The Science Vote

Science and the General Election

By Hilary Leevers | Published: 11/03/2010

It’s been a great week for pushing science and engineering up the political agenda. The Science Vote has come together demonstrating not just its presence, but also its political weight.

There were three highly relevant publications, CaSE’s one page election statement Building our Future with Science and Engineering, the Royal Society’s report The Scientific Century, and Sir James Dyson report, Ingenious Britain. These follow A Vision for UK Research, published by the Council for Science and Technology last week. There is a high level of consistency among them, particularly around the need for long-term funding plans, improved science and mathematics education, and for developing support for industry investment and close collaboration across sectors.

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Civilians in Defence

By Guest Blogger | Published: 11/03/2010

Jonathan Green is Pay and Public Research Officer for Prospect

An enduring image of General Election campaigns in the 1980s was the attitude of the main political parties to defence. It is ironic that we approach the current General Election campaign with the likelihood that whatever government is elected a significant realignment of Britain’s defence posture is underway by default that is every bit as significant as the choices faced by voters in the 1980s. Not only is there a serious discussion about the merits of retaining nuclear deterrence capability but also there is likely to be cuts in defence spending that will downgrade Britain’s future defence capability, particularly in research and development. The strategic defence review, that the current government has launched is considering Britain’s foreign policy objectives and potential future threats. But the real decisions on defence spending will be made after the election when the scale of cuts for each government department emerges.

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By Hilary Leevers | Published: 08/03/2010

In honour of the upcoming general election, we have renamed our blog, formerly known as CaSE Notes, The Science Vote to emphasise the very real existence of a force among voters who care about science and engineering policies.

Today is a big day for the science vote.

CaSE has published its short election document, Building our Future with Science & Engineering, developed with our members and collaborators. This summarises the key issues emerging from the CaSE working papers. It urges the parties to develop clear and long-term policies that will enable science and engineering to address societal challenges and build a more robust economy.
The Science Vote is publishing its first posts from prospective parliamentary candidates from each of the main parties. We are working our way through a list of candidates with a background in science, technology, engineering or mathematics, inviting them to write for us.
The Royal Society launches its report The Scientific Century, asking whoever forms the next government to develop a long term strategy for science, consistent with the central messages of last week’s report, a Vision for UK Research, by the Council for Science and Technology.
This evening the science spokesmen, Lord Drayson for Labour, Adam Afriyie MP for the Conservatives and Dr Evan Harris MP for the Liberal Democrats will court the science vote at a debate organised by the Royal Society of Chemistry at the House of Commons. You can watch a live webcast and twitter (#scidebate) is already abuzz in anticipation.

The more that politicians appreciate how important science and engineering are to a sizeable chunk of the electorate, the more time and thought they will spend teasing out the relevant policies. We want to know where the parties have consensus and where they differ. And we want the parties vying to offer science and engineering the greatest political priority.

The party leaders have been sent a letter from CaSE this week asking them to set-out their policies before the election and you will be able to read their responses on the Science Vote.

There are more than 3 million people in the workforce with a background in science and engineering. This does not count those who aspire to, or have retired from, these sectors. Nor does it include those who believe that advances in science and engineering are vital to securing our future. This tallies enough people to make a massive political difference.

Find out what you can do, and ask your candidates about science and engineering issues in the run-up to the election.

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Jobs for the Future

By Guest Blogger | Published: 08/03/2010

Rachel Reeves is the Labour Party’s prospective parliamentary candidate for Leeds West.

The recession has hit British families, businesses and jobs hard. Responding to the recession and building the jobs of the future is the key challenge of the next government. One thing the recession has revealed is that we need a broader-based economy and to achieve this we need to be supporting the growth of new industries and jobs.

In the next few years government must make decisions on what support to give to industry, skills, research, training and jobs. It is not a foregone conclusion that we return to strong economic growth, without the right decisions we will lose opportunities and jobs for a generation. The real risk is that a Conservative government, with their small government mantra, would condemn British families and businesses to economic stagnation at this crucial turning-point in the economy. Read More »

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The Government has let down science

By Guest Blogger | Published: 08/03/2010

Chris Philp is the Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Hampstead & Kilburn. He graduated with a 1^st Class Degree in Physics from Oxford

The UK’s manufacturing base is declining in the face of cheaper foreign competition. The City of London faces pressure due to the credit crunch and the clutches of the voracious taxman. These challenges need addressing; but we also need a new generation of outstanding science, engineering and maths graduates who can help build the knowledge economy which will drive future growth.

Sadly, the current Government’s record in this area is abysmal. On their watch, the number of students studying hard science subjects has declined (I use the word “hard” unashamedly – if we are going to compete in the world market, sports science will only get us so far). At GCSE level, only 10% of students study Physics, Maths and Biology as separate subjects, and a staggering 68% of state schools did not enter any pupils at all for triple science.

