SCIENCE IN PARLIAMENT 8 1 0 2 G N I The Journal of the R Parliamentary and P Scientific Committee sip S Opening in 2018, the Quadr am I nstitut e will f ocus on the impac t of diet and micr ob es on health y ageing , br ing ing clinicians alongside This is not an official publication of the House of scien tists under one r oof , maximising Commons or the House of Lords. It has not been approved the unique w or ld- class bioscienc e by either House or its Committees. All-Party Groups are informal groups of clust er a t the Nor wich members of both Houses with a common Resear ch P ar k. interest in particular issues. The views expressed in this Journal are those of the Group. This Journal is funded by the members of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee. www.scienceinparliament.org.uk quadr am.ac .uk At t he f orefro nt of en er gy transfor mation £6 0m Ove r In novat e U K in ve stment 40 industrial pa rtners £120 m industrial co -inv estment More t ha n 1,000 7 re searc hers pa rtners Find o ut m ore a t: era .ac.uk Or g et i n t ouch: enqui ries@e ra.a c.uk included in this edition. We also STEM for BRITAIN. Details of the include a summary of the winners can be found on the SCIENCE IN PARLIAMENT meeting we held jointly with the website APPG on Food and Drink www.stemforbritain.org.uk and Manufacturing where we we will be publishing a special discussed the Science of Food STEM for BRITAIN edition of Manufacturing. Science in Parliament in the sip Summer. As the Government Envoy to the Year of Engineering – the I hope you will enjoy the The Journal of the Parliamentary and campaign that will see plethora of other topics Scientific Committee. Stephen Metcalfe MP, government join forces with presented in this issue from the The Parliamentary and Scientific Chairman, Parliamentary and industry to give thousands of up and coming science Committee is an All-Party Scientific Committee Parliamentary Group of members of young people direct and inspiring surrounding microbiomes both both Houses of Parliament and British experiences of engineering within and around us to how members of the European Parliament, representatives of scientific and Welcome to the Spring edition of throughout 2018 – I have been science and engineering can technical institutions, industrial Science in Parliament . As ever it busy around the country visiting help us with the real challenge of organisations and universities. has been a busy start to the year projects. You can discover more achieving the ambitious CO 2 for both myself and the about the Year of Engineering in reduction targets set by Government of 50% compared Parliamentary and Scientific this edition and find out more with 1990s levels by 2030, and Committee. Our opening about how you can get involved an 80% reduction by 2050. meeting on ‘Data as a resource ’ in this celebration of Engineering. drew a capacity audience I was pleased to see many fascinated in the potential of data fascinating engineering projects Science in Parliament has two main but also concerned about some alongside those from the objectives: of the ethical issues presented. biosciences, physical sciences 1. to inform the scientific and Many of the issues presented by and mathematics at the finals of industrial communities of activities within Parliament of a scientific our excellent speakers are our Annual Poster Competition nature and of the progress of relevant legislation; 2. to keep Members of Parliament abreast of scientific affairs. CONTENTS FOREWORD 1 DATA IN REAL-LIFE CANCER THERAPY 12 RADIOTHERAPY - CANCER TREATMENT OF THE Stephen Metcalfe MP Bissan Al-Lazakani FUTURE 22 SCIENCE AND FOOD MANUFACTURING 2 DATA AS A RESOURCE: FOR WHAT? AND FOR Alexandra Stewart, Andy Beavis Helen Munday, John Bows, Tim Foster, Ian Noble WHO? 15 UPDATE FROM HOC LIBRARY 25 Simon Burall IT IS TIME FOR A NATIONAL STRATEGY FOR Edward Potton ENERGY INNOVATION 4 UNLOCKING THE MICROBIOME 16 Gordon Waddington Paul Richards, Roya Ziaie NEWS FROM POST 25 Jonathan Wentworth ENERGY EFFICIENT MOTORS ON AN INDUSTRIAL A YEAR TO INSPIRE THE ENGINEERS OF SCALE 7 TOMORROW 18 SELECT COMMITTEES UPDATE 26 Christopher Donaghy-Spargo Jo Parry SCIENCE DIRECTORY 31 MAKING DATA WORK 10 VOICE OF THE FUTURE 2018 20 Mandy Chessell SCIENCE DIARY 40 Science in Parliament | Vol 74 No 1 | Spring 2018 1 SCIENCE AND FOOD MANUFACTURING The food and drink manufacturing industry is the biggest sector will create benefits for us all. Fail to do so and we risk manufacturing sector in the country – bigger than the losing it to overseas automotive and aerospace industries combined. The food supply competitors. chain employs almost 4 million people and generates £112bn of In 2015 Roger Eccleston value to the UK economy each year. The food and drink (Sheffield Hallam University) manufacturing sector contributes £28.8bn to the economy. and I approached the Institute of Physics because we saw a Then, how does the food and drink sector continue to deliver the need for physics within food manufacturing