Our new Saudi partnership is a huge opportunity for UK science

This week, I was at the LEAP24 conference in Riyadh, which, in just three years, has grown to become the world’s largest tech event. Aiming to attract $11.9 billion (£9.3 billion) of global investment, Saudi Arabia has brought together many of the world’s fastest-growing companies with the deep pockets of global capital.

Like Saudi Arabia, the UK is unapologetically ambitious in capitalising on our strengths to grow our economy and improve lives for people in our country and around the world. Our Science and Technology Framework sets out our ambition to become a superpower in these sectors by 2030, with plans to lead in transformative technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum technologies and engineering biology.

But while we are competitive, we are also clear that no country can become a science and technology superpower in isolation. Global innovation is not a zero-sum game, any more than prosperity, longevity and civilisation are: all of them have been increased over history for all humankind by free trade.

That’s why Saudi Arabia offers a colossal opportunity for UK researchers – it has enormous ambitions to become an “innovation nation”, building on its strengths in science and technology with an open invitation for the world’s best and brightest researchers to come and collaborate.

Writ large by the stunning scale of LEAP24 and its Vision 2030 development plan, Saudi Arabia’s plan is to build a diversified economy and society fit for the future. The figures speak for themselves: since Vision 2030 was announced eight years ago, the Saudi economy has grown by 68 per cent. In 2023, its non-oil market growth was an impressive 5.9 per cent. Meanwhile, social liberalisation continues at a dizzying pace; female participation in the country’s economy, now 36 per cent, is double what it once was.

While in Riyadh, I signed a memorandum of understanding with the kingdom’s Research, Development and Innovation Authority (RDIA) that paves the way for innovators from our two nations to form deeper, broader, more productive partnerships in the years to come.

With the agreement signed, I lay down a challenge to researchers in the UK’s universities and institutes: to take advantage of the resources available in Saudi’s innovative economy to build partnerships that will advance the kinds of science and technology that will improve lives for each and every one of us.

This agreement is not just about economic growth, important though it is. In its four priorities – health and well-being, sustainability, energy and economies of the future – Saudi Arabia has shown that it is ready to harness the power of research and innovation to tackle some of the greatest shared challenges of our time.

In the Red Sea, scientists at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology are using digital twinning technology to drive the largest coral reef restoration project in the world. And, like the UK’s BioBank, the Saudi Human Genome project is building a database that will transform personalised medicine in the kingdom’s hospitals.

It’s an exciting time in innovation and an exciting moment to be an innovator. That’s true individually but it is also true at the whole-economy scale, with countries such as Saudi Arabia and the UK seeking to be innovator economies, both to grow and to improve the lives of their citizens and make a wider contribution.

At a time of shared global challenges, none of us can do it alone. We in government must work together – such as in the agreement the UK has signed with Saudi Arabia – and by doing so we can support bigger, better, bolder science than we could ever do alone, taking on and solving the challenges that will define the future.

But any future begins with actions, not words. That is why, in the coming months, I will be laser-focused on delivering the promises set out in our agreement. And, this May, I and a very senior delegation of UK businesses and ministers plan to return to Saudi Arabia to launch our GREAT Futures Campaign – our push to encourage trade and promote British business, education and culture to Saudi Arabia – making the case for even deeper links between our economies.

The partnership I have signed this week will put the UK at the front and centre of global science and technology, providing our research and innovation sector with an extraordinary opportunity to grow our economy, create jobs and improve the lives of our citizens.

Through closer collaboration today, we can secure a better future for our two nations’ tomorrows.

Andrew Griffith is minister of state for science, research and innovation.