The House of Commons Science and Technology committee launched an inquiry on the Science Budget and Industrial Strategy. Details of the inquiry can be found on the committee website.
The submission produced by the Geological Society can be found below:
Submitted 2 November 2017
1. The Geological Society (GSL) is the UK’s learned and professional body for geoscience, with over 12,000 Fellows (members) worldwide. The Fellowship encompasses those working in industry, academia, regulatory agencies and government with a broad range of perspectives on policy-relevant science, and the Society is a leading communicator of this science to government bodies, those in education, and other non-technical audiences.
• Aberdeen - As discussed above, there is currently a wealth of knowledge and assets pertaining to oil and gas exploration and extraction in the north-east of Scotland. Many of the skills and infrastructure associated with oil and gas are transferable to development of a CCS industry. If a strategy for investment in this area is not rolled out soon then these skills will be lost and the infrastructure will be decommissioned.
Midlands - In addition to the highly regarded MSc in Hydrogeology at Birmingham University the Midlands also has a cluster of environmental and water management consultancies. Also located in the Midlands is the Midlands Energy Consortium (http://www.bgs.ac.uk/research/energy/mec.html) involving the BGS, and the Universities of Birmingham, Loughborough, Nottingham and Warwick with research strengths in energy generation, fossil energy and renewable energy.
Leeds - Leeds University has developed a specialism in geotechnical engineering which includes skills that will be crucial for transforming transport and connectivity in the region as part of plans associated with the ‘Northern Powerhouse’.
Cheshire Science Corridor - Another example of where clustering could stimulate regional research and innovation is the announcement by the government in 2014 to invest £31 million through the British Geological Survey (BGS) to establish the Energy Security and Innovation Observing System for the Subsurface (ESIOS) (http://www.bgs.ac.uk/research/energy/esios/home.html) the first of which will be located in Thornton, Cheshire as part of the Cheshire science corridor. The research initiative will facilitate subsurface research activities relating to shale gas and also capture time-lapse data on a number of societal research areas such as groundwater monitoring, nuclear waste disposal, underground hydrogen and gas storage, geothermal energy and carbon capture and storage. A second BGS ‘geoenergy’ research site on geothermal energy has also been launched in Scotland.
South Wales – There is a high concentration of skills and knowledge around mining and Earth resources in South Wales. The mining legacy in this area and the strong Earth science departments in Cardiff University and Swansea University are a source of knowledge and expertise that should not be lost.
2. We are not well placed to respond on some of the aspects raised in the Terms of Reference. We have instead responded on areas as they relate to geoscience and where our community has something to contribute.
The model adopted by the Faraday Challenge and its suitability for future investments in other sectors under the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund;
3. Geoscience underpins world-leading industrial growth in many key areas including the development of novel materials, satellite and imaging systems, next generation electronic components and the development of new battery technology, to name just a few areas pertinent to the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund. The Faraday Challenge, and its focus on battery technology, addresses both the increasing demands on energy and the need to decarbonise the energy system, both of which are required to secure sustainable growth in the UK. However, as we raised in our response to the industrial strategy, there is little to no mention in the document of the need to sustain a continued supply of natural resources for many different aspects of UK industrial development, including the focus on battery technology. Mined or extracted materials and minerals are essential for the development of many sectors of the economy and this is supported by a crucial minerals and materials industry dealing in extraction, manufacturing and processing of materials and minerals. This is particularly true for battery development which has very specific mineral and resource requirements. In the launch information for the Faraday fund, there is reference to a ‘comprehensive research programme’ covering the whole life cycle of battery development from raw materials to end of life treatment and recycling. However, the details of the funding calls laid out in the competition scope do not include any project funding for research that covers sustainable access to raw materials nor is it explicit in the project requirements. The only reference is to ‘development of materials for ease of manufacture’ rather than sourcing of raw materials. There is significant focus on benefit to UK research, manufacture, commercialisation but no reference to where the materials will come from or how they will be secured.
4. Sustainable progress and growth in battery technology will require supporting networks of skills, research and raw materials that go into the development of new technologies. Electric vehicles, for example, run on large-capacity lithium-ion batteries which require a secure source of lithium, cobalt, graphite and nickel. Lithium is mined predominantly in Chile and Bolivia, while the availability of cobalt in the Earth’s crust is limited with the majority of the world’s supplies located in conflict-prone Democratic Republic of the Congo. Lithium, graphite and cobalt all have smaller, less-established markets and so there are some long-term supply questions that remain unanswered. The British Geological Survey run an interdisciplinary programme of research focusing on the science needed to sustain the security of supply of strategic minerals – the so-called ‘e-tech elements’ - in a changing environment (https://www.bgs.ac.uk/sosminerals/home.html) but more work is needed in this area to understand the interdependence between technological innovation and the resources and raw materials that underpin this industry.
