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31/10/11 Imran Khan attended the British Academy discussion on science advice 27/10/11 Imran Khan met staff from the British Library 26/10/11 Imran Khan gave the keynote speech at the SciTech Innovation UK conference
26/10/11 CaSE staff attended the Science Question Time on the Future of Drugs
25/10/11 Imran Khan met with Cancer Research UK
24/10/11 Imran Khan attended a Policy Exchange event on innovation and the Technology Strategy Board
24/10/11 Imran Khan and Beck Smith met with Dr James Wilsdon, outgoing Director of the Science Policy Centre at the Royal Society
21/10/11 Imran Khan gave a speech at the North-East Postgraduate Research Conference in Newcastle
20/10/11 Beck Smith met with representatives from SCORE
19/10/11 Imran Khan and Beck Smith attended the Science Council Lecture, given by the Science Minister David Willetts
18/10/11 Beck Smith attended the NESTA Industrial Biotechnology UK launch
18/10/11 Imran Khan gave a science policy workshop to researchers at the Institute of Cancer Research
18/10/11 Imran Khan attended the Royal Society Pfizer awards ceremony
13/10/11 Imran Khan and Beck Smith met Shadow Science and Research Minister Chi Onwurah MP
13/10/11 Imran Khan and Beck Smith met with staff from the House of Lords Science & Technology Committee
12/10/11 Imran Khan attended the Wellcome Trust science writing prize
11/10/11 Imran Khan met with the chair of the House of Lords Science & Technology Committee, Lord Krebs
07/10/11 Imran Khan attended a research strategy meeting at Charles Darwin House
06/10/11 Imran Khan attended the Awards Dinner of the Institute of Physics
05/10/11 Imran Khan met with CaSE Advisory Council member Athene Donald
05/10/11 Imran Khan attended a Policy Lunchbox
04/10/11 Beck Smith started as CaSE Assistant Director
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Please forward this on to any colleagues or friends you think would be interested in supporting science and engineering.
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Huge Inconsistencies in Science Advice in Government
| | The scientific advice network across Whitehall suffers from wildly inconsistent support mechanisms, according to our research.
Responding to the House of Lords S&T Committee inquiry into the work of departmental Chief Scientific Advisors (CSAs), CaSE has compiled a scorecard to rate the suitability of each CSA position on a number of key criteria, including relevant expertise, independence, regular meetings with ministers, and sufficient oversight powers.
The analysis found big differences between departments, with some CSAs well-supported and others potentially marginalised. Alarmingly, there are currently four departments without Chief Scientific Advisors in place and CaSE has urged those departments to appoint a suitable candidate as soon as possible.
The findings received widespread media coverage, including in the Financial Times, New Statesman, and the Times Higher Education leader on the need for evidence-based policy in government. |
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Public Funding of Science and Engineering
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Science funding was raised in Parliament last week, during questions to the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). CaSE was mentioned by both sides during the exchange.
Labour Shadow BIS Minister Chi Onwurah stated that CaSE's recent report (Public Funding of UK Science and Engineering), showed that science funding could see a total cut of 12% in cash terms over the course of the spending review. Conservative Minister for Universities and Science David Willetts responded by saying that CaSE had welcomed the Chancellor's announcement of an extra £195 million investment for science and engineering.
We have indeed welcomed recent announcements, however we've also asked government to take seriously the fact that the research base will be £1.7bn worse off by 2014-15 as a result of funding decisions that have been made. We have to see this being rectified.
CaSE Director Imran Khan was also recently interviewed on BBC2's Daily Politics on the need for the UK to develop a high-tech economy.
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Government Publishes Science Indicators
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The Department of Business, Innovation and Skills have published their latest 2011 SET (Science, Engineering and Technology) statistics and CaSE has pulled out some key facts:
- From 2005 to 2009 the UK was ranked 6th among the G7 countries for Gross Domestic Expenditure on R&D (GERD) spending as a percentage of GDP (spending 1.85% compared to 3.34% by Japan in first place).
- 44% of the UK's GERD was financed from private industry - less than Canada, France, Japan and the US. If the UK is to improve its overall GERD ranking in comparison to other G7 countries then it will be important to see the percentage of GERD financed by Industry increase.
- The UK performed better on Higher Education Expenditure on R&D (HERD) as a percentage of GDP, maintaining 2nd place since 2005, with 0.52% in 2009.
For our full commentary on the latest SET statistics see here.
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Science Question Time - The Future of Drugs
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You can now listen to a recording of the fifth Science Question Time, which focused on The Future of Drugs. The panel featured:
- Professor David Fox (Royal Society of Chemistry)
- James Peach (Cancer Research UK)
- Becky Purvis (Association of Medical Research Charities)
- Dr Ilina Singh (London School of Economics and Political Science)
The event was chaired by Professor Clive Page (King's College London). Click here to listen to the podcast.
The next Science Question Time will be a science pub quiz and will take place in December. For more information, please check the CaSE website , get in touch, or follow us on Twitter.
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CaSE welcomes its 100th Member
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We are pleased to welcome Google as our 100th organisational member. CaSE is delighted to be able to count on the input and support of organisations from Cancer Research UK and the National Farmers Union, to Rolls Royce and now Google.
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Latest CaSE News
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The latest issue of CaSE News has now been published. As well as a round-up of CaSE's ongoing work, CaSE News 68 includes articles on higher education, the government's teacher training proposals and a special feature on the public funding of science and engineering.
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| Other issues that CaSE is working on |
- House of Lords Reform
CaSE is planning a meeting on the implications of House of Lords reform to the representation of science and engineering in the upper chamber. The Royal Society has kindly agreed to host the event. Please get in touch if you are interested in this work. - Immigration Cap
As part of our ongoing work surrounding the government's proposed cap on non-EU migrants, CaSE is focussing on the issue of settlement rights - a crucial consideration for international researchers when choosing where to locate their careers and families. - Scientists and engineers into policy-making
CaSE consistently encourages scientists and engineers to get directly involved in campaigning for the interests of our sector. We will be publishing a 'how to' guide shortly. For further details please see the 'Get Involved' section of our website.
If you wish to feed into any of the above policy areas please
get in touch.
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Upcoming Consultations
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Scottish Government Consultation Deadline: 23rd December
For details about futher events see our policy events calendar |
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