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February E-Bulletin 2011
In This E-Bulletin
Scientific Advice in Government
Annual Lecture and AGM
Funding Cuts
Devolved Elections
Education
25th Anniversary
Diversity
New Members
Upcoming Work
CaSE Blog
Consultations & Inquiries
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Diary Highlights


31/01/11 Imran Khan with Stephen Metcalfe MP

 

28/01/11 Dave Hawksett met with Loughborough  University


27/01/11 Dave Hawksett met with Plymouth University

 

27/01/11 Imran Khan and Hilary Leevers met with staff from office of the Minister for Universities and Science, David Willett

 

26/01/11 Imran Khan gave a seminar for the Imperial College Science Media course on Science in Parliament and Government

 

25/01/11 Hilary Leevers attended a Reception of the Association of Medical Research Charities

 

24/01/11 CaSE with Shadow BIS Minister Chi Onwurah MP

 

24/01/11 Imran Khan met with Mark Henderson, Science Editor of The Times and Chris Tyler, Director of the Centre for Science and Policy to discuss Mark's upcoming book The Geek Manifesto

 

20/01/11 Imran Khan attended a workshop on the Code of Practice for Scientific Advisory Committees (COPSAC) at BIS

 

20/01/11 Dave Hawksett met with BASF

 

20/01/11 Imran Khan attended a Royal Academy of Engineering debate on innovation

 

20/01/11 CaSE attended the launch of the Campaign for Social Sciences at the House of Commons

 

19/01/11 Imran Khan attended a discussion dinner on science funding at the House of Commons

 

19/01/11 Imran Khan attended a meeting at the Wellcome Trust

 

17/01/11 Imran Khan attended an Industry Forum event on 'Will UK R&D be left behind?' with Andrew Miller MP, Chair of the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee

 

14/01/11 Imran Khan and Dave Hawksett met with Warwick University

 

14/01/11 Imran Khan and Dave Hawksett met with the UK Resource Centre for Women in SET

 

14/01/11 Imran Khan and Dave Hawksett met with Oxford Instruments

 

13/01/11 CaSE held its 25th anniversary reception event, hosted by the Institution of Engineering and Technology

 

12/01/11 Imran Khan met with staff from the House of Lords Science & Technology Select Committee

 

12/01/11 CaSE met with Louise Ellman MP

 

11/01/11 Imran Khan attended the Centre for Science and Policy reception in Cambridge

 

11/01/11 CaSE met with Stephen Mosley MP

 

11/01/11 Imran Khan met with staff from the office of Shadow BIS Minister Chi Onwurah MP

 

10/01/11 CaSE took part in a roundtable discussion on the proposed Exceptional Talent Route for Tier 1 immigration, hosted by the Royal Society

 

06/01/11 Hilary Leevers met staff from the Science Media Centre

 


 

Please forward this on to any colleagues or friends you think will be interested in protecting science and engineering


 

Scientific Advice in Government
 

For the first time since the 2009 sacking David Nutt the government is updating its official Code of Practice for Scientific Advisory Committees (CoPSAC). The consultation process is just ending, and we're expecting the new document to be finalised over the coming weeks and months.

 

Over the past month CaSE has met and been closely engaged with the Government Office for Science within the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) as they update CoPSAC. In an article for the New Scientist S-Word blog CaSE Director Imran Khan sets out CaSE's main asks, including greater transparency regarding the media, ensuring independence of scientific advice and limits set on ministerial pressure or interference. 


CaSE Distinguished Lecture 2011
 
"Science and Growth"
John Denham MP, Shadow Secretary of State for
Business, Innovation and Skills
Wednesday 9th March, 7pm
The Royal Institution

You are invited to join us for the CaSE Distinguished Lecture 2011, kindly hosted by the Royal Institution. Please register for the lecture here.

 

The lecture will followed by a drinks reception. Due to limited space, entry to the reception will be offered on a first come, first served basis.
 

The lecture will be preceded by the CaSE AGM. All individual members and representatives from our member organisations are welcome. 
Funding Cuts
 

Following October's Spending Review and December's Science Budget Allocations, CaSE Director Imran Khan has written an article setting out what impact the funding cuts will have on the science and engineering landscape across a range of issues, including the research base, capital spending, MSc courses, diversity, and spending by other departments.

 

The effects of funding allocations for universities are analysed in detail by Becky Purvis of the Association of Medical Research Charities in a post on the CaSE blog.

