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People & Skills

The science base is as strong as the people in it

Attracting and developing diverse R&D talent and skills is essential if the UK is to become a more research-intensive economy. It is also important to create a more open, diverse and inclusive research workforce. We work with our members and the R&D community to develop policy recommendations that will help ensure the UK has a diverse and talented skills base to meet the requirements of an R&D-intensive economy. This includes work on primary education, further and higher education, diversity and immigration.

Skills for a more research intensive UK

Creating a high skill and innovative economy is crucial to driving the UK’s future economic prosperity, with science, research and innovation central to this. Research and innovation can help solve global challenges, create new careers, and generate world-changing technologies.

We published a report in June 2023 as part of a project looking at the skills needs of a more research intensive UK. Ensuring that the UK has the skills to meet the requirements of a more R&D-intensive economy is a vital component of the UK Government’s ambitions to make the UK more research-intensive. Wider skills provision will be needed to meet the requirements of an expanding R&D sector, and ensure that everyone can participate in and benefit from a more innovative UK.

The project took a holistic look at skills policy across Government, from science teaching in schools and STEM careers advice, through to higher and further education, apprenticeships, lifelong learning, and immigration.

It examined the needs and requirements across the skills landscape, to identify some of the cross-cutting challenges and pinch points, which we highlight in our report.  Our report concludes that the UK Government and devolved administrations must coordinate and support an integrated skills system to deliver a more innovative and research intensive UK.

As part of this work, we have also conducted a series of roundtables with stakeholders across the research and innovation landscape to explore different areas of skills provision – you can read the write ups of these discussions below.

The role of the immigration system in supporting STEM talent
22 Nov 2022

An unattributed summary of the roundtable co-hosted by Vialto Partners and the Campaign for Science and Engineering on Monday 31st October 2022.

The role of lifelong learning to support R&D talent
25 Jan 2023

An unattributed summary of the roundtable co-hosted by the Campaign for Science and Engineering and the Open University on Wednesday 7th December 2022

Skills for a more innovative Scotland
25 Jan 2023

An unattributed summary of the roundtable co-hosted by Glasgow Science Centre and the Campaign for Science and Engineering in November 2022.

The role of technical education to support R&D talent
22 Mar 2023

An unattributed summary of the roundtable co-hosted by CaSE and the Gatsby Foundation on Wednesday 22nd February 2023

CaSE Skills workshop, Tuesday 21 March
24 Apr 2023

CaSE members came together at Diamond Light Source last month, to discuss our recent work on the skills needs for a more research-intensive UK.

The Skills Opportunity: Building a more innovative UK
14 Jun 2023

This report sets out some of the challenges for education and skills provision across the UK, and calls on government to support an integrated skills system.