Crowdsourcing project will turn brainwaves into realistic proposals, say Julia Garayo Willemyns and David Lawrence
Whatever happens in this year’s expected general election, a new parliament and government creates a space for new, bold ideas to rise to the surface.
Such ideas are sorely needed. Very few people would feel confident that Westminster or Whitehall are well prepared for the technological challenges and opportunities of the next decade, whether that’s to do with the revolution in artificial intelligence, accelerating climate change or another potential pandemic.
That’s why we have set up the UK Day One Project. Our aim is to help prepare the next government by crowdsourcing the best ideas from the UK’s thriving science, tech and innovation communities and then turning them into implementation-ready policies.
Huge potential
The UK is, in many ways, stuck. Productivity has stagnated since the 2008 financial crisis. Growth is low, prices are high. Universities are struggling to make ends meet. Many of the best people and companies that produce truly groundbreaking research and ideas end up leaving the country.
But the UK also has enormous potential: its universities are world-leading in research and the number of research publications has been rising steadily. The country’s field-weighted citation impact—a measure of citation numbers of papers across all disciplines—is still higher than any other leading industrial nation, although the global share of highly cited publications has declined very slightly.
Data such as these are why politicians like to remind us that the UK “punches above its weight” in key areas. But without more and better support from policymakers, its research will struggle to keep on doing so. Between 2020 and 2021, the UK witnessed its first decline in R&D expenditure as a percentage of GDP since 2012, dropping from 2.93 per cent to 2.91 per cent.
Proven impact
Day One is inspired by an initiative of the same name that was run by the Federation of American Scientists, a think tank that works to turn science towards public benefit, ahead of the 2020 US election.
The UK version is funded by UK-based philanthropists, with administrative and legal support from the Digital Harbor Foundation, a US-based non-profit organisation.
The US version of Day One had a significant impact on the Biden administration’s policies. It prompted the formation of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, modelled on the long-established Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency; the launch of Digital Corps, an early career technologist fellowship scheme; and 11 National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes. The Federation of American Scientists credits the project with having inspired more than $2.6 billion (£2.05bn) in public spending.
One prominent figure in US Day One was the policymaker and entrepreneur Ilan Gur, who encouraged the US government to create a national fellowship for entrepreneurial scientists and engineers. He is now head of the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency.
Big or small ideas
Democratising policymaking is at the core of the UK Day One Project. Anyone can submit an idea, and many promising ones have already come in.
Ideas can be big, such as redesigning funding infrastructure to create the underlying conditions for science and technology to flourish; or small, such as fixing individual bits of regulation. They could address science and innovation directly, or they could tackle broader policy areas that affect it, such as housing or migration.
The key requirements are that they are realistic and address an existing problem that holds back UK science, technology or innovation. The aim is not to shape party manifestos, which will already largely have been set, but rather to give the next crop of ministers a sense of the challenges that UK R&D faces and the potential solutions.
Linking up talent
Crowdsourcing ideas (via a simple online form) is in many ways the easy bit. Those ideas need to be turned into implementable policies, which is why we are partnering with think tanks, academics and experienced policy practitioners—people who know how to navigate Westminster and Whitehall.
Working with the UK Day One team, this network of experts and practitioners will review submissions and take the most promising ideas forward.
Whether you are a budding ‘policy entrepreneur’, an experienced expert or an established institution, we would love to work with you. There is a wealth of talent. The challenge is linking it up to the existing policy system. Being ready for day one means starting now.
Julia Garayo Willemyns and David Lawrence are the directors of the UK Day One project
This article also appeared in Research Fortnight