Joint response submitted by the Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, the Institute of Cancer Research, Cancer Research UK, the Royal Society, the Sainsbury Laboratory, The Francis Crick Institute and the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry PURPOSE On 19 November 2012, representatives from the Medical Research Council and partner organisations listed above met to discuss the current Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) call for evidence. At this meeting, it was agreed that the current Shortage Occupation Lists needed to reflect emerging areas of science where it has been identified that there is a specific worldwide skill shortage impacting on UK scientific research. The intention of this joint response to the call for evidence is to put forward a justification for including bio-informaticians/computational biologists on the shortage occupation lists, under code of practice 2119 of the Office for National Statistics SOC 2010. We all share a belief about the critical importance of this discipline to UK science and our own organisations; with the worldwide shortage of top quality researchers in this area it is critical to ask the UK Government to support us and the scientific community in recognising these shortages and to provide the appropriate tools in order to further promote the high impact research we all engage in. Additionally, we present an argument as to why the Sunset Clause should not be implemented in respect of the research and scientific based occupations incorporated onto the shortage occupation lists. Background In a wide ranging speech1 on science, technology and growth, the Chancellor recently set out the major challenges facing the UK’s (life) science as a result of the upsurge in the availability of data. He said: The next generation of scientific discovery will be data-driven discovery, as previously unrecognised patterns are discovered by analysing massive data sets. The world already creates 2.5 quintillion bytes of data – equivalent to 150,000 full iPads – every single day. We need to make sure we capture value from this mass of data – both for economic growth and for social advances, such as better health. This requires a transformation in data management. The UK is well placed for the big data revolution. We have 25 of the world’s 500 most powerful computers. But crude computing power is not the be all and end all. We have a comparative advantage in IT because of three distinctive strengths. 1 Rt Hon George Osborne MP address to Royal Society, 9 November 2012, http://www.hm- treasury.gov.uk/speech_chx_091112.htm Medical Research Council, 14th Floor, One Kemble Street, London WC2B 4AN telephone +44 (0)1793 416200 www.mrc.ac.uk Page 2 of 9 First, we are good at the algorithms needed to handle these large data sets. The key role of British scientists in research projects which generate very large data- sets, such as the search for the Higgs boson at CERN, has led to the UK sustaining our world-leading strengths in the software development and algorithms needed to make sense of these massive data-sets. Secondly, we have some of the world’s best and most complete data-sets in healthcare, demographics, environmental change and food. Thirdly, these strengths are complemented by our strong life sciences sector. The future is linking “dry” computer sciences and “wet” biological sciences. The world’s key DNA sequencing technologies all come from British research labs. We can be a world leader in harnessing genetic data. At the same time, and referenced in his speech, the Research Councils UK launched their Strategic Framework for Capital Investment2 which highlights the capital infrastructure needs to deliver these big challenges. The proposals urge for a strong investment in so- called e-infrastructure. However, in his foreword the Chair of the Research Councils UK, Professor Rick Rylance, draws attention to the fact that infrastructure alone can not address the enormity of the challenge: “a flexible highly-skilled workforce with state of the art technical skills and research leadership is required across all career stages to enhance the excellence of the research base and deliver benefit for the UK economy. Investment in skills, capacity and capability are all crucial to the sustainability of research excellence and contribute to making the UK an attractive place to invest and grow business.” A recent report for the UK e-Infrastructure Leadership Council3 identified a common theme amongst their contributors and responders. It is clear that there is not an adequate ‘pipeline’ of talented individuals to work in research that deals with this ‘data deluge’. The report highlights the problems in the current educational system and calls for concerted effort to train these relatively new specialists. What is bio-informatics? Informatics is the discipline which combines scientific, computer science and statistical knowledge. It manages, integrates, manipulates and analyses large data sets which result for instance from sequencing large volumes of genomes or data that results from advancements in imaging techniques. Informatics is used throughout all scientific disciplines, not just the life sciences. However, on this occasion, we are particularly interested in making the case for life and medical sciences and our current and future workforce. Bio-informatics is of particular importance to research activities in the areas of Translational Medicine and e-Health. Both areas are described in detail in the aforementioned e-Infrastructure Leadership Council report. Furthermore it is also an important and growing area within pharmaceutical companies and contract research 2 http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/Publications/policy/Pages/CapitalInvestment.aspx 3 http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/science/docs/e/12-1245-e-science-and-e-infrastructure- needs-uk-life-sciences-industries.pdf Page 3 of 9 organisations and hence there is also a high demand for people with these skills for the life science industry4. Bio-informaticians use algorithms (software), statistics and high performance computing (hardware) to do their roles. They require very specific software environments and may be involved in writing these. Some bio-informaticians perform a service to research groups, storing, analysing and interpreting the data. Others, typically called ‘computational biologists’, lead their own research and focus on applying the computational approaches to address the most important questions of the day. This is a developing field and various other job titles are used, which all relate to the similar, yet often quite varied, disciplines. Often used job titles are bio-informatician, statistical geneticist, neuroinformatician, health informatician, genome and next- generation sequencing data analyst, computer biologist, bio-statistician, scientific database curator, bio-informatics engineer, biosoftware support engineer, genome analyst and lab information management system programmer. Skills base The MRC and signatories to this consultation response find that when trying to employ or support these highly skilled individuals there is a worldwide critical shortage in capacity and skills. Bioinformatics is a relatively new field but has driven some of the most important recent advances in genomics and more generally biology. Although there is some training offered at the undergraduate and postdoctoral level there is an increasing demand for proficiency in bioinformatics that is not met by the current professional base in the UK. It is important to remark here that the UK has been leading the development of novel and innovative approaches in bioinformatics. There are few conventional university programmes that teach bio-informatics, although a number of master courses are appearing. Recruits tend to come from a biology background with a strong interest in computer programming and mathematics; others come from a more computational background with a strong interest in biology. They are typically educated to PhD level, although those performing ‘service functions’ can be of degree or post-grad calibre. The MRC receives over 70 applications for posts in this area which are described as ‘early career stage’ or training posts (broadly speaking no more than 3 years post PhD completion). The composition of this group is diverse, from all areas of the world. These candidates are not yet proficient in bio-informatics but demonstrate a desire and an ability to be ‘trained up’. At the later career stages (3 years plus post PhD completion) it becomes evident that there are not sufficient ‘early stage’ bio-informaticians being trained up. Applications drop to approximately 15 per advert with the majority of candidates being non-EU nationals. 4 http://www.abpi.org.uk/our‐work/library/industry/Pages/skills‐biomedical‐research.aspx. Page 4 of 9 The signatories who employ bio-informaticians are currently experiencing severe problems in appointing to leadership positions in this area. At this point in their career, we expect scientists to lead their own research group and have an independent research programme, funded through the usual peer review processes. These leaders tend to have at least 7 years experience since completion of their PhD. MRC are currently unable to fill at least 3 of these leadership positions at prestigious research institutes such as the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre in London and the MRC Functional Genomics Unit in Oxford. The competition for rare talent is intense. Our units and institutes do their utmost to create the ultimate environment in which scientists can flourish. This includes tangible benefits such as high tech infrastructure and less tangible features such as the research environment (e.g. working with like-minded people, offering the highest possible standing in research). Despite positioning the employment offer in a competitive way (insofar our pay structures and policies will allow) it does not result in the successful filling of these posts. Problems in recruitment at the more senior end of the career path result in fewer ‘trainers’ to educate and mentor the new intake of bio-informaticians, leading to a vicious circle of talent shortage.