In 2023 the UK Government formed the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), with a mission to make the UK a science superpower. Engineering Biology is one of the critical technologies proposed to make this aim a reality, and engineering biologists are placed to potentially supercharge innovation and growth across the science and tech sectors.
As part of this mission the National Vision for Engineering Biology was created – “for the UK to have a broad, rich, engineering biology ecosystem”.
In the National Vision for Engineering biology, the DSIT committed to developing robust insights into public attitudes towards engineering biology, and thus commissioned Deltapoll to conduct a survey on public perceptions of engineering biology. The survey involved 3,000 UK adults and aimed to inform government decision-making on engineering biology. The survey explored public trust in engineering biology, focusing on its applications in various sectors health, agriculture, energy, materials, and waste management).
The findings from the survey were released in November 2024 and reveal that while the public largely supports engineering biology’s potential benefits, awareness is low – something we here at EBIC recognise as an important factor when presenting and sharing our work. A strong emphasis was placed on safety verification and transparent communication regarding its use, again something EBIC recognises.
Here at EBIC we were pleased to note that there is a widely-held belief that engineering biology will have a positive impact on science over the next ten years.
“When respondents were asked to give a score out of ten in terms of the impact engineering biology would have on science in the next ten years, taking everything into account, they gave a mean score of 7.1 – where 0 is a very negative impact and 10 is a very positive impact. Nearly three quarters of respondents (73%) gave a score of 6 or above”.
Interestingly, although most respondents had not heard of engineering biology, once explained, the vast majority do believe that the applications would be useful and believe that they will generally be a positive thing for society.
Click here to read the full report.