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The Need for Hard Science Skills in Politics

By Guest Blogger | Published: 08/03/2010

John Hemming is a Liberal Democrat MP standing for re-election in Birmingham Yardley. He has a degree in physics and background in IT.

I recently addressed a gathering of Physics graduates from my old Oxford college, Magdalen. I pointed out that in fact there were more graduates of Magdalen in the House of Commons (10) than there were physicists (3).

I think the absence of hard science graduates is a problem for politics. A lot of politics relates to things which are measured by numbers. For example the National Grid currently estimate the peak demand for gas at 502 million cubic metres of gas per day, but estimated the peak availability over the weekend at 428 mcm/d. To me that is a problem. To politics it is “business as usual”. Until the lights go out government ministers don’t worry. I worry that we were recently exporting gas from Medium Range Storage when we are actually quite short of stored gas.

Posted in Education, Liberal Democrat PPC, Liberal Democrats, PPC, physics | 2 Comments

Letter to the Leaders

By Nick Dusic | Published: 08/03/2010

CaSE published its Letter to the Leaders today, which asks them to set out their science and engineering policies covering education & skills; research funding; innovation and science and engineering in government. CaSE has sent similar letters to the main political parties in advance of previous UK, devolved and European elections. We will publish the responses from the parties in advance of the General Election. The Letter was also published in The Times.

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Mathematical Needs

By Guest Blogger | Published: 05/03/2010

Nick Bowes is Head of Secretariat of the Advisory Committee on Mathematics Education (ACME).

On Tuesday 2 March, the Royal Society hosted ACME’s 2010 Annual Conference, attended by 150 teachers, practitioners, policy makers and key stakeholders. The theme of this year’s event was ‘Mathematical Needs – Implications for 5-19 Mathematical Education’ which ties in with a large project which the committee has just begun to look at. We were very lucky to have been joined by a number of high profile speakers and panel members.

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A Career in Science: The Challenges

By Guest Blogger | Published: 04/03/2010

Diana Garnham is Chief Executive of the Science Council and chair of the Science for Careers Expert Group, who recently published their report examining how we can get more young people interested in a career in science. Here she discusses some of the report’s findings.

Whoever forms the next government will have a big job on their hands in rapidly increasing the number of science skilled people in the workforce. It’s estimated that we will need somewhere from 324,000 more science skilled people by 2014 and then upwards to 500,000 or more to 2020. Those numbers are pretty daunting when you consider how much effort we’ve been putting in just keep the numbers close to a steady state. Read More »

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Statistics in Parliament

By Guest Blogger | Published: 03/03/2010

Andrew Garratt is Manager for External Affairs and the Statistics User Community at the Royal Statistical Society.

On 22 February, representatives from the three main political parties set out their policies on official statistics at a public event hosted by the Royal Statistical Society.

In his opening remarks the Society President and chair of the event, David Hand, said that the regrettable lack of trust in official statistics did not reflect the quality of the figures being produced, but instead represented a combination of a number of things, including a lack of understanding of the complexities of official statistics; mistrust arising from the misuse of statistics, either deliberate or accidental; and a perceived difference between the ground truth as the public see things, and the overall published statistical summaries. Read More »

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A little special pleading goes a long way

By Guest Blogger | Published: 01/03/2010

Simon Denegri is Chief Executive of the Association of Medical Research Charities.

It was good to see the recent Nature editorial endorse CaSE’s approach to the General Election campaign. But I couldn’t let pass its implicit suggestion that charities, by fighting their corner ‘to preserve funds that support their university research’, or for that matter other groups pressing a particular case, may not be helping the science community press its message home.

On the contrary, we are acutely aware of the bigger picture we are part of. And it is our commitment to UK science and our desire to play an every bigger role in this enterprise that drives the charity sector’s campaign around the Charity Research Support Fund (CRSF) to which the editorial is making reference. Indeed, the CRSF’s very establishment as part of Full Economic Costing (fEC) was founded on an appreciation – albeit only recently – of the importance of charities to the wider research economy. Read More »

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Secretaries of State and their Chief Scientific Advisers

By Nick Hall | Published: 24/02/2010

The answers to a series of parliamentary questions asked by the Shadow Conservative Minister for Science, Adam Afriyie MP, have revealed a worrying paucity of face-to-face meetings taking place between Secretaries of State and their Chief Scientific Advisers (CSAs). Read More »

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Extraordinary Opportunities in Biomedical Research

By Guest Blogger | Published: 23/02/2010

Dr David Lynn is Head of Strategic Planning & Policy at the Wellcome Trust.

