UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has transformed the UK’s ability to drive forward its science ambitions. By creating an integrated organisation that brings together our national disciplinary research funding, many of our research performing infrastructures and our innovation agency, the UK has ensured it is well placed to harness the power of science to effect change.

But what is the change which science can bring? And how should we work internationally to bring that change about?

Let’s start with the how.

UKRI established its North America office five years ago, with a strategic focus on enhancing UK-Canada collaboration, and we have been delighted to see its success in creating opportunities for exchange of ideas and researchers across all our disciplines. The mechanisms of collaboration in science are now closely bound to broader strategic Government-to-Government Dialogues. For example, high level agreements and senior meetings such as the Joint Science, Technology, and Innovation Cooperation Committee meeting between the UK and Canada, underscore the importance of bilateral relationships in advancing shared research & innovation goals.

Bilateral relationships are not exclusive – they should be the chance to expand networks by sharing relationships and creating multilateral engagements. At UKRI, we see multilateral cooperation as a key strategy for tackling global challenges. That’s why association with Horizon Europe was a key aim for us and also for Canada, and why we are continuing to look for ways to partner with the Global South. To ensure the benefit of diverse and complementary science can benefit everyone through truly equitable partnership.

But what is it that science conducted in this way can achieve that is relevant and important, and could not be done by one partner alone?

An obvious example is the Canada-Inuit Nunangat-United Kingdom Arctic Research Programme 2021-25. This programme brings together funders, rights holders and researchers in a unique international collaboration to create high quality science, equitable partnerships and shared governance.

What I find so impressive about this programme is its deliberate breadth – from nature stewardship to food security, from lung health to wildlife health, from the changing conditions on land and by river to the safety of the seas. In a place where the impact of climate change is visible to all, the projects are focused, and purposeful. However, they are also part of solutions to how we live in the Anthropocene.

That is key – this programme is a pathfinder for how to do science that is mission driven, environmentally aware, but co-created with the community. It is about science that’s conducted collaboratively, informed by local needs and knowledge, with people at its heart, and with benefits for all. It goes beyond just knowledge generation. It provides the engine of knowledge that can be transformative, both in the process of building that knowledge, and in the innovation that will follow.

Science is built through experiment. We test and retest our assumptions and hypotheses; we look for the next step. In doing so, we build our awareness of the world, and ourselves within it.

However, science is also itself an experiment, in living mindfully and in sharing knowledge fairly. We are testing the values and impact of science in transforming our world all the time. The history of science is a history of collaboration but also of competition. It has made breakthroughs in health for billions, and created weapons of mass destruction; it has been used selflessly and it has made enormous fortunes for individuals. Science is value laden and also implicit in the contradictions and paradoxes of our human condition – it is not separate from us, but part of who we are.

That is why science is part of the fabric of a democratic society and why its values reflect a wider political landscape. This is, I would argue, quite distinct from the political direction of science. In fact, democratic societies should invest in and respect the value of relevant expertise. We want to create the conditions in which everyone can fulfil their potential. We invest in talent, and in science that means nurturing international talent and supporting early-career researchers for our future.

We do this to help everyone be part of science and to understand and shape the direction of travel consensually. We need the transparency and clarity that will demonstrate the need for us all to invest in research and innovation for the good of everyone.

This is an argument for a vision of science that is explicitly part of our national and international debate. It is not an argument for politicians to be able to choose who does research, which would be akin to them picking the players in a national sports team. That’s not going to drive success. It is an argument for us all to be part of the discussion on how science can bring benefit to all, how it can change our society, and what the tradeoffs are in that transformation.

In a world of competition and conflict, the importance of partnerships with Canada and other like-minded nations in pursuing this approach is critical. Research collaborations across the Five Eyes (FVEY) intelligence alliance is safeguarding research integrity and advancing shared security interests. We benefit from learning of each other’s practices, for example Canada’s recent research security regime will contribute greatly to the G7 discussions under Canada’s stewardship in 2025.

However, this is also a world of inequality and injustice, where the energy consumption of the richest is having incommensurate impacts on the lives of the poorest, where the trading choices of the well off are often based on the unfair labour conditions of others. Research and innovation can underpin that inequity, or it can work to reduce it. Through better global health, intelligent choices over energy and the adoption and diffusion of innovation for our planetary well-being, we will reduce the reasons for conflict.  Nonetheless, we also need to improve cultural understanding and brokerage. All of this requires effective and equitable global research and innovation partnerships, and for our disciplines to work together. This is one of the many reasons why UKRI is such an exciting place: it is committed to a notion of radical interdisciplinarity from within our disciplinary excellence. Just as Canada having a conversation about the set-up of a new Capstone funding body, through the UKRI North America office, has opened a door to support the new organisation’s first steps as needed, sharing lessons of UKRI’s journey harnessing multiple domains to deliver deep impact.

Investing in science that is considerate with societies and that grows economies is a democratic choice, and if it is explained well, it is also a logical choice. It will build sustainable growth for all, which can fund better public services, themselves improved through science.

Ultimately this is our greatest challenge – we must win the argument in resource-constrained democracies to increase investment in research and innovation, by showing that science done openly and equitably will transform all our tomorrows.