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| Diary Highlights | 28/05/10 Met with Merck
28/05/10 Met with Hertfordshire University
27/05/10 Met with Kingston University
26/05/10 Met with Roger Williams MP
25/05/10 Hilary Leevers met with an adviser to the education, science and society section of the British Council
25/05/10 David Hawksett met with the Royal Astronomical Society
19/05/10 Attended a post-election summit hosted by the Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering
19/05/10 CaSE chaired a meeting between its collaborators and members focussing on post-election activities
18/05/10 Nick Hall attended the Science and the Welsh Assembly event at the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, organised by the Royal Society of Chemistry
18/05/10 Hilary Leevers talked to Education Policy Lunchbox about Influencing Science Policy and Working Collaboratively
14/05/10 David Hawksett met with the University of Leicester
14/05/10 Met with the Institute of Food Science Technology
13/05/10 Met with Cancer Research UK and the University of Nottingham
12/05/10 Nick Hall attended an AMRC post-election discussion
12/05/10 Hilary Leevers met with the science adviser to the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee
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Please forward this on to any colleagues or friends you think will be interested.
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Election and the new Coalition Government
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Having received written responses from David Cameron, Nick Clegg, & Gordon Brown, as well as manifesto pledges, CaSE made sure that voters on May 6th could make an informed choice about which party or candidate had the best policies for science and engineering. Following the publication of its Programme for Government by the newly elected Coalition, CaSE has called on the Government to explain how and when it will develop a long-term strategy for science and engineering.
CaSE welcomed the appointment of David Willetts as Minister of State for Universities and Science in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). We look forward to working with him, starting with making a positive and strong case for funding science and engineering before the emergency budget. Willetts gave the 2007 CaSE Distinguished Lecture on Science and Education.
CaSE also responded to the Queen's Speech, identifying three areas of concern for science and engineering: science education, immigration, and reform of the House of Lords.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet Office released the new Ministerial Code, including reference to the Principles of the Treatment of Independent Scientific of Advice, as well as details on the new Cabinet Committee System, which CaSE has also commented on.
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| New Parliament | CaSE has written to all MPs in the new parliament, inviting them to meet with CaSE and engage with science and engineering issues.
CaSE also wrote to the Leader of the House of Commons, Sir George Young, arguing for the reinstatement of the Science & Technology (S&T) Select Committee. CaSE has therefore welcomed the announcement that it will be re-formed. The position of chair will be contested by two Labour MPs, Graham Stringer and Andrew Miller. |
CaSE News
| | CaSE bade a fond farewell to its former Director Nick Dusic at the start of the month. Nick started at CaSE in December 2007 and has achieved a great deal since then. Fortunately, Nick will continue working with CaSE in the future as he has joined one of our member organisations, Pfizer, as Director of Science and Medical Public Affairs. He goes with our very best wishes. In his last blog posts after the election, Nick set out the challenges facing the new government, parliament and the science and engineering community.
CaSE was delighted to welcome its new Director on May 19th, Imran Khan.
Imran has a strong background in science and science policy. He studied Biological Sciences at Oxford and Science Communication at Imperial College, London. Most recently, he has been developing his knowledge and experience in science policy by working in the UK Parliament as senior researcher and head of Westminster office to Dr Evan Harris, former Liberal Democrat Science Spokesman.
A recent Nature editorial recognised CaSE's well-placed positioning as a non-partisan science policy organisation to make a broad appeal to the new parliament. With a new Director in place, CaSE looks forward to enabling this work.
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What We're Doing
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- Meeting new and re-elected MPs, inviting them to engage with science and engineering issues.
- CaSE has compiled a list of MPs with a background or interest in science, technology, engineering or maths (STEM).
- Producing a briefing on funding prior to the emergency budget
- Continuing to work collaboratively with members and other partners
- Analysing policy issues on The Science Vote blog
- See the CaSE Diary for more details
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Funding
| | CaSE has responded to the government's announcement of £6.24bn worth of cuts to public spending, which includes £836m cuts to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), and £670m to the Department for Education. CaSE registered its disappointment with these cuts and has called for reassurance from the government that investment in science and engineering will be maintained.
CaSE is producing a briefing on funding prior to the emergency budget and will be responding to it on the day, as well as preparing for the spending review in the autumn.
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What You Can Do
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- Write to your local MP encouraging them to take an interest in science and engineering. You can find out who they are here. If you work in science, engineering or any related areas, it would be great to invite your local MP to visit your workplace - let us know if you would like support or help with contacting them.
- You can also follow us on twitter to keep up to date with all the issues. Join the debate using #scivote if you are registered with Twitter, or just follow the discussion if you are not.
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Upcoming Events
| | - Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology (POST) Science Induction for new MPs
5pm, Tues 15th June
For further details please contact POST
- Parliamentary Links Day
Tues 22nd June
Organised by the Royal Society of Chemistry with CaSE as a co-sponsor
- Coalition Government Emergency Budget
Tues 22nd June
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