Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to attract people with skills in artificial intelligence from overseas to settle in the UK.
Answered by Lord Vallance of Balham - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
As set out in the AI Opportunities Action Plan, the Government is committed to making the UK a global hub for AI talent.
We recently announced over £115 million of investment to attract world-leading research talent to the UK, strengthening our position as an AI superpower. This includes the £54 million Global Talent Fund, the proposed expansion of ARIA and Pillar VC’s Encode fellowship, and the launch of a Global Talent Taskforce to identify and support top international researchers to work and settle in the UK.
These initiatives complement Turing AI ‘Global’ Fellowships and Spärck AI scholarships announced earlier this month, which will attract world-leading academics and students to the UK.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to attract academics from overseas to settle in the UK.
Answered by Lord Vallance of Balham - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Immigration White Paper reaffirms the government’s commitment to attracting top talent by simplifying the Global Talent visa and increasing the number of people arriving on high talent routes. The government has launched a new £54 million Global Talent Fund to bring around 10 leading researchers and their teams to the UK and invested £25 million in new Turing AI ‘Global’ fellowships. In addition, £150 million and £250 million endowment funding was allocated respectively in 2023/24 for the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Green Future Fellowships and the Royal Society’s Faraday Discovery Fellowships.
A new Global Talent Taskforce has been announced to attract exceptional talent into our Industrial Strategy sectors.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what financial assistance they are providing for the construction of data centres to expand computing capabilities for artificial intelligence.
Answered by Lord Vallance of Balham - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is encouraging growth in the data centre sector by addressing barriers to building. This includes changes to planning rules, cross-sectoral power reforms to reduce connection timelines and launching AI Growth Zones.
As part of the over £2 billion Spending Review settlement for the AI Action Plan, we have committed over £1 billion to expand the AI Research Resource, positioning the UK as a leader in high-performance AI computing, driving global innovation and scientific discovery. We’ve also announced that Scotland will host the UK’s most powerful supercomputer, backed by up to £750 million in additional investment.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what evidence they have received about the impact of the loss of the Vaccines Manufacturing and Innovation Centre following its sale.
Answered by Viscount Camrose - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
The decision to sell the Vaccine Manufacturing and Innovation Centre was made by VMIC UK Ltd's Board of Directors. The facility was subsequently sold to Catalent. Once completed, it is intended that the facility will be capable of producing a range of therapeutics and vaccines.
Officials regularly engage with industry stakeholders to understand the wider landscape and implications for vaccine development and manufacturing in the UK and will continue to do so.