to grow. We wide variety of safe, affordable food to consumers? With Brexit identified an opportunity for making exports so key – how can we build on food and drink’s physics to enable growth within the sector by using physics- £20 billion in global exports? based research to solve its pre- competitive challenges, and The answers to these and efficiency. It was illustrated that his capacity of Chair of the also spotted a chance for the many other questions are of maintaining the sector at the Institute of Physics (IOP) Physics industry to play a central role in course through science and forefront of technology is vital, in Food Manufacturing Group. solving some genuine innovation to deliver productivity and underpins the success of He reflected on his own fundamental physics problems. and growth . During the UK’s largest manufacturing personal views expressed as Taking on the challenge, the December’s meeting of the sector. follows (which do not IOP created a pilot programme Parliamentary and Scientific necessarily reflect the position or First to present was Helen of open innovation in food Committee and the All Party policy of PepsiCo Inc.) Munday, Chief Scientific Officer manufacturing, culminating in Parliamentary Group (APPG) for “Working in the food at the Food and Drink the IOP publishing the ‘Health Food and Drink Manufacturing, manufacturing sector, I know Federation, who set the scene, of Physics in Food attendees were enlightened by how important physics is. Much including giving details on the Manufacturing’ report in 2016. speakers from the food and drink dimensions of the sector. This of the technology used, and sector on a breadth of topics that included the fact that the sector many of the innovations that The food sector faces global demonstrated how technologically contains many small and make the sector competitive, challenges including population advanced the industry is. medium enterprises (SMEs), in are underpinned by physics. It’s growth, globalisation, food security, minimising Introduced by Chairmen fact 96% of businesses fall into central to improvements in environmental impact, and Stephen Metcalfe MP (for the this category. Therefore, products themselves. And dealing with concerns of health Parliamentary and Scientific technology transfer can look physics-based skills are and nutrition. A multi-disciplinary Committee) and John very different for these applicable throughout the approach is necessary to tackle Stevenson MP (for the APPG for organisations compared to the industry, from breaking these and physics has a critical Food and Drink Manufacturing) highly sophisticated multi- problems down to first role to play, from soft examples were given of how national organisations (many of principles, through generating condensed matter research, science has and is transforming which have research and testable hypotheses and insights from computer the food and drink available. development laboratories in the working with complex maths, to modelling and advanced Manufacturers offer greater UK). Helen also talked about creating simulations to make predictions as to how food will measurement techniques. variety, higher quality, and more the huge diversity of scientific and technology skills that are behave. convenience than ever before, Food manufacturing is a large, needed within the industry, from and tomorrow’s consumer will But there’s a general lack of diverse sector in which physics sensory scientists, to have different needs again to awareness of this elsewhere. plays a crucial role and which microbiologists, and process those of today. Central to these That crucial role of physics in can benefit enormously from engineers. changes is the investment in the food sector needs to be fully physics-based innovation. science, research and innovation Next to present was John recognised – and taken full Physics is a significant lever in – used to increase shelf life, Bows, Research and advantage of. If we create the food manufacturing – it tackles reformulate products to improve Development Director at conditions in which food all of the industry’s main diets, and drive productivity and PepsiCo. John was speaking in manufacturing can flourish, the challenges. But if the sector is to 2 Science in Parliament | Vol 74 No 1 | Spring 2018 Leadership Council was the final speaker at the event, bringing to life how science has enabled all aspects of the transformation to our modern, developed food system delivering safe, affordable, nutritious and high quality food for all, addressing the challenges of the 20th Century. A visit to a modern food manufacturer can be a surprise for many, encountering for the first time the levels of science and technology used: from analytical chemistries also found in the pharmaceutical sector; computational modelling, in- silica simulation and material sciences also adopted in the aerospace sector and process automation, sensor technologies and control systems at levels common in state of the art manufacturing.