Mapping the landscape
We commissioned a mapping exercise to look at work currently being carried out under the broad science and society banner. This exercise included:
- the Public Sector (Government Departments and Agencies);
- international players;
- important actors such as Professional institutes, academies, charities and delivery agents; and
- the private sector (including companies, trade associations and support organisations).
We conducted the mapping by a combination of refreshing an existing 2005 Whitehall (Government/Agency) mapping, input from key organisations and desk research using the web. In some cases a qualitative measure of activity was applied to the categories below (high, medium, low priority); for the desk research a quantitative `tick in the box' has been used.
The mapping has explored five areas across two broad target audiences:
- Public, including general public, children under 14, young people (14 and over), families and special interest groups such as teachers
- Other groups, including media (specialist and general), policy-makers (e.g. government, business, research, funders) and opinion formers (e.g. MPs, journalists, government)
The five areas that were mapped across these audiences are:
- Education: direct engagement with science in schools and higher education
- Public engagement: raising public awareness, engagement and support for science and innovation; science communication and dialogue; influencing science policy
- Public confidence: increasing public confidence in government's regulation, governance and use of science; risk, ethics, codes of conduct, attitude surveys, etc
- Science workforce: ensuring that the UK economy has a sufficient supply of scientists and engineers; encouraging careers in science and engineering
- Increasing diversity: increasing involvement of women and ethnic minority groups in science and its governance; training, skills, flexible working practices
Initial analysis
Public Sector (Government Departments and Agencies)
International science and society comparisons - points of interest
Important Actors (Professional institutes, academies, charities and delivery agents)
Private Sector (companies, trade associations and support organisations)
