Corporate report

UKHSA Advisory Board: Science and Research Committee

Updated 25 November 2024

Date: 19 November 2024

Sponsor: Jon Friedland

1. Recommendation

The Advisory Board is asked to note the minutes of 8 May 2024 meeting of the Science and Research Committee. The minutes were agreed on 11 September 2024.

2. Minutes (confirmed), Science and Research Committee, 8 May 2024

Present at the meeting were:

• Jon Friedland – Non-Executive Member of UKHSA Advisory Board (Chair)
• Graham Hart – Non-Executive member
• Susan Hopkins – Chief Medical Advisor
• Isabel Oliver – Director General, Science and Research
• Steven Riley – Director General, Data, Analytics and Surveillance

In attendance:

• 7 attendees had their name and title redacted

Apologies:

• Raj Long – Associate Non-Executive Member
• Sarah Collins – Commercial Director

3. Welcome, apologies and declarations of interest

24/047 The Chair welcomed participants to the Science and Research Committee and noted apologies.

24/048 There were no additional declarations of interest.

4. Minutes of Previous Meeting, Matters Arising, Terms of Reference and Appointment of International Impact Expert

24/049 The minutes of the previous meeting of 6 February 2024 (enclosure SRC/24/008) were agreed.

24/050 The Committee noted the actions report (enclosure SRC/24/009).

24/051 The Committee discussed the circumstances under which papers would be commissioned for the Committee to consider. It was noted that these were to:

• provide advice on specific areas of science and research at the request of the organisation
• consider a topic prior to consideration by the Advisory Board
• to follow up on a topic in more detail, after it had been considered by the Advisory Board
• respond to science and research questions made by the Committee which were not of primary interest to the Advisory Board but that the Committee nonetheless considered important

24/052 In all instances, it was essential for the commissioning of papers to articulate clearly the purpose and questions to be answered.

24/053 The Board noted that the AI Oversight Board would consider different aspects of AI. However, it was agreed that there remained a need for this Committee to understand how AI was going to impinge upon issues of Science and Research and the ethical implications of AI in terms of getting ethical support for research uses of AI. A meeting would be arranged for the Chair and Director General, Data, Analytics and Surveillance to discuss further.

24/054 The Committee discussed Annex 3 Pathogen Prioritisation. UKHSA were in active dialogue with the World Health Organization and Oxford University. Targeted consultation would take place with relevant representative groups and the list would evolve. The Committee agreed that a Pathogen Prioritisation update would be provided in February 2025.

24/055 The Committee recommended that:

• the pathogen prioritisation list now detailed the vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics available. Consideration would be given to adding a comment or measure of their quality and availability
• pathogen prioritisation should be considered by the cross-government research funder pandemic forum in the summer of 2024
• focused consultation should take place with the pandemic network and the institute’s network

24/056 The Committee noted that the appointment of the International Impact Expert was delayed. This is considered to be an important appointment for the Committee and it was noted that the previous external member had been a very positive contributor. The required governance process and the recruitment was expected to be completed for the next Committee meeting.

5. Annual Review of Science and Research

24/057 Two papers (enclosure SRC/24/010 and SRC/24/011) were presented by the Director of Scientific Strategy and Development. A UKHSA Annual Science Review will be published each year in the early summer. The papers provided an update on the implementation of the Science Strategy and income generation, which were matters to be included in the Review.

24/058 The independent non-executive directors of this Committee had been consulted and had advised that each impact case needed to be properly evidenced and embedded within the culture of the organisation and this would help in the preparation of impact cases for future years. Impact should be defined in terms of real-world change because of the organisation’s functioning in the science space. A strong narrative was needed to communicate to internal and external audiences.

24/059 The Committee discussed the difficulties in evidencing impact. It was explained a logic model to underpin this work had recommended a ‘pathway of impact’ for which there were three stages: planning for impact, making progress around impact, and actual impact. There would be a focus on case studies at an early stage of development to embed the impact mindset much earlier.

24/060 The Committee recommended that the Annual Science Review should:

• articulate the impact on innovation and include information on tech transfer
• state how UKHSA contributes to the health economy
• ensure a broad appeal to different audiences including internal, external, policy and government
• include a link to relevant government departments when policies were discussed
• highlight areas where capabilities needed to be increased or would benefit from further development and areas where achievements would be better if further resource was available (forward look section)
• include information on partners, Health Protection Research Units (HPRUs) and different organisations outside of government such as the World Health Organisation, that operate in the same health ecosystem

24/061 In addition, it was noted that the Advisory Board has requested a paper on Health and Economic Benefits of UKHSA and the Chair had requested that the paper was discussed first at the Science and Research Committee prior to the Board.

