MeST Seminar with Paul Martin, Sheffield University

Making the bioeconomy possible: promissory infrastructures, the entrepreneurial state, and the scale-up of Whole Genome Sequencing in the UK

The UK recently announced plans to Whole Genome Sequence (WGS) up to 5 million citizens in the next few years, with a focus on rare diseases and cancer. This follows the completion of the 100,000 Genomes Project and signals an ambition to place the UK at the forefront of the global bioeconomy. This scale-up involves the creation of a massive infrastructure within the UK National Health Service (NHS) to enable large scale WGS and the integration of many different types of biological, health and personal data. Operationally, this process is being driven by Genomics England, a company owned by the Department of Health, which has a business mission and structure. It is part of a series of other changes in the governance of innovation, the adoption of new technologies, and the transformation of health services aimed at making the NHS an engine of economic growth and competitiveness. This vision is a key element of the UK’s post-Brexit Industrial Strategy. However, the evidence to support the claimed benefits of such massive investment in genomics remains unproven and contentious. This paper will chart the recent history of this project and analyse the key role of a powerful imaginary that repositions the NHS as an underexploited resource for the creation of new forms of promissory value. This is closely linked to specific expectations for how this value can be extracted via the creation of novel sociotechnical infrastructures and platforms, and the assetisation of public service data. The paper will conclude by reflecting on the role of the entrepreneurial state in the making of new bioeconomies and the political economy of ‘genomic hope’.