SCIENCE is where the jobs action is going to be over the next 25 years as Kent and Medway are set to lead the UK in scientific job creation.

Pharmaceuticals is already a key component of the county’s economy, with Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, Abbott, employing thousands of people in Dartford, Sandwich and Queenborough.

Smaller firms too, especially in bioscience, are doing well too.

The sensational plan to create a scientific research cluster in Wye and Ashford, potentially creating more than 12,500 jobs, will have global implications for the county.

Partners who signed the so-called Wye Concordat are confident of attracting a massive £1bn into the project.

But the site’s international significance in the quest for biofuels, vaccines and other products from non-food crops should make it attractive to world bodies.

The United Nations has already responded positively to Kent’s determination to become a worldwide bioscience centre, asking for a detailed analysis of what the county can offer.

A favourable response could well bring milions of dollars into the Wye Park and Ashford scheme. Kent officials are working behind the scenes to bring this about and a decision is expected early next year.

Science is key to Britain’s future economic prosperity.

The Lisbon Agenda, signed by the UK, sought to raise research and development spending to at least 2.5 per cent of GDP.

Yet the UK lags behind international competitors. The Wye project would go a long way to achieving this target.

The UK creates more life science companies than U.S. Yet many fold, mainly because they are not funded for as long. We are far too short-termist in our attitude to business creation.

The other crunch question is this - can we attract enough young people into science to fill the highly skilled jobs that will be created?

Physics departments are slimming down in many British universities. Many young people prefer to go into the City or the media rather than work in a laboratory.

Yet science is going to offer many lucrative careers in the coming decades. Schools, colleges and businesses must do a lot more to enthuse a new generation that science is the cutting edge place to be.