Opinion: Why new UK Department for Science matters for development

The United Kingdom’s new Department for Science, Innovation and Technology should be seen as more than an opportunity for the space industry and tech start-ups: It is a critical opportunity to improve U.K.-funded international research and ensure equitable research partnerships essential to addressing our most pressing global development challenges. The creation of DSIT was announced last month, while the new Science and Technology Framework was published this week. Previously, the government’s science brief was housed within the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, which was the largest department outside of the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office to provide core multilateral official development assistance, or ODA, in 2021 — totaling £303 million ($323 million). DSIT and its Secretary of State Michelle Donelan are thereby taking on a vital part of the U.K. ODA budget for international research — in the context of a shrinking general ODA budget since the 0.7% of gross national income commitment was abandoned. The budget cuts of the last two years have led to research projects suddenly having to end or shrink, thus breaking up research partnerships that had taken a long time to establish; as well as generating a lack of trust from international partners to enter into future research collaborations with the U.K. Now, FCDO and the cross-government Strategic Coherence for ODA-funded Research Board (of which I am an independent member) has the challenge and opportunity to work with DSIT, and across Whitehall, to ensure we build effective international research partnerships for development from low-, middle- and high-income countries. Research for development matters. It’s how we find out what works best, where, and why. DSIT’s ambit includes overseeing funding for UK Research and Innovation, which has steered critical research programs for development in recent years. It included the Global Challenges Research Fund, which although was scrapped last year, was widely recognized as unique in bringing academics together in a new generation of problem-oriented, transformative science. The GCRF, along with FCDO-funded research, helped establish the U.K.’s expertise in key areas for development, convening problem-oriented research, and integrating knowledge from lived experience on areas including conflict and humanitarian response and the social dimensions of infectious disease threats. This research has shaped effective development, from responding to Ebola outbreaks in Uganda to working with women in Bangladesh to challenge sexual harassment and understanding how to protect online civic space and digital rights across Africa. A road map for DSIT This new department is an opportunity to build on the UKRI-FCDO contributions to international research, while reviewing the type of development research the U.K. government funds and the funding approaches it should take. This will not only improve the quality of research but help rebuild the U.K.’s global research reputation and help the government achieve its Innovation Strategy and the new Science and Technology Framework. In terms of budget lines, DSIT should be able to access a combination of ODA and non-ODA budgets, enabling the inclusion of lower, middle- and high-income countries within research partnerships, fostering opportunities for comparison and mutual learning — and providing the more flexible and longer-term funding commitments required. We also need to enable multiple research disciplines to work together, to provide the different angles and the rounder picture needed to address complex problems, such as transitioning to net-zero. Natural scientists and engineers can contribute the technical knowledge needed for low-carbon energy or transport systems, but we need social scientists to address their economic implications and ensure all social groups benefit. There are also enormous opportunities to work with the arts and humanities, which we’ve experienced recently at the Institute of Development Studies, with architects, social scientists, and refugee and host communities working together in Turkey to create community spaces to increase a sense of belonging for displaced people. Research grounded in equity Whether partnerships bring together different disciplines or perspectives based on different places and experiences, they must be equitable. Bringing in a wider and more diverse range of knowledge and voices leads to better research. Ensuring that all partners have a genuine stake in co-design and delivery is also crucial for research to be relevant and context-appropriate. In my experience, equitable partnerships produce more rounded and accurate findings, leading to more effective humanitarian responses and development programs — including better value for money. Equitable partnering is also needed to counter long-standing hierarchies and colonial legacies in the way agendas are set, research conducted, and findings shared and used. It is not just the best thing to do, but the right thing to do. While DSIT was announced as part of the U.K. government’s “science superpower” mantra, this rhetoric is not necessarily conducive to encouraging equitable partnerships. It can perpetuate long-standing hierarchies and colonial mindsets about U.K. leadership that sit at odds with the mutual learning needed for effective research for development, and the genuine, respectful collaborations and challenges to established power relations that this entails. U.K. government support to partners providing research, innovation, and solutions in a wide range of LMICs are important for them, but also for the U.K. The capabilities of LMICs for vital transformations should not be overlooked, both because of solutions that can be adapted to a U.K. context, and because solutions to global development challenges benefit the whole planet. The emergence of new technologies, approaches, methods and relationships from other countries provide opportunities for mutual learning and benefits for the U.K. and beyond. If DSIT can promote a way of working together in research to share approaches and findings, this will give us the best chance of meeting the interconnected and complex global challenges — climate change, disease, conflict and poverty and inequalities — that are universal to us all.