Yesterday, saw the publication of the Wellcome Trust’s new ten-year
Strategic Plan for 2010-20. A plan which sets out a long-term vision to
achieve extraordinary improvements in human and animal health, through
the support of the brightest minds in biomedical research and the
medical humanities. Read More »

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Physics: An Investment for the Future

By Guest Blogger | Published: 16/02/2010

Beth Taylor is Director of Communications and External Affairs at the Institute of Physics.

The Institute of Physics is making the case for investment in science. At an event held in parliament earlier this month we launched Physics for an Advanced World, which outlines 10 case studies of blue-skies research leading over time to the development of breakthrough technologies. Read More »

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Science, society & politics

By Guest Blogger | Published: 11/02/2010

Roland Jackson is Chief Executive of the British Science Association. He chaired the Science for All Expert Group.

The Science for All Group, one of five set up by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills following the previous Science and Society consultation, published its report and action plan for public engagement on 9 February.

When I was invited to write this blog, it was put to me that I could talk about how more engagement can increase the acceptance of evidence-based policy-making. I think stating that entirely legitimate, and thoroughly instrumental aim, gets to the heart of the current issues. Because engagement might do the opposite (although I think that’s unlikely). Indeed the real value of public engagement in this context could be to sensitise scientists more to the other forms of evidence apart from the scientific – which itself can be, and usually is, disputed where much is at stake – which the public and politicians take into account when making judgements. It would also open up greater awareness of the various values and beliefs that people and politicians bring to the table, and which will be involved in science-related policy decisions.

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Nature urges a positive tone

By Hilary Leevers | Published: 28/01/2010

This week’s Nature editorial urges scientists to repeatedly deliver a coherent pro-science message rather than fighting their corners against planned or anticipated cuts. It singles out CaSE for its collaborative work in the run-up to the election.

Fortunately, the tools for a more coherent effort are already in place. The Campaign for Science & Engineering in the UK (CaSE), created after former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher imposed draconian cuts in the 1980s, is a broad coalition of charities, universities and industry that promotes science. In the run-up to the UK election, CaSE is preparing a series of letters encouraging politicians to form a positive science agenda along the lines described above. Individual researchers should add their voices to the chorus by inviting local politicians to their campuses, and by signing on to CaSE’s agenda.

As well as working behind the scenes for supportive policies for science and engineering, CaSE has organised a Cross-Party Science and Engineering Policy debate and will be building the resources available on this blog to track the relevant commitments of the different parties as well, as allowing discussion of election issues that affect science and engineering.

Like CaSE, Nature urges individuals to get involved, so please, find out what you can do.

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Farmers need science

By Guest Blogger | Published: 27/01/2010

Dr Helen Ferrier is Chief Science and Regulatory Affairs Adviser at the National Farmers Union

There are some big shifts going on in the bioscience world at the moment, and it is happening fast. Prof John Beddington, the Government Chief Scientific Adviser, has spoken of the ‘perfect storm’ of population growth and climate change. Scientists and their funders have realised the central role that they can play in responding to these challenges. And it is getting them excited. Of course, the Research Councils and Technology Strategy Board funding of food security research will attract attention. But the prospect of being able to use their incredible skills and knowledge in, say, fundamental plant genetics to make some really significant and sustainable leaps in wheat yields, is something most scientists would relish.

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The importance of charity funded research

By Guest Blogger | Published: 21/01/2010

Emma Greenwood, Policy Researcher, Cancer Research UK

The UK has an enviable global reputation for scientific and medical research – and charity funded research is a major reason for this. Last year, members of the Association of Medical Research Charities funded £935 million of research.

Research by Cancer Research UK is entirely funded by the generosity of the general public, demonstrating their commitment to beating cancer. In 2008/09, we spent £355 million on research, supporting the work of over 4,500 scientists, doctors and nurses. As the world’s leading charity dedicated to cancer research, we fund research into all aspects of cancer from exploratory biology to clinical trials of novel and existing drugs as well as population-based studies and prevention research.

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Cameron speech on science?

By Nick Dusic | Published: 18/01/2010

Today, Nick Clegg gave a solid speech on science at the Royal Society where he outlined a number of key commitments. Gordon Brown gave a speech on science at the University of Oxford back in February 2009. Although he has been invited to give one, David Cameron has yet to make a major speech on science.

The closest he has come some so far is a speech on innovation and public policy to NESTA back in April 2008. The speech did not touch on many of the science policy issues that CaSE and others are concerned about.

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Clegg commitments to science

By Hilary Leevers | Published: 18/01/2010

Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats, gave his first speech on science today at the Royal Society. He was comfortable with the topic and happy to take a number of questions from the floor. He waxed lyrical on the role that science will play in solving UK challenges, and in not just rebuilding, but also redesigning, our economy.

Clegg explained that his family background was strong on science, and that he regretted not having taken it further due to uninspiring teaching. Remedying this for the future was an area in which he gave strong commitments.

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