5. There are possibilities for extracting and processing more of our specialist raw materials ourselves in the UK (bringing economic benefit) in some cases where they are sufficiently abundant in the ground, but this requires the Government to support expertise and entrepreneurs, and also to join up primary raw materials with recycling, as part of our circular economy strategy. (Recycling alone will not meet our resources needs, although it is essential – the quantities of elements already in use and available for recycling fall very far short of what will be required.) In addition, to secure access to these raw materials and resources there is a network of researchers and developers that support the locating and proving of resources, improving recovery and processing, and developing techniques for ore extraction in novel geological settings. This requires sustained investment in research in geoscience as well as continued collaboration between academia and industry to commercialise these findings and bring research findings into the field. This supporting structure to new technologies illustrates the research networks that sit behind successful innovation. It is important that initiatives such as those given particular prominence in the industrial strategy are not looked at in isolation and that a holistic approach to research funding and stimulus to industry is taken. Failure to consider the geological and resource aspects of any research strategy will jeopardise its delivery and the drive towards sustainable growth. Looking at innovation and the linked networks together will ensure that innovation success is not imperilled by losing key support networks through lack of funding.
The rationale and coherence for the distribution of funding
6. We are not well placed to respond to some of the more specific questions around funding outlined in the call for evidence but there are some points on the distribution and gaps in funding, raised by members of the geoscience community, which we include here.
- An area that is not addressed in the science budget is effective and consistent funding for long-term monitoring projects. Effective monitoring and observation-based science requires data sets collected over periods of months, years and even many decades. These datasets underpin research scoping exercises, hazard monitoring and also drive innovation in new technology. Important long-term monitoring applications include the methane baseline monitoring being undertaken as part of the proposed shale gas development or satellite imaging and Earth observation used to monitor small changes in elevation around volcanoes to understand potential volcanic hazards. There are funds available for Earth observation work within the Horizon 2020 research programme but the future of UK access to this fund is uncertain due to the ongoing negotiations between the UK Government and the EU. Additionally, many of the monitoring and observation data collection programmes needed to support research and innovation activities in the UK form part of strategic projects in growth and national capability and thus should be supported and secured by UK research funds. Monitoring and observation based science also provides a major opportunity as a driver for developing novel sensor networks including smart sensors, remote sensing and quantum and time lapse technologies. These have a number of engineering applications including highly sensitive imaging and mapping of minute changes in the landscape and the subsurface, such as changes in gravity. This will have important implications for key sectors such as delivery of infrastructure, housing developments on brownfield sites, exploring for natural resources as well as identifying potential shallow surface hazards such as sinkholes (which currently have a significant cost).
- In addition to developing world-leading science sectors in novel and growing research areas it is also important that funds are made available at every level of the project, from strategic blue-sky high-level research to the smaller and medium sized funds that can facilitate the application of fundamental science and commercialisation of research. It has been reported to us from the geoscience community that these smaller funds are often absent from larger strategic research projects but that they are critical for driving the translation of fundamental science to commercial application. This allows researchers to work on smaller outputs and data sets, getting the maximum impact out of a project while also encouraging interdisciplinary working across academia and industry. Some in the HE geoscience community have stated that the ‘strategic science’ strand at the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) is lacking in terms of downstream and applied work and that such work tends to be done principally through NERC’s own research centres. This presents a missed opportunity in terms of development and commercialisation across the wider research community, alongside strategic projects.
The balance between different parts of the country in Government funding of research/innovation, the effectiveness of such place-based financial support, and how planned place-based funding might affect that balance in future;
7. Financial support and investment in regional growth and development activities is an area that the Geological Society has been active in raising in our submissions and responses to Parliament and Government and we are pleased to see a renewed focus on this area in the industrial strategy.
8. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is an example of an emerging opportunity for innovation and growth which will necessarily be highly regional because of the geospatial distribution both of CO2 sources (energy generation and other industrial sources) and of storage capacity capable of development (depleted hydrocarbons reservoirs in the North Sea, for instance, but also other suitable geological formations). Much of the relevant expertise and capability is also localised (e.g. Aberdeen as a centre of knowledge and skills relating to oil and gas exploration and production, and therefore the geology and engineering that would underpin CCS). This presents significant opportunities to develop innovation clusters, to stimulate university-industry capabilities at a regional level, and to fuel regional economic growth.
