February 2013 e-bulletin
In This E-Bulletin
Vacancy: Director
Immmigration Letter
Government Funding
Labour Re-Shuffle
New Trustees
British Sign Language

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Diary

 

30/01/13 CaSE met with the Royal Society

 

29/01/13 CaSE held a meeting with the Institute of Physics, Royal Society, Institution of Engineering and Technology and Society of Biology

 

 

24/01/13 CaSE attended a meeting of the Parliamentary Affairs Committee

22/01/13 CaSE met with staff from the Science and Technology Select Committee

21/01/13  Imran Khan attended a Geek Manifesto event at UCL

16/01/13 CaSE held a meeting of its Board of Trustees

15/01/13 Imran Khan attended a Sciencewise event at the House of Lords

14/01/13 Beck Smith met with the Wellcome Trust education team

11/01/13 Imran Khan and Beck Smith met with Nesta

10/01/13 Beck Smith attended a TUC presentation 'After Austerity'

09/01/13 Imran Khan gave a presentation on immigration at a Heads of Engineering conference

04/01/13 CaSE met with the Institute for Fiscal Studies
Please forward this on to any colleagues or friends you think would be interested in supporting science and engineering.

  

Vacancy: CaSE Director (£47,000 - £52,000)
CaSE is looking for a strategic, articulate, and highly motivated individual who is passionate about science and engineering to lead the organisation. The ideal applicant will have the following skills and experience:
  • A background in STEM, science policy, and management.
  • Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
  • The ability to work with government, media, academia, and industry.
  • Sound financial management.
To Apply: See here for further details or email recruitment@sciencecampaign.org.uk for an informal discussion.

 

Closing date: 28th February 2013.  

CaSE responds to new immigration proposals 
CaSE has written to the Immigration Minister raising concerns over the proposed 'sunset clause' - the automatic removal of any occupation from the Shortage Occupation List (SOL).

The letter is supported by a further twenty-two senior individuals and institutions from across the science and engineering community and CaSE's membership, and has been forwarded to the Science Minister and the Home Secretary.
Science Minister allocates Autumn Statement funding to 'eight great technologies'
In a recent speech the Universities and Science Minister assigned just over £460m of the £600m allocated to science in the Autumn Statement to the 'eight great technologies' the Chancellor outlined in his speech at the Royal Society last year. These sectors include computing, robotics and space technology.

CaSE has welcomed all the recent additional spends on science - they go a long way to compensating for the £1.7bn shortfall the sector faced following the 2010 Spending Review - but has called on the government to set-out a long-term strategic vision for science.
Labour science re-shuffle 
Changes to the Labour front bench have seen the former Shadow Science Minister Chi Onwurah MP move to the Cabinet Office team. Shabana Mahmood MP has become the new Shadow Universities and Science Minister, with Iain Wright MP also handling part of the science portfolio as the Shadow Competitiveness and Enterprise Minister. CaSE will be meeting with Shabana shortly.

Chi announced her 'five-point plan for science' at October's party conference with further details to be announced at a later date.  Tim Page, Senior Policy Officer for the TUC, recently wrote on the CaSE blog about the challenges facing Labour as it develops its science policy. We look forward to working with both Ministers in helping Labour set out its policies on science.
New trustees 
We welcome six new members of our Board of Trustees. Along with the new director, they will be responsible for overseeing CaSE's work and setting our strategy over the coming years. Our newly-appointed trustees are:
  • Yvonne Baker - CEO of MyScience and Director of the National Science Learning Centres.
  • Dr Maria Ana Cataluna - Leader of the Ultrafast Photonics Group at the University of Dundee.
  • Prof Stephen Curry - Professor of Structural Biology, Imperial College.
  • Richard Davis - Head of Research and Development, Group Risk, at Lloyds Banking Group.
  • James Lawford Davies - Partner, Lawford Davies Denon.
  • Dr Emily Shuckburgh - Head of Open Oceans, British Antarctic Survey.
Developing physics and engineering terms for British Sign Language

The Scottish Sensory Centre (SSC), in partnership with the STEM Disability Committee, has published a final report on its project

to create new British Sign Language (BSL) signs to support Key Stage 3 & 4 students in Physics and Engineering.

 

The signs supplement the existing Maths, Physics, Biology and Chemistry signs already produced under the SSC BSL project.   
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