Who’s who in BIST?
The unexpected merger of the Department for Business and Trade with (elements of) the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology ended the three-year experiment of a government department dedicated to science and technology alone.
The creation of DSIT in 2023 was a cause close to then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s heart, and was closely tied up with the last government’s “science superpower” rhetoric and quest to take AI more seriously. The department persisted once Labour came to power, first under Peter Kyle as Secretary of State, then Liz Kendall. Both were close allies of Keir Starmer and are now out of government.
The dissolution of the science department was announced immediately on Andy Burnham’s assumption of power, alongside the establishment of Number 10 North. It took a little while for the acronym to settle down, but we appear to have landed on BIST. The visual identity, if you’re interested, is based around a shade of orange adopted from a shared DBT/DSIT marketing campaign, using the government’s standardised “dotty crown” as logo.
Jonathan Reynolds returns as Secretary of State, having been at the reins of the business department for the first year of the Starmer administration until a demotion to chief whip for reasons that were never quite clear. Reynolds was instrumental in the development of the industrial strategy, and so much initial reaction in the research sector saw the machinery of government changes as indicative of the strategy playing an even larger role in the future of UK R&D.
Stockton North MP Chris McDonald has subsequently been named Minister for Science, Innovation and Investment, and his ministerial portfolio was confirmed towards the end of August. He takes the science, research and innovation brief which was previously held by Patrick Vallance, as well as responsibility for UKRI, ARIA, the Government Office for Science and the Government Office for Technology Transfer.
Before entering Parliament in 2024, he was chief executive of the Materials Processing Institute, an advanced materials research organisation which was spun out from Tata Steel (although it traces its history much further back than that). The institute is currently facing some challenging financial circumstances. McDonald holds an MEng from the University of Cambridge, and is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
A comparison with Vallance’s erstwhile portfolio shows that his replacement has retained oversight of areas such as life sciences, quantum and engineering biology, and acquired the brief for tech investment, scale-ups, access to finance, and the Office for Investment.
Which is not to say that McDonald is the only BIST minister with relevance to the research sector. Minister for Artificial Intelligence Kanishka Narayan – who will attend Cabinet – holds the AI for science portfolio and responsibility for AI innovation, AI research resource, and various other increasingly important areas.
Industrial strategy, on the other hand, sits with Minister for Reindustrialisation Blair McDougall, who has a somewhat more junior role within BIST as a parliamentary under-secretary. Lord Leong (Minister for Small Business and Enterprise) has responsibility for education-related exports, which includes research income reported by universities.
While not all of DSIT has moved to the new department, the parts with most relevance to UK science have made the move under director general Alexandra Jones, who remains the lead civil servant for research and innovation policy (as well as AI and emerging technologies, tech transfer, and international and security policy for science).
The department’s permanent secretary is currently Amanda Brooks on an interim basis, with recruitment ongoing to find a long-term replacement for Gareth Davies. DSIT permanent secretary Emran Mian’s new role has not been confirmed, but he would appear to be a likely candidate for the equivalent role at BIST.