The UK has a range of national laboratories, which have a number of different roles within the national science and technology ecosystem. These include the provision of large scale research facilities and related scientific expertise, supporting regulation and standards, curation of key scientific assets, protection of national infrastructure and the natural environment, and the provision of advice to government and regulators.
These different national research laboratories have different governance models, often driven by history rather than design, and are funded from a mixture of public and private funding, with public funding from both within and outside of the science budget. Recent reviews by both Sir Paul Nurse and Sir Patrick Vallance have considered the role of these facilities, and whether the UK is making the best use of them.
In this event, we will explore the breadth of national laboratories within the UK, and how any incoming government can make the best uses of them in the years ahead.
Speakers:
- Sir Patrick Vallance, former Government Chief Scientific Adviser
- Dr Karen Hanghøj, Director, British Geological Survey
- Professor Gianluigi Botton, Chief Executive, Diamond Light Source Ltd
This event is being kindly supported by ARC, AIRTO, the National Physical Laboratory and the National Measurement Laboratory (NML) at LGC.
Participating in person
The event will be held in the Royal Society, 6 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AG. The schedule is:
5:30 – 6:00 Networking – coffee and tea available
6:00 – 7:30 Speaker presentations and a Q&A panel session
7:30 – 8:00 Drinks
8:00 – 8:45 Dinner
8:45 – 9:30 A second Q&A period for the in-person audience only.
The event and dinner are free, and we very much hope that you can join us.
To register to attend in person, please click here.
If you have any trouble registering for this event, please contact us on office@foundation.org.uk
Participating Online
You can also participate online via Zoom, for the session from 6:00 – 7:30pm.
To register for the online session, click here.
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