Anniversary Day Address 2025 from President of the Royal Society, Adrian Smith

01 December 2025

Looking back

It has been an eventful five years as your President.

When I began my term five years ago, we were in the middle of one of the biggest global crises of recent decades. And it was a crisis where science, for better or for worse, was to the fore.

My first media interview was with the Times newspaper, and it made the front page.

In that interview, I took issue with what was becoming the government's regular refrain that they were 'just following the science', as if the latter were some sort of magic shield, rather than the reality of the challenge of getting to grips with the panoply of uncertainties presented by this new virus.

For a political class with limited scientific background understanding this was a challenge. For most, science was about facts and certainties, something you learned from books, and then often only up to the age of 16.

But in the words of Francis Bacon:

'If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties'.

Science and scientists were at the heart of public debate and under scrutiny, but I think we as a community - a global community - can look back with pride at what was achieved. The speed at which we established an understanding of a new virus, learned what treatments would work and ultimately delivered vaccines, was truly astonishing.

That success is not only a testament to the amazing researchers who achieved it but also to long-term investment in science. The breakthroughs were not overnight - they were built upon decades of research.

The UK is rightly proud of its science base - we have a well-earned reputation as a leading science nation. But we cannot be complacent. That reputation has been built on solid investment, but it is investment that is well below the levels being made in some other countries.

We have had wins - public investment in R&D has gone from £15 billion a year in 2022 to £20 billion this year. The Spending Review reinforced support for British science over the next four years. In difficult circumstances, this gives some degree of optimism to those looking to lead research and invest in the UK.

But...we still lag many of our competitors. We nestle in the middle of the G7 and are on a par with the OECD average in terms of the percentage of GDP invested in R&D. We need greater commitment.

The Society has also had its own notable funding successes. We have long made the case for a mid-career Fellowship to sit in-between our fantastic early career schemes and our Research Professorships. Courtesy of a £250 million endowment from the Department for Science Innovation & Technology, mid-career fellowships are now a reality.

Back in August we appointed the first seven Royal Society Faraday Discovery Fellowships. They will each receive up to £8 million over a ten-year period.

I am also proud of our Career Development Fellowships. Launched in 2023, our goal was to kickstart the independent research careers of researchers from underrepresented groups. Our initial focus is on those from Black backgrounds where the data provided clear evidence of underrepresentation.

We need to identify and nurture talent from as wide a pool as possible. Science should be open to everyone and there should be no barriers that prevent people from reaching their full potential. A scientific community that is as diverse and inclusive as possible can only improve what we are able to achieve.

The support we provide to researchers really does matter and as a Society we should be extremely proud of the impact we have had. Earlier this year we published the latest in our evaluation programme for our early career fellowships - the Career Pathway Tracker. It is now 40 years since we set out to find the best way to support outstanding postdoctoral researchers and as Julie outlined earlier, the results are extremely positive indeed.

I have spoken about UK funding for science but there is also the hugely important relationship with the EU and, particularly, Horizon Europe. Five years ago, we were still coming to terms with Brexit and our scientific relationships across the continent were being damaged.

The Society was relentless in pressing the case for Association to Horizon Europe and, eventually, re-Association to Horizon Europe was secured.

Our influencing role was important. But there is still a job to be done in making sure that association works in the best interests of UK science - and that the UK community fully exploits all the potential funding routes available via Horizon and its successor.

I also wanted to take a few moments to talk about the UK Young Academy. The UK came late to the game in establishing a forum where early career professionals could come together to share thoughts and ideas and to bring to bear new perspectives on societal challenges.

Established in 2022, with the support of the six other national academies, and under the auspices of the Royal Society, we now have 141 Young Academy members, a very strong Executive Group and seven projects up and running on topics including supporting at-risk scholars and professionals, supporting the career development of young people from challenging backgrounds and exploring the geopolitical challenges of science and technology diplomacy.

A lot has been achieved over the last five years but inevitably there are areas where much remains to be done

I came to the Presidency with a long-standing belief in the need for fundamental reform of the UK education system.

I published a review of post-16 mathematics back in 2017 and the Society has long campaigned for a broadening of the curriculum, going back to our Vision for science, mathematics and computing education report published in 2014.

Education is so clearly fundamental to both personal and societal success and well-being. It is also key to our economic future. We will only thrive if we are providing all young people with an education that prepares them for a modern, data-driven economy.

As I pointed out in a recent letter to the Prime Minister, our current post-16 education system - one of the narrowest in the world - is driving a decline in arts, humanities and social sciences entries, while we still have around 150,000 A-level students a year leaving school with little or no maths education after the age of 16. And most young people abandon all science at 16.

