The life sciences sector represents one of the dominant knowledge-based economic sectors in the UK. The UK has recently set a 10-year strategy for the life sciences sector to build on successes of the covid-19 response and accelerate delivery innovations to patients to address some of the significant health care and public health challenges including treatments for cancer and dementia. One of the clearest measures for what the UK life sciences sector is achieving can often be seen through the prism of the number of open jobs available on the market.
If we focus on pure scientific roles, which account for 47% of the life sciences industry positions, January 2022 saw over 954 new vacancies on the market in scientific alone. Compared to January 2021, this represented a 38% increase in live roles and 74% growth versus January 2020. The UK life sciences sector enjoyed a buoyant and record-breaking year in 2021. Levels of all new jobs across all areas of life sciences job vacancies grew by 37% year-on-year.
The UK Life Sciences Vision in its 10-year strategy is the first sectoral publication to build on the Plan for Growth, which sets out plans for the UK to stand as a world-leading centre for the development of brilliant ideas, innovation in industry, and jobs for the future. Sitting alongside this it is crucial each life sciences organisation step up its vision with tangible investments and actions in training for future skills to enable the vision to transpire.
There is now a race to become one of the world leaders in the growth of life sciences as an industrial sector. The UK has demonstrated throughout the covid pandemic how effective it can be when industry, academia, government, charities, and the NHS all work together. If the UK continues to work as effectively in this continued collaborative way, greater benefits to patients will be achieved and also grow our economy at pace. Central to the Life Sciences Vision is a focus on cultivating a business environment in which UK life sciences firms can access finance to innovate and grow, are regulated in an agile and efficient way, and are incentivised to onshore manufacture and commercialise their products in the UK.
Life sciences are a game changer for the UK’s collective health. Through innovation and technological advances, we will diagnose, treat, cure and prevent a much wider range of disease than is currently possible, and life sciences are an invaluable weapon for the NHS in the fight against disease. These advances will change society.
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Yvette Cleland - CEO | Cpl UK