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#SciVote- RT @markgfh: Steve Smith, UUK: "Cutting R&D base now is equivalent of cutting Spitfire prod'n in 1940" http://bit.ly/brs9Gb #scivote 09/09/2010 PointOfPresence (Stuart Taylor)
- RT @markgfh: Steve Smith, UUK: Cutting R&D base now is equivalent of govt cutting Spitfire production in 1940 http://bit.ly/brs9Gb #scivote #scipolicy 09/09/2010 RogerHighfield (Roger Highfield)
- Trade union Prospect warns UK science cuts are "dangerous": http://bit.ly/croErZ #scicuts #scivote 09/09/2010 Mike_Banks (Michael Banks)
- RT @markgfh Steve Smith, UUK: Cutting R&D base now = cutting Spitfire production in 1940 http://bit.ly/brs9Gb #scivote #scipolicy 09/09/2010 Stephen_Curry (Stephen Curry)
- Steve Smith, UUK: Cutting R&D base now is equivalent of govt cutting Spitfire production in 1940 http://bit.ly/brs9Gb #scivote #scipolicy 09/09/2010 markgfh (Mark Henderson)
- CaSE Twitter
- sciencecampaign: "Greater selectivity" of publicly funded research - Willetts speech at UniversitiesUK #uukconf2010 #scivote scipolicy http://bit.ly/cydZg7 09/09/2010
- sciencecampaign: @DrMichaelBrooks S word - Vince Cable told his physicist son to go into the City, but Hugo is "not that desperate". http://bit.ly/czQ96p 09/09/2010
- sciencecampaign: CaSE blog - Academy of Medical Sciences @acmedsci on leveraging investment from industry and charities http://bit.ly/a5yLpx #scipolicy 09/09/2010
- sciencecampaign: Vince Cable interviewed on Channel 4 News last night: http://bit.ly/asguS7 #scivote #scipolicy 09/09/2010
- sciencecampaign: RT @RogerHighfield: No tweets from @BIS_Science since April. Says it all, really #scivote #scipolicy 09/09/2010
Category Archives: Science in Government
The UK Economy & the New Parliament – views of the UK Deans of Science
Ian Haines is the part-time Executive Secretary of the UK Deans of Science
The UK Deans of Science (UKDS) represents the individuals (usually formally designated as Deans) who are responsible for science in Higher Education Institutes across the UK and who generally hold the budgets for science, including any research budgets. It has members in about [...]
Scientific Expertise on the S&T Committee
Last week saw the announcement of the eleven new members of the House of Commons Science & Technology Committee. The new chair of the Committee, Andrew Miller, blogged for CaSE on what he sees as the major challenges facing the committee.
Also posted in Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats, STEM MPs, Uncategorized Leave a comment
Science & Technology in the new House of Commons
Andrew Miller MP is the newly elected Chair of the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee
I am delighted to have been elected as Chair of the Science and Technology Committee. I am sure readers will be interested to know that I was a member of Save British Science, and remain a [...]
Also posted in Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats, S&T Committee, STEM MPs, Uncategorized 3 Comments
Science in UK Government – Mind the Gap
Allan Sudlow is Relationships Manager for Science, Technology and Medicine at the British Library
For those concerned about the future of science in the UK under the new Government, it’s almost certainly a case of waiting and worrying, but we should not be passive. This was the undercurrent to a recent debate – Science in [...]
Also posted in Guest, Science & Society Leave a comment
Labour leadership election; Scientists for Labour put their questions
Paul Connell is the Secretary of Scientists for Labour (SfL)
‘Scientists for Labour’ (SfL) is pleased to unveil the questions we’ll be formally asking the five Labour leadership candidates. They are:
1. How can science, technology, engineering and mathematics contribute to economic growth in the face of current constraints on government spending?
2. How will you bring expert scientific [...]
Also posted in Guest, Labour, New government, Uncategorized 1 Comment
Science in Parliament – the new landscape
Martin Griffiths is an adviser at the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology.
Science had a higher profile than ever in the run-up to the election, thanks to #scivote, the series of debates between Lord Drayson, Adam Afriyie and Evan Harris, and the launch of the Science Party. But in the immediate aftermath, the outlook for [...]
Also posted in Conservatives, Education, Election, Guest, Labour, Liberal Democrats, New government 1 Comment
Science, the New Parliament & the Budget
Science and the New Parliament preceded (and slightly overlapped with) the budget today. It was organised by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) with the support of many other organisations, including CaSE.
