Chris Parr

www.researchprofessionalnews.com ‘Don’t take global standing for granted,’ says chief scientist - Research Professional News But Angela McLean says UK falling down international rankings is “not a bad thing”

Dominic Cummings Verified account @Dominic2306 · Jul 9, 2025

Our own Chief Science Adviser (Vallance successor) says it's 'good' -- no 'FANTASTIC'!! -- that we're slipping down the international rankings for science.

This 'decline is good not just inevitable' attitude is widespread in Westminster and academia.

Angela did some good things in government but working in academia & Whitehall acts as a mind virus - the culture and incentives are pathological. She's another victim to the virus. Most don't start like this, most now end like this.

It's not a coincidence she then says she will focus on 'misinformation'. So instead of striving to get Britain building new knowledge in materials science, antibiotics, robots etc she'll focus on the mind virus of 'misinformation' which has reduced much of the Insider political class and academia and old media to gibbering village idiots.

Reminder: we have a 'professor' of misinformation at Cambridge who has written articles in Nature on how 'Biden is mentally unfit to be President' is 'objectively misinformation' and even after Biden's collapse he said he'd still been right because that was 'the expert consensus' and we must trust experts, no the debate did not show that the 'low information' voters were right, they HAD been fooled by misinformation.

*A CSA welcoming decline and working on misinformation: the pathological system working as intended*

The voters want politicians striving all day to make us better because they love this country and its people.

None of the parties can do this or even try. A big part of the reason is they live in the 'intellectual' milieu of modern 'education', their brains have been rotted by insane identity politics and race-baiting bitter subversives out of Dostoyevsky. Rebuilding educational institutions is a necessary condition for long term change. Happily the old university business model is bust and technology means we can ditch the old school system...

*Push what's falling*

Full text below
See my blog for details on the misinformation scams of 'professors' & MSM

----
‘Don’t take global standing for granted,’ says chief scientist
But Angela McLean says UK falling down international rankings is “not a bad thing”

The UK “should not take our international standing for granted”, but equally it should not be too concerned about falling down international rankings as other countries improve their research, according to the government’s chief scientific adviser.
Speaking at a webinar hosted by the British Academy on 7 July, Angela McLean (pictured) said she “would love it if we could do more to attract people from other countries” and “make it easier for people from all over the world to work and study here”.
“We’re actually quite a small country now, slightly stuck on the edge of Europe, and we should not take our international standing for granted,” she said.
Researchers have concerns that the UK’s high upfront costs for visas are offputting for scientists. In its recent immigration white paper, the government promised to make it easier for researchers to use the Global Talent route to come to the UK, and it has also set up a £54 million scheme to attract scientists from overseas.
McLean said the UK should expect to see its leading position on research eroded, but that this should not be seen as a negative.
“In a good way, we will continue to slip down the international rankings. That will happen because other countries…are getting better,” she said, adding that it was “actually a fantastic thing, because it’s not a zero-sum game” and that it meant there would “be lots of other people all over the world for us to…do wonderful, new creative things with” in research.
“I think networking will become more important as other places get stronger. And that’s a good thing, not a bad thing,” she said.
Misinformation focus
Also during the webinar, McLean said she is considering focusing on misinformation in her next year as chief scientific adviser.
“Misinformation is, of course, as old as human interaction, but the digital age has created profound new dimensions to the problem. Right now, we are trying to get our heads around what are the most pertinent questions in relation to misinformation from a government perspective,” she said, adding that she anticipates “collaboration with the social sciences and humanities” on the topic.
McLean also called on academics to explore the government’s areas of research interest (ARIs), which set out “the main research questions departments are grappling with”.
“ARIs mean you can tell departments that you have relevant evidence that would inform policy on a particular issue, and start a dialogue with them. They can also direct your thinking on topics for future research where there’s likely to be a customer in government for your findings,” she said.
“Expertise may be under attack from some quarters, but the system I lead has no alternative but to continue, without fear or favour, to provide evidence-based, rigorous, multidisciplinary advice where we can,” McLean added. “Research expertise must continue to inform this very process, and it’s my responsibility to make sure that it does. And I believe it is yours as well.”

View quoted post on X

Research Fortnight @ResFortnight · Jul 4, 2025

Alan Turing Institute told to focus on defence or lose funding

Science secretary threatens to pull defence R&D funds, while reforms could see EPSRC grant revisited

Big story

researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-pol…

View quoted post on X