Corporate report

UKHSA Advisory Board: implementation of the science strategy and update on UKHSA's science and research activities

Updated 13 December 2023

Date: 30 November 2023

Sponsor: Isabel Oliver

Presenter: Richard Gleave

Purpose of the paper

This paper provides an update on the implementation of the science strategy and the arrangements we are putting in place to monitor progress and assess the impact of the strategy. The paper is structured into the following sections:

• main initial developments in the UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) scientific activities in 2023 to 2024 and next steps in the implementation of the science strategy across the UKHSA annual reports on progress will be produced every summer
• challenges and risks to implementation of the science strategy
• proposed arrangements for monitoring implementation progress and assessing impact; we are grateful for the advice from the Science and Research Committee in September – the high-level proposals informed by the committee were approved by the Executive Committee (ExCo) in October

Recommendations

The Advisory Board is asked to:

• note progress and developments
• comment on the arrangements for monitoring progress and assessing impact
• comment on the opportunities, challenges, and risks to implementing the science strategy

Background

The science strategy sets the vision and ambition for science in UKHSA. Through our scientific work, we will secure improvements in health and in prosperity. This will accelerate progress with the delivery of the strategic plan 2023 to 2026 and increase our impact. Scientific work is delivered across several groups within UKHSA and the depth and breadth of our work has enabled UKHSA to be designated a Public Sector Research Establishment (PSRE) as a publicly funded science and research agency with unique capabilities of national significance.

The science strategy is framed by UKHSA’s goals to:

• prepare – be ready for, and prevent, future health security hazards
• respond – save lives and reduce harm through effective response
• build – develop the UK’s health security capacity

To achieve our strategic goals and objectives, we will unlock the potential of our scientific assets and act of the scientific evidence to:

• predict and anticipate threats to health
• create a more secure environment
• reduce and eliminate health threats to health

The strategy identified 4 key enablers, the foundations that we need to strengthen to realise our ambitions and grow our science capabilities and capacity. These are:

• our people
• our scientific facilities
• our partnerships
• our research and knowledge

Initial progress with the implementation of the strategy

Prepare – be ready for, and prevent, future health security hazards

Strategic priority 1: Be ready to respond to all hazards to health

We are developing a new Diagnostics Accelerator with external consultant support. This will be a centre of excellence for diagnostic assay development that enhances existing capabilities through partnerships with academia, the NHS and industry. It will provide rapid diagnostic solutions for the UK and global health security thus strengthening our preparedness and response and securing learning from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Accelerator will be launched in 2024 to 2025. The indicative budget is about £7 million.

We are working with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) on the development of the research framework for pandemic preparedness and response to ensure a coordinated, efficient and effective use of research resources supports the UK to adequately prepare for and respond rapidly to emerging infectious disease threats.

Strategic priority 2: Improve health outcomes through vaccines

In August, we launched our Centre for Vaccine Development and Evaluation (VDEC). It works with industry and academia to develop and evaluate vaccines and currently has budget of circa £14 million (circa 280 posts) of which two-thirds comes from external income. VDEC is a critical part of the UK’s pandemic preparedness. The launch was widely covered in the media generating 25 online and print articles and 13 broadcast interviews and has raised the profile of all our scientific work.

Respond – save lives and reduce harm through effective response

Strategic priority 3: Reduce the impact of infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance

We are transforming UKHSA’s pathogen genomics capabilities and capacity. Although there was all-pathogen genomic testing before COVID-19, the pandemic required a large expansion. This has led to our pathogen genomics strategy, which has been informed by the contributions from the Science and Research Committee.

Our New Variant Assessment Platform (NVAP) programme has established partnerships to strengthen global genomic surveillance with 18 countries and 6 regional partners across the globe. It has also delivered training programmes including on bioinformatics to 273 professionals from 34 countries. The data generated through NVAP is available through international platforms and to support UKHSA’s work. It is projected to spend about £4.2 million this year. The evaluation has concluded that it has made a significant contribution to expanding sequencing capability and capacity in genomic surveillance, informing public health action. It has facilitated global data sharing to inform national and global risk assessments and demonstrated the UK’s global genomic leadership, and health diplomacy. This evaluation will inform the development of sustainability plans for 2024 to 2025 onwards.

Strategic priority 4: Protect health from threats in the environment

We have strengthened our scientific capabilities on radiation protection and toxicology which is the subject of a separate paper to the Board.

