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Annual Lecture

Each year CaSE's Annual Lecture brings together our members and the sector to hear from influential figures about the big issues affecting UK R&D.

Find below summaries of our lectures back to 1987, and links to recordings of some of the more recent events.

CaSE's 2024 Annual Lecture was given by Ilan Gur, CEO of the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) on December 12th.

Read a summary, watch the full recording, and browse some photos of the lecture.

2009 – Prof John Beddington, Government Chief Scientific Advisor

Science in Government: Challenges for the 21st Century

2007 – David Willetts MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Innovation, University and Skills

Science and Education

2006 – Lord May of Oxford, former President of the Royal Society and former Government Chief Scientific Adviser

How to stimulate creativity and how to stifle it

2005 – Professor Sir David King FRS, the UK Government's Chief Scientific Adviser

An insider’s view of science in Government

2004 – Rt Hon Chris Patten, Former Governor of Hong Kong, and Chancellor of Oxford and Newcastle Universities

Research – The European Challenge

2003 – Professor Howard Dalton FRS, Chief Scientific Adviser to the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
2002 – Sir Gareth Roberts FRS, President of Wolfson College, Oxford, and of the Science Council
2001 – Professor Sir Harold Kroto FRS, Nobel Laureate, member of the SBS Advisory Council

The Internet and Science, Technology and Engineering Education

2000 – Dr Mike Dexter, Director of the Wellcome Trust

Where would UK science be without the charities?

1999 – Dr Andrew Mackenzie, Group Vice President of Technology at BP Amoco

Science, energy and progress

1998 – Rt Hon John Redwood MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry

British Science and Industry: What should the Government do?

1997 – Rt Hon Margaret Beckett MP, President of the Board of Trade
1996 – Ian Taylor MBE MP, Minister for Science

British Science: a bright outlook for the future

1995 – Sir Derek Roberts CBE FRS FEng, Provost of UCL

Science: the roles of foresight and hindsight

1994 – Rt Hon Paddy Ashdown MP, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Party
1993 – Rt Hon John Smith QC MP, Leader of the Opposition
1992 – Prof J.M.Howie FRSE

A British Baccalaureate: some thoughts from Scotland

1991 – Dr Robert Malpas CBE FREng
1990 – Debate between Alan Howarth MP and Jeremy Bray MP, chaired by John Maddox
1988 – Lord Adrian FRS, Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge, and Member of the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology
1987 – Sir James Lighthill, Provost of UCL