Devolved Elections 2011
 

CaSE is currently preparing its work for the 2011 devolved elections. Our goals for these elections are to engage with the party hierarchy on science and engineering prior to the election and ultimately, to make science and engineering election issues. As part of our approach we will be:
 

  • Producing devolved policy working papers, to provide the rationale for our campaign work in the regions
  • Writing to the leaders of the parties and circulating their responses
  • Contacting Prospective Parliamentary Candidates asking them to engage with science and engineering issues
  • Encouraging people to contact their local candidates and the raise the profile of science and engineering. The Royal Society of Chemistry will be holding a series of election debates in Wales and Scotland which will be webcast live for people to watch.
  • Working with other organisations in the regions and seeking to provide an information hub for the science and engineering policy community during the elections

For further details on this and all of CaSE's devolved election work, please visit the CaSE Blog. The devolved section is currently under construction and will be going live very soon. In the meantime you can follow us on Twitter or subscribe to our blog alerts. 

 

If you would like any further information or wish to get involved you can also contact us directly. 

 

Education
 
Student Visas
The Home Office's plans to restrict student visas present some potentially damaging implications for UK science and engineering. CaSE has responded to the government's consultation on the issue, and has summarised its concerns and suggestions on the CaSE Blog.

Golden Hellos
The Department for Education has announced that they are scrapping the 'golden hello' scheme, which saw science and maths teachers receive a one-off payment of £5,000 when they began teaching.  


Golden hellos are intended to help address the continuing and severe shortage of science and maths teachers. CaSE Director Imran Khan said on the issue: "Michael Gove has said that he wants 'the very best people to continue to come into teaching' - but waving goodbye to golden hellos could make that harder." 

 

Education Bill
CaSE will be monitoring the Bill's passage to try to ensure that the teaching of science, technology and mathematics is protected in all schools and will be lobbying the Department for Education directly. We will be writing to the Department shortly - see our blog for updates.

CaSE 25th Anniversary
 
13th January 2011 marked the 25th anniversary of the launch of Save British Science, now the Campaign for Science & Engineering, via an advert in The Times.

In celebration, CaSE held an evening reception '25 years Past and Future', hosted by the Institution of Engineering and Technology. Speakers at the event included the Science Minister David Willetts MP, Lord May and the co-founders of Save British Science, Dr John Mulvey and Professor Denis Noble. CaSE Director Imran Khan gave the opening address.

For a fuller summary of the event, you can watch the CaSE 25th Anniversary presentation, view photos or read a review of the evening on the CaSE Blog.

Diversity
 

CaSE is campaigning for well-defined and funded strategies to improve diversity.

 

We've been particularly concerned at the funding cut to the UK Resource Centre for Women, and CaSE Director Imran Khan has asked BIS to show how this fits in with the need to improve the representation of women in science and engineering, as well as raising the issue with parliamentarians.

CaSE Assistant Director Hilary Leevers has led on encouraging the scientific learned societies to take a unified approach on providing a central resource for disabled scientists and engineers, as there currently is not one. We're hopeful that the resulting site will be launched shortly.

New CaSE Members
 
CaSE is pleased to welcome the following new members:
For further details on becoming an organisational member of CaSE please contact our Member Liaison.

Other issues that CaSE is working on

  • Quango Reform. CaSE is monitoring the government's reform of Non-Departmental Public Bodies, particularly changes to key scientific bodies, and how this ties in to the Code of Prcatice for Scientific Advisory Committees (see first item).
  • Non-EU Migrant Cap. CaSE is continuing to review the proposed changes to Tier 1 migration and will also be working to ensure that Tier 4 (students) visa reforms reflect the needs of the STEM community too.    
  • Science Question Time is an exciting new joint venture between ourselves, the Biochemical Society and staff at Imperial College London. At the inaugural event on 16th February, we're inviting speakers, which include Sir Mark Walport, and the audience to discuss the broad challenges facing the science sector in this spending review period. Spaces are free, but limited - register via the link above.
  • PolicyNet. CaSE Director Imran Khan will be interviewing the Chair of the Science & Technology Select Committee Andrew Miller MP on 14th February at a PolicyNet event at the Royal Academy of Engineering.
     
If you wish to feed into any of the above policy areas please get in touch.
CaSE Blog
 

The CaSE blog provides ideas and analysis on science and engineering policy developments in the UK. Recent posts include:
Upcoming Consultations
For more information on our activities go to our website www.sciencecampaign.org.uk
 
To contact us please telephone 0207 679 4994 or email nickh@sciencecampaign.org.uk