UKHSA launched its Centre for Climate and Health Security (CCHS) a year ago with a budget of £2.7 million (circa 45 posts). It already has a high profile across the public sector for our work on strategic priority 4 and has significantly strengthened collaborations with government bodies (such as the Met Office) and academia. In its first year CCHS has produced the new Adverse Weather Health Plan (AWHP) and is due to publish shortly a report on the Health Effects of Climate Change (HECC). This sets out the state of the evidence to inform future policy and action to protect health from the adverse effects of our changing climate. Work is well progressed to create the Knowledge and Training Hubs on health and climate and the Centre will be leading 2 events at COP28.

Build – develop the UK’s health security capacity

Strategic priority 5: Improve action on public health through data and insight

In September, UKHSA published our data strategy which describes how we will develop our data capabilities and work with our partners to extract the greatest value from the data we hold. To explore the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) and building on our existing applications, the data, analytics and surveillance (DAS) group has established an AI taskforce. It will be reporting to a future Advisory Board meeting.

We have increased our capacity in behavioural science and evaluation, including the creation of the People’s Pulse, a community panel to inform our work and support our research. This capability helps us access underserved communities and engage with them in our work.

Strategic priority 6: Develop UKHSA as a high-performing agency

The four enablers identified in the science strategy are key to developing the core capabilities and capacity of UKHSA as a scientific agency. 

Our people

We have established the Talent for Science programme of work to make UKHSA a place where scientists can thrive and deliver high-quality outputs. It complements both the UKHSA people strategy and the cross-government Science and Engineering Profession workstream. Early successes include engagement across the scientific professions with over 500 responses to the 2023 Scientific Training Needs Analysis. We have identified 18 individuals who have undertaken 43 ‘top up’ modules so they have now become registered clinical scientists.

Working with other government science agencies, we have created an agreement to enable secondments between laboratory agencies. We have completed Phase 1 of our 3-stage plan to improve scientific pay. We offered 340 scientists who met the criteria inclusion in the clinical ringfence transferring to NHS terms and conditions with early indication of a positive impact on recruitment and retention. 

Our scientific facilities

The annual capital programme funds on-going investment in the current scientific campuses (Porton, Colindale and Chilton), which is focused on maintenance and essential upgrades, including of laboratories. We are producing a 5 year plan for each of these sites to ensure most effective use of our annual capital programme within the context of the UKHSA estates strategy. Work continues on the longer-term capital investment plans to meet the future needs of UKHSA and enable the delivery of the science strategy.

Our partnerships

We are building our partnerships with industry aided by the UKHSA Commercial Partnerships Strategic Framework (CPSF) to develop longer-term strategic partnerships that deliver on our scientific priorities.

The CPSF will ensure UKHSA:

• has a front door for consistent, effective and timely communication with industry
• has the right balance of commercial partners and capabilities to meet current and future public health challenges
• has the right access to scientific innovation that will enable us to respond to opportunities in a timely way
• works with partners who share our values, act in accordance with them and are held to account against them
• obtains maximum value from its commercial partnerships, not only meeting contract terms and delivering full contract value but exceeding them
• generates income and drives innovation from business development partnerships in accordance with UKHSA’s science and other strategies
• can discuss strategic needs, directions and options with prospective and existing partners freely and openly, within a regulated space that protects against conflict of interest with competition or procurement law
• delivers other public goods in addition to public health outcomes, including social value, support for small and medium sized enterprises and more inclusive economic growth

CPSF takes the form of 6 interconnected projects that will deliver all of the above during 2022 to 2023.

Our research and knowledge

UKHSA has a key role in the identification of research needs and priorities in health protection and security and we work with funders to ensure they are addressed. We generate new knowledge and evidence through our core scientific work and through externally funded research. In the first 18 months of UKHSA, we were awarded 92 grants with a whole-life value of £24.6 million and are the lead in 16 of these. It is essential that we undertake research as there are questions that are best answered by UKHSA because of our role, expertise, or capabilities and because they need to be answered very rapidly. Our research also enables us to maintain specialist capabilities ready to respond at any time. We apply for research funds on the same standing as academic institutions, and often in collaboration with them.

UKHSA has a significant range of capabilities across research including governance, supporting applications for funding, delivery and utilization and in the area of knowledge mobilization. The agency has expanded its research management infrastructure to parallel the capabilities in the NHS and universities and has built on existing capabilities to expand its research governance functions and its knowledge management assets, including incorporating the requirements of open access and research integrity.

