SCI's Daily Digest: your one-stop shop for all of the day's news in science based industry

In today's Daily Digest, the cabinet reshuffle sees a new UK Science Minister, and more.

Policy

The UK government’s Global Investment Summit, which will take place on 27 November, is expected to have some 200 CEO’s joining the UK prime minister to showcase the UK as one of the best places in the world to do business. Innovators and investors from a wide cross section of business including life science, AI, advanced manufacturing and agritech will be in attendance, as will leaders of banks investment vehicles.

Therese Coffey, UK Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, has resigned from her post. Her letter to prime minister said she looked forward to serving the government from the back benches. Steve Barclay will take up the role vacated by Coffey.

George Freeman has resigned as Minister for Science, Research, and Innovation. Andrew Griffith is now the Minister of State with the brief. He had held the role the role of Economic Secretary to the Treasury. In addition, Saqib Bhatti has been appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department for Science, Technology and Innovation.

Environment

The EU’s Climate Commissioner has met with the COP28 President Designate to discuss preparations for COP28. They stressed that COP28, which starts on 30 November, must accelerate action on mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage and climate finance and build a fully inclusive COP28 that leaves no one behind.

The third session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution has opened in Nairobi, Kenya. The instrument will look to address the full lifecycle of plastics.

Innovation

The UK government has launched a new funding programme aerospace research carried out by SMEs. The programmed, which is backed by £10 million in funding each year aims to drive innovation in UK SMEs, growing the UK’s share of the global aerospace sector, as well as securing more jobs.

The Australian Research Council is providing more than AUS$26 million in finding for 50 research projects as part of ARC’s Linkage Projects scheme 2023. The scheme support national and international research partnerships between higher education institutions and other parts of the research innovation system.

Policy

The European Commission has welcomed the political agreement reached between the Parliament and the Council on the Critical Raw Materials Act. The new rules help increase domestic capacities for CRMs along the supply chain.

Energy

The International Energy Agency has said that reaching net zero does not necessarily require fundamentally new scientific concepts, but innovation plays a crucial role. Continued innovation will be needed to improve performance and reduce costs of the technologies that are already in use.