Under the last Government we thought we had a real breakthrough with Rishi Sunak's commitment to maths through to 18. But along with that government, the commitment to maths to 18 seems to have been consigned to the history books.

The current government set up its Curriculum and Assessment Review, and I had hoped that it would be ambitious in its vision and support the sort of radical reform that is needed.

Alas, the review was not at all ambitious and an opportunity has been lost.

But we must not give up! I am proud of our Maths Futures report which sets out the case for a radical approach to maths and data literacy across all age groups. And a big thank you to Martin Taylor, who not only chaired our Mathematical Futures Board but also chaired the Committee that brought us the Vision report in 2014.

The reform we are calling for must be underpinned by digital technologies and bring together mathematics, statistics and data science. It must spill beyond the traditional confines of maths and computing into other subjects - from PE to history and design. Maths and data science must be taught and understood as vital tools for modern life and work.

I commend the report to my successor - who I know also cares passionately about education.

Threats to science

While there have been many positives in the past five years, the position of global science has not been as precarious in a long time.

There are threats to science funding due to financial pressures. Ideological agendas are being used to suppress research, threaten academic freedom and to cut funding. Scientific evidence and those who advocate for it are under attack by those who wish to undermine rational debate.

Platforms that should facilitate open, transparent debate are giving free rein to harmful misinformation and ideological attacks on people and ideas. Equality is under attack and that threatens our global community of scientists - a community that is strongest when everyone can contribute.

These are global phenomena that have most obviously played out in the US with the recent presidential election.

Just last month I visited the US again and met with many of our Fellows there. The mood is bleak. There is still much uncertainty about the full implications of the Trump administration, and we are watching closely for the impacts on science to assess what we, as the Royal Society, might do to help mitigate them.

It is not our place to tell a democratically elected government in another country how it should spend its public money. Our role is to stick to debating the scientific evidence - give voice to that evidence and use it to stand up for science. Issues like climate science and vaccines are currently key battlegrounds.

The Society has a strong track record in setting out the science around climate change and when the President of the United States says the science is a 'con-job', we will call him out. If UK politicians start to copy such ridiculous statements, we will also hold them to account.

The US administration has also attacked vaccines, clearly pushing scientific misinformation. We are also seeing vaccination rates drop in the UK, putting lives at risk from diseases we thought we had the better of. As Julie said earlier, that is another area we are looking to address in the coming months, presenting expert-led scientific evidence to help inform the general public.

As a community we must step up to meet the challenges of misinformation and attacks on science. We must make the case for science and for the importance of scientific evidence. We must live up to our motto of Nullius in verba.

But with uncertainty in the US, there is an opportunity for the UK. Last year, having listened to the fellowship, we launched a £30 million funding package, including our Faraday Fellowship Accelerated International Route. Whether it is those who can no longer do their science in the US or those from other countries who may no longer be attracted to the US, the UK can offer an attractive home.

But we have challenges in the UK of our own making, in particular, our visas are among the most expensive in the world. The Society has done some excellent work looking at visa costs to try and bring about change.

But while we want to offer support to those who can no longer do their science in the US we also must do all we can to support international collaborations with those continuing to do great work there, including many of our Fellows.

Before I move on to looking ahead, let me just say a few words on a matter that has taken up much time over the past year.

Polarisation and the increasingly toxic nature of public debate have presented us with challenges around political views held within our own Fellowship. I do not want to dwell on this but, as I have said before, it cannot be the role of the Royal Society to police the political opinions of individual Fellows.

Looking forward

Presidents come and go - the Royal Society goes on. It is almost my turn to move on and hand the baton on to Paul Nurse.

I have outlined much progress over the last five years but also the serious challenges that are ahead of us.

But there are also great things coming up that will help us rise to those challenges. We have made a start in looking at what the UK's science system should look like in the future. Our initial Science 2040 report, which we launched in Parliament, has set the terms for a debate about the future of UK science. That future must be based on long-term vision, strategic investment, and policy frameworks that foster and enable innovation across all parts of our research system.

The Women in STEM conference in March will celebrate one strand of our diversity work. It is embarrassingly recent in our history that we elected our first women as Fellows but much progress has been made.

And I am very much looking forward to the publication of our Science for society report. That is an update to the Bodmer report on public engagement with science, from 1985, that changed the relationship between scientists and the rest of our society.

Given the challenges we face it has never been more important for scientists to share the wonder of science and ensure that the scientific evidence is central to relevant public debate.

Conclusion

As I step down, I remain optimistic. Yes, there are challenges but the accumulation of knowledge through scientific exploration keeps us moving forwards and better understanding of the world around us not only illuminates the problems we face but also offers us solutions.

That is what all of you do - our Fellows and the wider science community. As it says in our mission, you pursue science for the benefit of humanity, and for that I thank you.