An essential component of UKHSA’s research and development are the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Units (HPRUs). The third commissioning round to designate new HPRUs from 2025 to 2030 is underway. The commissioning brief and topics were agreed with DHSC Chief Scientific Advisor and Deputy CMO by the Director Generals for UKHSA’s public health functions. Work is in progress to identify the UKHSA leads for each HPRU and the specific research priorities for each unit drawn from the UKHSA’s relevant strategies. The upcoming HPRUs will support 13 key areas of UKHSA’s remit over the next 5 years and will have an increased budget of £77 million (from £58 million currently) with additional investment in training and development.

Our PhD studentship programme is key to building our research capacity and has a budget of £1 million. The 2023 round awarded funding to 10 projects and the 2024 round of the scheme has recently closed to applications, with 36 applications received, 14 more than in the previous round. The next stage of the process is external peer reviews of the applications. We have also commissioned a review of the scheme with advice from the Science and Research Committee.

The research pump priming fund for 2023 to 2024 round has received 31 applications with a total requested funding of £525,089. The Science Futures and Research Governance Board has approved 19 applications is £344,667. Ten applications met all criteria and a further 9 have conditionally been approved pending clarification of items raised by the review panel. Over half of these applications will be targeting external research funding competitions upon completion of the projects.

Finally, to inform our future work, we have undertaken a review of the formal arrangements that UKHSA uses to access external scientific advice and expertise, and are working jointly with CMO’s office on a review of the scientific advisory groups.

Science strategy roadmap

This is focused on the next 2 and half years of the strategic plan and the milestones beyond 2026 will be developed in the light of progress and the decisions following the next spending review.

ExCo has agreed that the reporting on progress about the science strategy will be primarily though the existing reporting for the Strategic and Business Plans. The science strategy team will report specifically on the implementation of the science strategy to the Scientific Futures and Research Board of ExCo.

Next steps to implementation

Over the next 2 years we will strengthen horizon scanning not just of threats but also of scientific innovation and developments. This will include developments relevant to diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics. We will secure a step change in the Vaccine Development and Evaluation Centre’s (VDEC) work by:

• establishing VDEC as the preferred provider for vaccine developments, evaluation and licensure in the UK and a partner of choice for industry and academia; we will gain cross-government support of our plan
• strengthen partnerships with industry; we will strengthen VDEC’s academic collaborations with Cambridge, Southampton and Bristol, including new joint posts
• expand expertise in post-deployment population studies to improve the evidence-base for actions to optimise vaccination programmes, such as improving uptake and reducing inequalities

UKHSA will continue to transform our surveillance capabilities including leading the National Biosecurity Network (NBN), a central element of the Government’s National Biosecurity Strategy. We will seek to continue to play a leading role globally in genomics surveillance through the development and implementation of a sustainability plan for NVAP.

The CCHS will focus on addressing actions from the HECC report that will be published shortly. It will lead on the research priorities and building the evidence-base to inform national and local policy decisions and action. The Centre will assess the impact of climate change on the risks associated with antimicrobial resistance and develop guidance for different groups of health professionals.

The pathogen genomics programme will identify priorities for embedding genomics into our surveillance and response work and will build and grow our cutting-edge pathogen genomics services and infrastructure. The next steps include developing technical laboratory and analytic capabilities that enable metagenomic sequencing of routine samples to identify novel/altered pathogens to improve UK resilience to emerging threats. Metagenomics is the analysis of the genetic material gathered from all the organisms present in a single sample, for example to study communities of organisms, such as the human microbiome. We will also develop data platforms to enable faster and more reliable reporting processes.

The next stages in the science workforce plan (Talent for Science) will focus on succession planning, developing the skills pipeline and career progression.  We will be enrolling in programmes that offer non-traditional entry routes into scientific careers and support people from disadvantaged backgrounds. We will continue to implement our scientific pay plan. Stage 2 of the three phase pay strategy comprises the application of other existing pay flexibilities, especially to those who do not meet the ringfence requirements. Stage 3 is the proposal to develop a UKHSA-wide business case, enabling specific issues for science pay to be addressed within a corporate framework.

Building on our existing partnerships and the very successful industry two-day event at Porton in March, we are planning future events including a day with academic partners and an event with industry focused on the diagnostics accelerator. We have developed the basis of a scientific partnership with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to progress priorities in our respective science strategies. We have started to establish a science knowledge exchange with the Public Health Agency of Canada.