Speakers came from across science and engineering to discuss the importance of working together with parliament and government to develop public policy. Imran Khan, CaSE Director, outlined CaSE’s [...]
Interview with the Science Minister
The new Universities and Science Minister, David Willetts has given an interview to Mark Henderson of the Times, ahead of the Cheltenham Science Festival, on the importance of independent scientific advice in government. You can view the Times’ article here, as well as an extended version of the interview on Mark’s blog.
In the interview [...]
Also posted in Ministerial Code, New government, Science & Society, Uncategorized 3 Comments
Labour Science Spokesperson – An Update
Following Imran’s Khan blog on the S-Word, which called for the swift appointment of a science spokesperson for Labour, CaSE now understands that this appointment will take several months.
The rules of the Labour Party state that members of the shadow cabinet must be voted for by the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), that is, the collective body of [...]
Also posted in Labour Leave a comment
Science in the Cabinet
The Cabinet Office today released the new Ministerial Code, as well as details on the new Cabinet Committee System. There’s interesting news for science and engineering in both documents.
The Ministerial Code
The Code sets out the over-arching duties which Government Ministers must abide by. Section 5.2 says;
Ministers have a duty to give fair consideration and due weight to [...]
Also posted in Coalition Government, Ministerial Code, Scientific Advice Leave a comment
Programme for Government: Good vision, but where’s the plan?
The coalition government has published more details of its plans in Our Programme for government this morning. It does not add much to the initial coalition agreement with respect to science and engineering policies. It certainly lacks many policies that might be expected from looking at the pre-election promises from each of the parties. The [...]
Also posted in Coalition Government, Conservatives, Defence, Education, Election, Engineering, Innovation, Liberal Democrats, Mathematics, New government, Policies, Skills Leave a comment
MPs to Watch
CaSE has developed a list of those MPs with an interest or background in science, technology, engineering or maths (STEM) who have been re-elected or newly elected to Parliament. We have now written to these MPs, inviting them to engage with science and engineering issues. If you wish to give us any feedback on the [...]
Also posted in Coalition Government, Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats, New government, Political Parties, STEM MPs, Uncategorized 4 Comments
Welcoming Willetts
In our brave new coalition government, it seems that there will be two strong, respected and thoughtful advocates for science and engineering. David Willetts has been appointed Minister of State for Universities and Science in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) with Vince Cable as Secretary of State for BIS. Cable studied natural sciences [...]
Coalition Commitments?
The dramatic election outcome gives the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats an opportunity to rethink and refine their election commitments. Science and engineering did not feature in the coalition negotiation agreement, but looking through the parties’ manifestos and additional commitments made in letters from David Cameron and Nick Clegg to CaSE, gives us a feel for what [...]
Also posted in Coalition Government, Conservatives, Education, Election, Engineering, Funding, Innovation, Liberal Democrats, Mathematics, Policies, Political Parties, Scientific Advice, Skills, maths, physics 1 Comment
Challenges for Science and Engineering
CaSE has worked with the political parties, its members and others during the run-up to this election on science and engineering policies. During this election the profile of science and engineering has been raised through debates, challenges to the party leaders and asking candidates to talk about science and engineering on this blog.
We have worked [...]
Also posted in Election, Uncategorized 1 Comment
Less Doom and Gloom
As the last few votes from this election are still being counted, the autopsy has already begun.
The view being put forward, in the Times and New Scientist, seems to be that science has ‘lost out’ in this election. To a certain degree this is true – the failure of Liberal Democrat science spokesmen Dr Evan [...]
Also posted in Conservative PPC, Labour PPC, Liberal Democrat PPC, PPC 3 Comments
Science and the Leaders’ Debate
The importance of science and engineering was finally recognised in last night’s third and final televised debate between the three main political leaders (39 minutes in).
In response to a question on how the leaders propose to re-build the country’s manufacturing industry, Conservative leader David Cameron (speaking first) put great emphasis on the importance of science [...]
Also posted in Conservatives, Education, Election, Funding, Innovation, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Skills, Uncategorized Leave a comment
Gordon Brown’s letter to CaSE
Below is the Labour response from Gordon Brown to the CaSE letter to the leaders.
27 April 2010
Dear Prof Griffiths and Mr Dusic
I warmly welcome this opportunity to respond to the Campaign’s invitation to set out my Party’s recognition of the importance of science to Britain and our commitment to world-class scientific excellence in this country.
Let [...]
Also posted in Education, Election, Engineering, Funding, Innovation, Labour, Letter to the leaders, Scientific Advice, Skills 5 Comments
Labour leadership election; Ed and David Miliband respond to Scientists for Labour