The unofficial reintroduction to Patrick Vallance

It’s 1975. Harold Wilson is the Prime Minister, Monty Python and the Holy Grail is released, and Dave Mackay’s Derby County has just won the First Division.

Tucked away in a sunny corner of Cornwall future Minister of State for Science Research and Innovation, Patrick Vallance, could be found between his parents’ caravan park and a disco he set up playing David Bowie, Billy Ocean, Barry White, Patti Smith, and Elvis Costello. His long-time friend, Anthony Deacon, recounting this to Radio 4 describes them both as having “flares more expansive than our waistlines.”

In 1978 Vallance left Cornwall to study medicine at St George’s, University of London. His tutor, Joe Collier, describes Vallance as being bright and possessing an exceptional “humility.” So much so that Vallance would not have applied for his Bachelor of Science (an addition to the medicine degree), had Collier not phoned Vallance whilst he was repairing a caravan at his parents’ park.

From St George’s, Vallance eventually went to UCL where he became a professor and later the head of the department. His colleagues report that whilst he was an unfailing kind medical profession he was “bemused” by UCL’s resource allocation model. A 2021 Guardian interview shows Vallance as a talented and empathetic manager with concerns that the administrative, teaching, and treatment burdens of his role were taking their toll:

At one point, Vallance said, there was ‘a danger’ he was becoming ‘extremely overloaded with things… that sometimes really, really important things like the patient you’re looking after may not get the care and attention that the patient absolutely demands and deserves from you.’

Even the most brilliant scientists of our generation can find the burdens of university leadership onerous.

From UCL Vallance joined GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) where he eventually became head of medicines, discovery, and development. Under his leadership GSK delivered new respiratory, oncology, and HIV, medicines. His appointment to the role of Chief Government Scientific Adviser was enormously welcomed across the whole of the scientific community.

What will he do?

The role of Government Chief Scientific Adviser, which Vallance held between 2018-2023, is to provide advice on science to the Prime Minister and the cabinet. As Vallance himself said in an interview with the Institute for Government his role was to give scientific advice based on evidence rather than give his opinion as a scientist.

In this period he saw a few Prime Ministers, a handful of Chancellors, and a litany of science ministers in various roles. He will be most remembered as part of the core team of government advisors during the COVID-19 pandemic. His reflections on the period, made public through the release of his notebooks, reflect badly on the previous government.

He described the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson as “weak and indecisive,” and that he finds “relative and absolute risk almost impossible to understand.” He notes at length the PM’s wavering between abject despair and wanting to “letting it all [COVID-19] rip.” The COVID-19 enquiry has not yet been completed but it is notable that Vallance consistently pushed for more caution in handling the virus than his ministerial colleagues.

Away from COVID-19 there is a rich body of literature on Vallance given his various careers and time in the public eye. In a 2019 blog for Civil Service Quarterly he advocated for the role of science in government policy making. On his move into government he said:

What did I find? Well, for sure, the Civil Service is full of clever people who want to do the right thing. But it’s clear that science is not embedded in the system. We are relatively short of people trained in science, and the reflex to call for science to help solve problems or give new insights is not well developed.

The idea of integrating science more closely within the machinery of government is a preoccupation of Vallance’s. In his final meeting with the House of Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, he stated that the formation of the National Science and Technology Council was one of the most important achievements of his tenure. He set out an ambition to grow both public and private investment in research. He was alert to the international competition for talent, advocated for a more competitive visa landscape, and hoped the government would maintain funding for fundamental science. Like Paul Nurse he maintained that association to Horizon was “essential”.

Long-time readers of Wonkhe may also recollect that Vallance is a non-executive director over at the government’s arm length research innovation body the Advanced Research and Invention Agency.

Five years hard Labour

Vallance’s appointment as Minister for Science is not his first engagement with the Labour Party.

In March 2024 the Guardian reported that Vallance was part of a series of informal dinners to brief then shadow ministers on life in government. In May Vallance supported Labour’s 2030 pledge to decarbonise energy stating that:

If Britain takes a lead we can be the innovators and implementers, and both help ourselves and export solutions to the world. If we choose to go slowly others will provide the answers and we will ultimately end up buying the solutions rather than selling them.

In a 2023 speech to the Royal Society of Medicine Vallance highlighted a strong academic science base, scalable industry, and science embedded within every department, as the way in which science can play a transformational role in society.

If he is to follow this mission through into government it is likely that he will pick up some of the science wiring including the reform of the 50 or so public research establishments which Paul Nurse in his eponymous review lamented that a “siloed and restricted funding environment risks placing constraints on their functionality.” If Vallance is also to look at the academic science base he has a potentially never ending inbox with the future of REF, research culture, and the research deficit, amongst a myriad of other matters.

On scalable industry Vallance is likely to continue some of the investment work championed by his predecessor Andrew Griffith. Like Griffith, Vallance has called for the reform of pensions to encourage start-up investment. And, in continuing the response to the spin-out review, Vallance has the challenge of encouraging more founders through more transparent equity shares while encouraging the capital into new businesses.

And with scalable industry it is likely that Vallance’s work will be central to Labour’s industrial strategy. Currently, between freeports and innovation zones there are some emerging place based mechanisms to encourage university and business collaboration. At a place-level DSIT has a decision on whether to continue these mechanisms, tweak them, or try something else. At a macro level Labour’s ambitions on a green transition, economic growth, and regional rebalancing, run through Vallance’s ability to convene public and private sector investment into R&D assets.

It’s fair to say that with the appointment of Vallance the sector breathed a sigh of relief that a subject expert was given such a big role at DSIT. Vallance is not a professional politician and his success will depend on his ability to navigate the party, the machinery of government, and the wider research ecosystem. If he can do that then there is no reason to not be optimistic that Vallance will prove to be a friend to the sector and a strong advocate for science and research in government.