We will implement our plan to strengthen Research and Knowledge Management. The plan contains 5 frameworks covering:

• academic contracting and commissioning
• patient and public involvement and engagement
• research prioritisation
• knowledge and evidence mobilisation
• research impact

We will progress the opportunities from AI in mobilising knowledge and evidence into policy and practice.

Challenges in implementing the science strategy

Good progress has been made in the first steps of implementing the science strategy but there are challenges to realising our ambitions. These challenges are identified within UKHSA’s Strategic Risk Register and though some are not unique to our scientific work, they have a particular impact on our ability to deliver the Strategy. In addition, recent discussions with other Public Sector Research Establishments (PSREs) have highlighted very similar issues facing other government science agencies.

The major internal and external challenges relate to:

• recruitment and retention of specialist staff
• non-scientific capability gaps and key dependencies which are required to support our science ambitions such as marketing and specific commercial skills
• age of the scientific estate and access to capital
• limited flexibilities such as on reward packages and on setting prices for our services compared to non-government organisations

Influencing the priorities of funding bodies is an important opportunity for expanding our in-house research and collaborations. Health security and protection are higher research priorities now than before COVID-19 but these are often a relatively small element within the overall health and life sciences research portfolio. We will remain a major player in this specialist field and want to be the preferred partner for the leading academic institutions.

The Government’s response to Sir Paul Nurse’s Review of the Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Organisational Landscape provides a significant opportunity for UKHSA and other PSREs. The Review advised Government on how to ensure the long-term sustainability and effectiveness of the UK’s RDI landscape for the future. Ministers recently outlined their plans to create stronger networks of PSREs as the Nurse Review concludes that they have great potential to realise government’s ambitions for science.

Measuring the impact of our science strategy

Building on the corporate approach for measuring the improvement in health outcomes resulting from implementation of the Strategic Plan, we took a proposed structure for demonstrating impact to the Science and Research Committee in September and then ExCo in October. This approach measures our impact in 3 domains.

Health outcomes obtained through our assessment of progress against our strategic objectives using our regular corporate performance reports on delivery of the business plans supplemented by some in depth impact studies and stakeholder feedback.

Prosperity will be assessed by analysing the benefits of our science both internally to UKHSA and externally to the economy. Increasing external income is one element of enabling growth of our scientific work and increasing our impact, but we must ensure that externally funded work is aligned to our priorities. We will also assess our impact to the prosperity of the country both directly, determining the value we add to the work of industry and academia, and indirectly by considering the value we add by helping reduce burden and cost to the NHS and social care and prevent wider adverse socio-economic impacts.

Scientific advancement will be assessed through our contribution to scientific advancement by generating new knowledge. We plan to assess this by reviewing our scientific publications using external peer review by a panel every 3 years.

In producing this framework (Table 1), we have incorporated elements of the Government Office for Science Performance and Value Framework.  This explicitly requires an assessment of impact through the development of both an overall narrative about the PSRE’s work and of specific measures appropriate to the PSRE. The breadth of UKHSA’s scientific work means that a range of metrics are needed. The availability of information is a key challenge in building a suite of salient metrics and so we are adopting a proportionate approach combining more effective use of existing data systems and proposing new collections.

One of the Science and Research Committee’s suggestions was to learn from the work of universities in demonstrating impact as part of the Research Excellence Framework (REF). We have met with colleagues involved in this work and reviewed some of the assessments of the REF (and its predecessor the Research Assessment Framework). The main vehicle for the assessment of impact in the REF is through case studies that are scored by panels of peers. In addition, the REF includes an assessment of environment that supports research, and this has some similarities to our need to strengthen the core scientific capabilities to deliver UKHSA’s remit. Although there are differences between UKHSA and universities, we are building elements of the REF into our approach.

The detail of these arrangements is still under development and the Board is asked to comment on this proposed framework to inform the first formal annual review to be completed in July 2024.

Table 1. UKHSA’s Framework for measuring the impact of our scientific work

Health	Prosperity	Scientific advancement
Health outcomes and impact through contribution to the delivery of strategic priorities including impact on reducing inequalities	Of UKHSA – generation of external Income	Our contribution as measured by quantity of scientific outputs and quality of our scientific outputs
Contribution UKHSA scientific evidence and advice on policy development and implementation	Of the UK – directly through contribution to life sciences adding value to industry and academia; indirectly through reducing NHS and social care burden and preventing costs to society	Our contribution as measured by quantity of scientific outputs and quality of our scientific outputs

Richard Gleave
Director of Science Strategy and Development
November 2023