24/062 The Committee discussed the income generation table. It was explained that the figures showed the value of the grants over the lifetime of the grant and awarded since October 2021 and included both income to UKHSA as lead or collaborator. These did not include HPRUs as those were awarded prior to October 2021 and grants where UKHSA was only a minor collaborator, hence the modest figures. UKHSA would only be able to get limited amounts from a grant until it was more agile in recruiting and managing people.

24/063 The Committee discussed measuring impact. The Committee recommended providing an update on the strategy promises (for example, VDEC).

24/064 The Committee thanked the Director of Scientific Strategy and Development and confirmed its availability to assist in reviewing further drafts of the paper.

6. Science Workforce – Census On Science Expertise

24/065 The [Title redacted] presented a paper (enclosure SRC/24/012) highlighting the interim results of the first UKHSA Scientific Expertise Census. The Director General, Science and Research had commissioned the census as a baseline measure to inform the implementation of the strategy and scientific workforce plans.

24/066 The Committee noted the results of the census and the key messages.

24/067 The Committee discussed how the census could be used to demonstrate success and ensuring the right balance of skills.

24/068 The Committee commented that:

• some UKHSA’s scientific experts were not necessarily in scientific roles and were undertaking work in other areas such as policy. [Title redacted] responded that the census had not been restricted to individuals in scientific roles, but open to all UKHSA staff.
• it is possible that colleagues with links to universities may have been more likely to have responded to the questionnaire, as they were more familiar with these types of request, and this may bias the results.

24/069 The Committee recommended that:

• skills should be linked to roles and then linked to the GoScience work.
• consideration be given to how the analysis could be used to identify complementary expertise to help achieve multi-disciplinarity within teams.
• cross-referencing with the Health Security Threat Assessment which included information on a broad range of all the threats that UKHSA was responsible for addressing. This could help determine if UKHSA was in the right shape.
• consideration be given to making the report and analysis available to UKHSA groups to verify the results and so that consideration can be given on the implications for different functions as this cannot be done centrally for the whole organisation.

24/070 The Committee agreed that the full analysis on the census of science expertise would be shared with the Committee once completed.

7. Estates and Facilities

24/071 The [Title redacted] presented a paper (enclosure SRC/24/013) which provided an overview of the scientific estate and the work underway to secure scientific facilities long term.

24/072 The Committee were reminded the enablers for the Science Strategy included scientific facilities and the scientific estate. The high containment microbiology facilities required replacement and the estate generally was ageing. The future transition to a new scientific campus was awaiting confirmation.

24/073 The Committee noted the content of the paper.

24/074-24/076 [Information redacted in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000.]

24/077 The Committee noted the intention to produce a 5 to 10 year estate plan for each of the main campuses.

24/078 [Information redacted in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000.]

24/079 It was agreed that:

• details of the Estate and Facilities risks would be provided to the Chairs of the Audit and Risk Committee and Advisory Board.
• [Information redacted in accordance with the Freedom of Informaiton Act 2000.]

8. Public Sector Research Establishments (PSREs) Review

24/080 The Director of Scientific Strategy and Development provided a verbal update.

24/081 The Cabinet Office required a regular review of all ALBs and government. UKHSA’s review would take place at the end of 2023. The Government Office of Science had produced a framework for the performance review of PSREs in January 2022. Using that as a framework, DHSC was linking in as part of the public body review and an assessment of UKHSA’s scientific work would be made. UKHSA had already made a number of submissions. The report would be considered the Chief Scientific Advisor, DHSC before it was shared. The full report would be provided later for the Science and Research Committee.

24/082 It was agreed that the Deputy Chief Scientific Adviser, DHSC would provide the Independent Non-Executive Members of the Science and Research Committee the draft report of the evidence submitted by UKHSA prior to it being considered by the panel. It was noted that the Director General, Science and Research would also be circulating much of UKHSA’s submitted evidence to the Science and Research Committee shortly.

24/083 It was noted that the Nurse Report made some important constructive and insightful observations regarding PSREs on critical issues which potentially could be implemented.

9. Forward look and topics for future meetings

24/084 The Science and Research Committee noted the topics for future meetings as listed in the paper (enclosure SRC/24/014).

24/085 The Committee agreed the following amendments to the forward look:

• Health and Economic Impact would be added to the 11 September 2024 agenda
• the Director General, Science and Research and Director General, Data, Analytics and Surveillance would meet to discuss the Health and Economic Impact agenda item.
• Global Health Strategy would be brought forward to the 11 September 2024 agenda (from 19 November 2024)
• Identification of Research needs would be deferred from the 11 September 2024 meeting to a later date
• Pandemic Preparedness was confirmed for 19 November 2024
• Review of PSRE Recommendations would be added to the agenda for 19 November 2024
• The Chair and Director General, Science and Research would meet with the Director General, Data, Analytics and Surveillance to discuss how AI would be considered by the Science and Research Committee going forward.

10. Any other business and Close

24/086 There being no other business, the meeting ended at 3:50pm.