Sir Patrick Vallance has been put in charge of a government innovation body to apply lessons from the UK’s vaccine rollout to curing cancer and solving the climate crisis.
Boris Johnson announced that Vallance, the chief scientific adviser, will run the Office for Science and Technology Strategy in addition to his existing role.
Vallance, 61, a former president of research and development at GlaxoSmithKline, the pharmaceutical company, will also become the national technology adviser.
In those roles he will support a National Science and Technology Council, a ministerial group that will be chaired by the prime minister.
The council will “provide strategic direction on the use of science and technology as the tools to tackle great societal challenges, level up across the country and