Gordon Brown has said that science provides an opportunity for young people to be "more inspired by those who give to the world, than by those who take from it". Speaking in Oxford on Friday, the prime minister was also set to outline new targets to increase the number of pupils studying science and maths.

He said that within five years 90 per cent of all state schools will offer the 'triple science' option of physics, chemistry and biology. That would mean a rise from the 32 per cent of state schools which currently provide the option. The government aims to at least double the number of state school pupils taking the three science subjects.

And the prime minister is also setting a new target to increase the numbers of young people sitting A-level maths, from 56,000 at present to 80,000 by 2014. His keynote speech will also pledge to ensure that science funding does not become "a victim of the recession". And graduates with science, maths and IT degrees who lose their jobs are to be encouraged to retrain as teachers.

"The time has come to build a society that seeks high-value engineering not financial engineering," Brown was expected to say. "A country whose young people are more inspired by those who give to the world, than by those who take from it. "And a nation that values Britain's great history of scientific achievement and that backs Britain's capacity for scientific discovery. "We have a scientific record to be proud of. The question now is how we build on this strength to make Britain the best country in the world in which to be a scientist in the months and years to come."

(Press Release from e-politix)