Science Minister @SamGyimah launches new #ScienceSpotlight avatar

Sam Gyimah appears as an avatar in new online content aimed to inform audiences about developments in science, research and innovation.

Science Minister Sam Gyimah will today (Monday 18 June) appear as an avatar in a first for the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. The new online tool has been developed to promote the work that the government is doing to invest in science, research and development as part of the modern Industrial Strategy.

The animation sees Sam Gyimah as an avatar in a lab coat discussing case studies of projects happening up and down the country.

Science Minister Sam Gyimah said:

This is the first of a number of activities aimed at increasing public engagement in science. We have a fantastic story to tell, with the UK having some of the brightest and best entrepreneurs, innovators and scientists, to our record investment in science and plan to invest 2.4% on R&D by 2027 through our modern Industrial Strategy. Through my #ScienceSpotlight, I will highlight some of the great scientific work going on around the country.

The avatar will appear on the Twitter channel for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on a fortnightly basis.

Our modern Industrial Strategy sets out a long term plan to boost the productivity and earning power of people throughout the UK. It sets out how we are building an economy/a Britain fit for the future – how we will help businesses create better, higher-paying jobs in every part of the UK with investment in skills, industries and infrastructure.

We want to be the world’s most innovative economy and through the industrial strategy we have committed to reaching the target of 2.4% of GDP investment in R&D by 2027. As a first step to reaching this target, we are investing an additional £2.3bn in R&D in 2021/22. This means that we will have raised public investment in R&D from around £9.5bn in 2016/17 to around £12.5bn in 2021/22 – a total increase of £7bn over five years. This is the biggest increase in public funding of R&D on record.