Dawn O’Porter

and monitor all sorts of aspects of the Earth's health.

And there we have been able to join.

So, you know, there were some examples of things which, you know, we now are no longer part of.

When it looked like there might be a no-deal Brexit, the UK government was trying to develop its own version of those big European framework programmes so that we could build our own capability alongside.

So a huge amount of work was done, actually, to look at all those possibilities.

Personally, I think a really strong example of that was the development of the Covid vaccine in the UK, where I think

you know, our regulatory bodies showed themselves in their best light in terms of being quite fleet of foot, but maintaining the highest standards of safety and oversight.

The flip side of the coin, though, is that for many organisations I spoke to, they really valued a kind of consistent approach across a large market.

So if you're a company wanting to sell pharmaceutical into the whole of Europe, then you would value there being...

the same regulatory processes in the UK and the rest of Europe, or at least a very close alignment.

I am optimistic.

We still have very high levels of collaboration internationally and really strong business and academic links.

Some of the nature of that has changed and, you know, we can monitor some of the changes.

You know, there is a slightly smaller share of our international research with the European Union now than there was before Brexit.

But other countries are really rapidly accelerating their research power and we are collaborating more widely, more globally.

And combined with that, we have had a succession of governments who have really championed the UK's science and research capability as part of the tools in the box for our future.

And I think that can only be a good thing.

It was intentional, but up until about four minutes before the cover went to print, the book was called What I Bring to the Table.

And then we were just discussing on email.

I said, I'm going to post the cover on Instagram and I'm going to use the song Hungry Eyes, which would also have been a great name for this book.