I thank the noble Viscount, Lord Stansgate, for his intervention. When he was unable to complete his remarks at Second Reading, he said that he would come back in Committee and add to what he had said—which makes a change from what normally happens, with people coming back to repeat their Second Reading speeches. It is good to hear from the noble Viscount.
I am also delighted to hear the unequivocal support from the Opposition Benches for that great neo-conservative, Donald Rumsfeld—quoted by both Cross-Benchers and the Liberal Democrats. A great man indeed.
Amendments 1, 21, 25 and 26 create requirements that seek to narrow, or to have the Government direct, ARIA’s funding. Amendment 1 would require ARIA to pursue projects that contribute to a sustainable and resilient society, planet and economy. Amendment 25 seeks to specify a relationship with UKRI. Amendments 21 and 26 would set ARIA’s core mission as to support achieving the target established in Section 1 of the Climate Change Act. Once achieved, ARIA’s mission would then be set every five years by government by an affirmative SI. Of course, I thank noble Lords for tabling these timely and topical amendments, particularly given the partial success at COP 26 last week.
Starting with Amendment 1 from the noble Lord, Lord Ravensdale, let me point him to Clause 2(6), where, in exercising its functions, ARIA must have regard to contributing to economic growth, promoting scientific innovation and invention, or improving the quality of life. These considerations ensure that ARIA’s activities are geared towards beneficial outcomes, which will of course include sustainability and resilience. Of course, this broad characterisation of the benefits of ARIA’s activities does not represent the limits of ambition for individual ARIA programmes, or substitute for ARIA’s unique tolerance to failure as set out in Clause 3.
That brings me on to Amendment 27 from my noble friend Lord Lansley. I have heard consistently from the scientific community that ARIA must have high risk tolerance to succeed, and indeed that gets to the heart of what ARIA is all about. It is therefore important, in my view, that we express that idea precisely. My noble friend’s alternative articulation of risk tolerance, for which I thank him, does not specify the particular weight that ARIA may give to this type of activity, and I think that is crucial, particularly for the NAO’s assessment of whether ARIA’s activities are in line with its stated functions.
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My noble friend also talked about Clause 3 and asked: what it is there for? The reason why we have done this is important, in that it is crucial for the NAO’s assessment of whether ARIA’s activities are in line with its stated functions. I also highlight to my noble friend the difficulty in this type of activity of assessing either the costs or the benefits up front. In essence, I am just going to have to agree to disagree with my noble friend on the current drafting. Obviously, I prefer the Government’s drafting, which I think is more than adequate.
I turn to the points made by my noble friend Lord Willetts. I very much agree with him that high-risk, high-reward, blue-sky research is also done in UKRI but without the unique freedoms that ARIA will have in this case. In fact, I agree with him that ARIA will be a useful proof of concept, if you like, for how we can perhaps better fund R&D in future. We will of course learn any lessons that arise from both its successes and, possibly, its failures, and we will share those lessons with UKRI to see how they can influence future policy.
On Amendments 21 and 26, the Government continue to effectively prioritise funding to respond to national and global challenges. UKRI has a broad portfolio of projects that it funds to tackle climate change across 12 different areas, including adaptation and resilience, clean energy, sustainable industry, agriculture and transport. Specific projects include using wood to build skyscrapers in order to reduce emissions and developing technology to generate electricity through waste. In the innovation strategy published this summer we announced that we will establish a new innovation missions programme to tackle some of the most pressing challenges confronting the UK in the coming years.
My noble friend Lord Willetts mentioned the ISCF, and I agree very much with his remarks about it. We were well-intentioned in introducing it and we have learned the lessons. We should reflect that at the heart of the ISCF programmes were Minister-set missions, which were very much tied to the politics of the system. We must not be tempted to go down that path again with ARIA.
In response to the noble Lord, Lord Browne of Ladyton, it is indeed the case that ARIA can fund research projects on climate change—as I said earlier, climate change targets are a desirable thing—but ARIA can fund other projects as well, which I think is the important clarification. Nevertheless, we expect ARIA to have and articulate a clear strategy, as any well-functioning organisation should, but it is very much our view that that should be set by the expert and visionary leadership that we will have in place for ARIA, not by politicians.
I am concerned that the effect of Amendment 21 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Chapman, while well-intentioned, would be a somewhat continuous chopping and changing of ARIA’s core mission. The kind of high-risk research that ARIA will pursue may take many years to realise the benefits of, and preliminary findings may only just have been realised—to take an example, antimicrobial resistance—before the organisation had to pivot to tackling another problem, such as food insecurity.
I very much agreed with the remarks of the noble Lord, Lord Broers, about not wishing to constrain the activities of ARIA. As a fellow electrical engineer, it gives me great pleasure to agree with him, although he is much more distinguished than I ever would have been in the field. It was many years ago that I did my last engineering and I very much hope not to have to go back to it at some stage.
Much of what I have said so far speaks to the spirit of Amendment 25. I agree to a certain extent with my noble friend Lord Lansley; it will be important for ARIA and UKRI to co-operate and perhaps in some
cases even co-fund some projects. However, we should never forget that UKRI will be only one actor in the somewhat complex landscape in which ARIA will operate, and co-operation will also be required with many other organisations. On the best way to engender this co-operation, let me satisfy the noble Lord, Lord Fox, by once again quoting Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser, who said
“the kinds of relationship that one wants to have with key players across the system are not things for which you necessarily legislate. They are about maintaining open lines of communication and building high-quality personal relationships with different actors in the system.”—[Official Report, Commons, Advanced Research and Invention Agency Bill Committee, 14/4/21; col. 14.]
It will clearly not be in the interests of ARIA blindly to duplicate activities taking place elsewhere or being conducted by other bodies. However, I certainly agree with the noble Viscount, Lord Stansgate, that it will very much be in ARIA’s interests to maintain a consistent, ongoing dialogue with UKRI to understand the current work and opportunities in the UK R&D landscape.
I hope I have provided noble Lords with all the reassurances they need that ARIA will be an organisation with the clear strategy and purpose of pursuing the most ambitious research and innovation, led by people of the highest calibre with an extraordinary vision to define what we hope will be a unique approach. I hope, on that basis, that the noble Lord will feel able to withdraw his amendment.