9. In addition to CCS, there are a number of geoscience skills and expertise hubs around the country that already exist that could further seed clusters of businesses and research investment outside the south east and the ‘golden triangle’. These areas could benefit from the commitments listed in the industrial strategy report such as a review of the location of government agencies, the potential leveraging of government and Research Council laboratories and support for networks of universities. Clusters of geoscience expertise around the UK include:
- Aberdeen - As discussed above, there is currently a wealth of knowledge and assets pertaining to oil and gas exploration and extraction in the north-east of Scotland. Many of the skills and infrastructure associated with oil and gas are transferable to development of a CCS industry. If a strategy for investment in this area is not rolled out soon then these skills will be lost and the infrastructure will be decommissioned.
- Midlands - In addition to the highly regarded MSc in Hydrogeology at Birmingham University the Midlands also has a cluster of environmental and water management consultancies. Also located in the Midlands is the Midlands Energy Consortium (http://www.bgs.ac.uk/research/energy/mec.html) involving the BGS, and the Universities of Birmingham, Loughborough, Nottingham and Warwick with research strengths in energy generation, fossil energy and renewable energy.
- Leeds - Leeds University has developed a specialism in geotechnical engineering which includes skills that will be crucial for transforming transport and connectivity in the region as part of plans associated with the ‘Northern Powerhouse’.
- Cheshire Science Corridor - Another example of where clustering could stimulate regional research and innovation is the announcement by the government in 2014 to invest £31 million through the British Geological Survey (BGS) to establish the Energy Security and Innovation Observing System for the Subsurface (ESIOS) (http://www.bgs.ac.uk/research/energy/esios/home.html) the first of which will be located in Thornton, Cheshire as part of the Cheshire science corridor. The research initiative will facilitate subsurface research activities relating to shale gas and also capture time-lapse data on a number of societal research areas such as groundwater monitoring, nuclear waste disposal, underground hydrogen and gas storage, geothermal energy and carbon capture and storage. A second BGS ‘geoenergy’ research site on geothermal energy has also been launched in Scotland.
- South Wales – There is a high concentration of skills and knowledge around mining and Earth resources in South Wales. The mining legacy in this area and the strong Earth science departments in Cardiff University and Swansea University are a source of knowledge and expertise that should not be lost.
What further measures the Government should take to use its spending and facilities to strengthen innovation, research and associated ‘place’-based growth.
10. One of the key areas where government can play an important role is around the support for strategic areas of national research and capability where there is significant uncertainty about liability for very long-term risk, disincentivising investment. In these instances, Government is in a unique position to underwrite long-term risks, to stimulate innovation for national economic benefit. CCS is one of these areas, and as recently highlighted in the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s Clean Growth Strategy, which calls for the UK to ‘demonstrate international leadership in carbon capture usage and storage’. The strategy includes a commitment to invest ‘up to £100 million’ in leading edge carbon capture usage and storage, which is a significant reduction from the originally planned £1billion as part of the cancelled CCS competition, and there is concern that this is too little to support and stimulate an industry critical to sustainable growth and development in the UK. As with many innovation projects, early on investment costs are high but this decreases significantly over time as technology deployment matures and with more infrastructure already in place. The concentration of skills and infrastructure in the North Sea could create the conditions for the UK to become a world leader in CCS research and development. There is also scope to use exhausted oil and gas reservoirs around the UK in the North Sea and elsewhere as ‘storage tanks’ for gas as part of a focus on new energy storage technology. CCS falls into an increasing number of areas where there is significant uncertainty around liability for very long-term risk (beyond human lifetimes). Current market and regulatory structures pose a significant deterrent to commercial companies wanting to invest in such initiatives, as they find themselves facing unknown and very poorly constrained liabilities over timeframes which existing risk strategies cannot easily accommodate. Government is in a unique position to underwrite much of the long-term risk around areas such as CCS development where industry is reticent to undertake such risks, and indeed is not set up to do, to benefit the UK economy as well as meet social and environmental needs. If government could take on such liabilities it could unlock the stall in progress and incentivise investment. We note that the North Sea oil and gas industry of the last half century was not simply the product of uncoordinated commercial entities responding to pre-existing market forces and emerging knowledge of natural resources – government provided vital stimuli, underwriting and ‘system design’ for elements of the energy system. The resulting economic benefits to the UK have been enormous.