Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of potential impact of science diplomacy in achieving UK technology sovereignty; and whether her Department intends to pursue shared leadership arrangements with international partners where appropriate.

Science diplomacy supports UK technology sovereignty by building international partnerships which strengthen our capabilities, resilience and security. This is underpinned by our Science & Technology Network covering 65 locations which strengthens UK growth, security and global influence.

DSIT regularly assesses the impacts of our international collaboration on our science and technology capability. For example, internationally coauthored UK papers consistently outperform UK only research on citation impact.

We have partnerships with a broad range of countries including the US and EU, Japan, India, South Korea, Switzerland, France and Germany. We are also active members of multilateral fora including OECD, G7 and G20.