals and look forward to engaging extensively in due course to ensure that our approach is future-proofed and effective against what is a fast-evolving technology.

[Lord Patel (CB)]

My Lords, if the UK were to consider AI regulation, which specific areas that are not covered currently by a whole bunch of other regulations does the Minister think would be worth regulating?

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

That is precisely the point that I was trying to get to in the last few questions. There is regulation by the existing regulators, all of whom will need to deal with AI, and there is regulation which is covered in the Data (Use and Access) Bill, leaving frontier model control as the unregulated area. That is the area in which we seek to bring in some form of legislation in due course. We want to consult on it; it is a very complicated, fast-moving area, and an important one, and it is why the AI Safety Institute is such an important body in the UK.

Specialised Research Units: Closures

Debate between Lord Patel and Lord Vallance of Balham

Monday 28th October 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

The noble Lord makes a very important point. In the transition to this new model, all the existing units will be able to apply to the new model and there will be transition arrangements for those staff who do not become part of the new model and return to funding from the host institution or through grant funding. He is right that there will be specific centres with some role in global resilience, or another bespoke reason to keep them going, that will be looked at as special cases as part of this process.

[Lord Patel (CB)]

My Lords, I declare an interest as professor emeritus of the University of Dundee and its previous chancellor. The MRC unit in Dundee on protein phosphorylation and ubiquitylation has spawned many other sub-sections in cell signalling. I know the Minister is aware of the number of drug molecules developed using reversible phosphorylation. One of the aspects of the new system will be that it will limit the number of postgraduate trainees. I was always amazed how many postgraduates were graduating with a doctorate—20 to 30 at any one time. The new system will limit the ability to recruit that number of PhD students. That will be damaging to the reputation of the unit and our global recognition. Does he agree?

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

The noble Lord knows that I know that unit extremely well. It is a very important unit globally and it was given an award of £30 million recently. The new model will allow for a longer period of funding—seven years plus seven years’ funding, so a total of 14 years—with a different process of evaluation, which is a lighter-touch, less bureaucratic process. There is no reason why there cannot be a similar number of trainees going through the new system.

Horizon Europe

Debate between Lord Patel and Lord Vallance of Balham

Tuesday 8th October 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

Now that we are back in Horizon Europe and FP10, we will be looking to engage in that fully and shape it. In answer to an earlier question, I hope that that will include areas from which we are currently excluded. That will all depend on the backdrop of our relationship with Europe; you will see that it is warmer now and therefore we have had encouraging noises. I am due to meet Manuel Heitor, who is chair of the expert group on Horizon and FP10, to discuss how we can fully engage.

[Lord Patel (CB)]

My Lords, it is good to hear the Minister, whom I welcome, say that the Government will engage in the Horizon 10 programme and its future form. Important also is that, when we were not members of Horizon, we collaborated with the Swiss research foundations. Will the Government assist in a negotiation to engage with Switzerland and the EU Horizon programme to readmit and collaborate with Switzerland?

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

Obviously, it is up to the Swiss to determine their association, but I will travel shortly to Switzerland to meet Science Ministers there. I will discuss our memorandum of understanding and how we can further engage in collaborations with Swiss scientists, which we see as incredibly important for the UK science base.