Beis was ‘a bit of a bastard’, says Paul Nurse

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy was “collection of all different parts” without “coherence”

Paul Nurse, the Nobel laureate who has just reviewed the UK’s R&D landscape, has welcomed the recent government reorganisation that broke up the business department, which he said was “a bit of a bastard”.

Nurse, who is director of the Francis Crick Institute in London, was speaking at a media briefing about his review, just weeks after the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Beis) was broken into three new departments, including one dedicated to science: the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (Dsit).