George Freeman keynote speaker

Veteran UK Science & Technology Minister, elected to Parliament in 2010 after a 16yr career in biotechnology venture capital building high growth ventures in the Cambridge cluster, he has served as UK Minister over the last 15yrs in frontline science & technology roles shaping the UKs biggest ever increase in R+D funding, national programs & international collaborations in Life Science, Ai, Space, Quantum, Fusion & Biotechnology.

Re-elected for a 5th time in 2024, he was appointed by the Prime Minister as UK Trade Envoy to Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei & the Philippines, and elected Deputy Chair of the Science & Technology Select Committee, and chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group for Agritech and the APPG for the Polar Regions.

A leading advocate of the UK as a Science Superpower in the global race for Science & Technology sovereignty, he oversaw the UK’s biggest ever increase in R+D spending in 2021 to £20bn p/a, the creation of ARIA, the National Science & Technology Council, and launched the International Science Partnership Fund ISPF in Tokyo.

He represented the UK at successive G7 and G20 science & technology summits, where he led calls for greater action on research security & industrial espionage, negotiations strengthening strategic science and technology partnerships with Canada, Japan, Israel, and Switzerland, alongside successfully securing the UK’s re-association to Horizon Europe.

Global Ambassador to the Earth Space Sustainability Initiative Astra Carta space debris project he launched with HM The King, he advised a number of international projects, Funds & ventures in frontier science & technology. A leading advocate of UK leadership in innovative agile & digital regulation, launching the UK’s first regulatory sandboxes, he also chaired the Prime Minister’s Taskforce on Innovation, Growth and Regulatory Reform, advancing regulatory “sandbox” models across sectors including autonomous systems, drones, novel foods, and bioengineered materials.

Author of over 50 published articles on science and technology policy and Britain Beyond Brexit, George is a sought after speaker at international conferences on the geopolitics of the Global Race for technology sovereignty, the growth of S+T clusters in the Gulf and SE Asia, industrial strategy, research security, and the geopolitics of Ai, Quantum & Space.