Emerging biotechnologies: full report - Nuffield Council on Bioethics

E m e r g i n g b i o t e c h n o l o g i e s
that allows freedom and flexibility in science would guard against ignorance of the mechanisms
of innovation and scientific creativity.
7.49 There is an assumption that for each nation state there should be one public agency concerned
with the funding of each particular type of research. Sometimes of course this is not the case,
such as where areas of research are fundable by many agencies. Within Europe there is, of
course, an overlapping European structure but it, too, is centralised, although the strengthened
European Research <strong>Council</strong> has provided a welcome competitive stimulus to Framework
programmes, with benefits to the UK research effort. 546 To justify centralisation, agencies point
to the need to take a strategic overview, and to eliminate unnecessary duplication. Yet the costs
of monopoly need to be taken into account as well: there can easily be a lock-in of policies that
work poorly, with feedback mechanisms acting slowly. Although there is competition between
research councils in the UK, that competition takes the form of vying for funding from
Government, and of reducing commitment to interdisciplinary areas by passing responsibilities
to another council. The key issue is to get competition to work to generate better quality claims
for the importance of different research programmes and, most importantly of all, better
outcomes in terms of research and of impact.
The ‘Haldane principle’ and policy control of research councils
7.50 For much of the 20 th Century it has been <strong>full</strong>y accepted that most Government-funded research
should be carried out under the direction of particular Government departments. However,
increasing proportions of Government-funded research have been funded by research councils
(see paragraph 7.10) under the supervision of the ministry for business (currently the
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS)). Discussion of the actual policies and
practices of the research councils and BIS has been coloured by an assumption that the policy
should follow what is called the ‘Haldane principle’, which “states that decisions on general
research should be made by researchers, free from political and administrative pressures.” 547
This definition of the essential principle has been accepted by Government, 548 although only in
relation to research funded by research councils inasmuch as they accept that researchers are
best placed to determine detailed priorities. (By definition the determination of technical priorities
requires expert knowledge, so this limited construction of the principle would be unreasonable to
dispute.) As adopted today, the Haldane principle makes a very limited point about the role of
researchers in running research council research programmes and similarly has very limited, if
any, bearing on research policy. 549
7.51 No UK government has ever supported a doctrine that researchers should decide public macrolevel
research policy. The nearest approach to such a doctrine was in the period 1916-64 when
a small fraction of Government-funded research was overseen by research councils <strong>report</strong>ing to
a non-departmental minister. These research councils were made up of independent figures of
high standing from the worlds of industry and science. However, Government has never
545 Stirling A (2011) Pluralising progress: from integrative transitions to transformative diversity Environmental Innovation and
Societal Transitions 1: 82-8.
546 Currently an industrial perspective dominates the EU policy framework for a European bio-economy. A broad concept is
being promoted at the public-relations level, but a narrower one apparently drives the EU’s R&D priorities. Schmid O, Padel
S and Levidov L (2012) The bio-economy concept and knowledge base in a public goods and farmer perspective Bio-based
and applied economics 1: 47-64. However, there was a little room created for research outside the dominant paradigm. Birch
K, Levidow L and Papaioannou P (2010) Sustainable capital? The neoliberalization of nature and knowledge in the European
“knowledge-based bio-economy” Sustainability 2: 2898-918.
547 Wakeham W (2008) Review of UK physics, available at: http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/documents/reviews/physics/review.pdf, p48.
See generally Chapter 8 of that document for more information on the ‘Haldane principle’.
548 See, for example, the 2010 written ministerial statement on the Haldane Principle to the House of Commons, by the Minister
for Universities and Science, David Willetts: House of Commons Hansard (20 December 2010) c138WS, available at:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmhansrd/cm101220/wmstext/101220m0001.htm.
549 Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (2010) The allocation of research science funding, 2011/12 to 2014/15:
investing in world-class science and research, available at: http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/science/docs/a/10-1356-
allocation-of-science-and-research-funding-2011-2015.pdf, p57.
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