Contributions
359 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDMerck Research SiteI thank the noble Lord for raising the VPAG scheme. The VPAG scheme, which was negotiated under the previous Government, turned out with a figure of 23%, which was completely…11 Sept 2025HANSARDMerck Research SiteI thank my noble friend for her work over the past year as a Minister in two departments, which I think she did brilliantly. There are indeed other companies that are investing.…11 Sept 2025HANSARDMerck Research SiteI reiterate my point about VPAG: it ended up in an unexpected place. It was negotiated in good faith by the previous Government and the industry, and the result was not the one…11 Sept 2025HANSARDMerck Research SiteThere is no doubt that Brexit had an effect on the entire sector. It also had an effect on academia and led to us ending up with a very much reduced income from the Horizon Europe…11 Sept 2025HANSARDMerck Research SiteI thank the noble Lord for that question. It is a point I agree with: this is about the overall economic picture as well as the health costs. It is something that we need to look…11 Sept 2025HANSARDMerck Research SiteWe should not be under any illusion: the US is the major powerhouse in pharmaceutical research and development and will remain that powerhouse. Despite some of the changes, there…11 Sept 2025HANSARDMerck Research SiteThe shortage of medicines is always a problem. We cannot have a situation where essential medicines are not available. That speaks to better understanding of supply chain…11 Sept 2025HANSARDMerck Research SiteI agree that this is a key area, and it is one that I am working on. I have worked on it with macroeconomists because it is something that we need to look at. We care about the…11 Sept 2025HANSARDEuropean Framework Programme 10We have got the money for the first two years of the programme in the spending review so, assuming that we associate, the money is there for those first two years, which covers…04 Sept 2025HANSARDEuropean Framework Programme 10The noble Lord is right. Our ability to get money through this scheme is a great success story. We are back to nearly full strength in terms of the academic side of that. Just to…04 Sept 2025HANSARDEuropean Framework Programme 10I am going to have to get somebody else to answer that question in writing, I am afraid, because I do not know the answer.04 Sept 2025HANSARDEuropean Framework Programme 10I thank the noble Baroness for her question. Obviously, the FP 10 negotiations have not really started yet; it is just a discussion of what this might be. We are going to look…04 Sept 2025HANSARDEuropean Framework Programme 10I have regular meetings with Ministers from the devolved Administrations. Most recently, they were around some of the issues to do with REF. Unfortunately, the meeting with the…04 Sept 2025HANSARDEuropean Framework Programme 10As I have said, we are actually above 13% for Pillar 1 in the university sector and we are increasing again. We took a big hit when we left—a very big hit—and it is taking a while…04 Sept 2025HANSARDEuropean Framework Programme 10I wrote to vice-chancellors to encourage them to make sure they apply to get into all of the scheme, and that had an effect on applications. I am doing the same with trade bodies…04 Sept 2025HANSARDEuropean Framework Programme 10I am very happy to answer my noble friend’s four questions. In terms of industry, we do not have as good an uptake yet. Academia has increased the uptake of EU grants very…04 Sept 2025HANSARDEuropean Framework Programme 10We welcome the initial proposals for the EU FP 10. We identify strong alignment between the proposals and our own focus on using research and innovation to drive economic growth.…04 Sept 2025HANSARDOpen Artificial Intelligence ServiceAs the noble Lord rightly says, the open AI approach—I mean the general approach to openness, not the company—has been an important part of how this has progressed so rapidly and…03 Sept 2025HANSARDOpen Artificial Intelligence ServiceOf course, this is a major issue, particularly in health data. I was intrigued when speaking recently to colleagues in Denmark. They made the point that they have a very simple…03 Sept 2025HANSARDOpen Artificial Intelligence ServiceThe noble Lord is right: data is fundamental. People often think of this as being just about the algorithms, but you need the data, the algorithms, the hardware and the skills to…03 Sept 2025