SUMMARY OF COUNCIL MEETING ON 7/8 SEPTEMBER 2004
Attendees
1. The meeting was chaired in part by Sir Keith Peters and in part by Sir David King. The other members present were:
Professor Sir John Beringer; Professor Geoffrey Boulton; Professor Janet Finch; Mr Andrew Gould; Professor Wendy Hall; Dr Hermann Hauser; Dr Dieter Helm; Professor Alan Hughes; Dr Sue Ion; Sir Paul Nurse; Dr Raj Rajagopal; Professor Michael Sterling; Professor Kathy Sykes; Dr Mark Walport
2. Also in attendance for parts of the meeting were: Rt Hon Paul Boateng MP; Sir Keith O’Nions, Director General of the Research
Councils; Daniel Storey, Head of Technology and Innovation Team, HM Treasury; Professor Ian Diamond, Chief Executive of ESRC; Professor Julia Goodfellow,
Chief Executive of BBSRC; Sir Howard Newby, Chief Executive of HEFCE; Roger McClure, Chief Executive of SHEFC.
Conclusions
The Council agreed:
- That it welcomes the government’s strong recognition of the strategic importance of science and technology to our society in the science and innovation investment framework 2004-2014 . The Council agreed to work with ministers in reviewing progress on the framework and will submit its views on key issues arising from this document to government in writing.
- That facilitating interdisciplinary research is a key part of a wider issue around nurturing a flexible and responsive science base. The Council wrote to the two Research Council Chief Executives and Funding Body Chief Executives to thank them for attending the meeting and exploring these issues.
- That it would be happy to take on the role of reviewing government’s action in two and five years time on the recommendations of the Royal Society/Royal Academy of Engineering report Nanoscience and nanotechnologies: opportunities and uncertainties if invited to do so.
- To engage with the Office of Science and Technology’s new horizon scanning unit, including involvement in the scoping and planning for the unit.
- To warmly welcome the Office of Science and Technology’s new role in assessing departmental science and innovation strategies.
- That early engagement between the Innovation and Commercialisation subgroup and the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) is important to consider how CST and TSB can complement each other’s work.
- The Science and Society subgroup will co-opt two additional members: Professor Brian Wynne, Lancaster University; and Sir Martin Holdgate, previous Chief Scientist at the Department of the Environment. The subgroup’s advice on better use of public dialogue may contribute to the revision on the Chief Scientific Adviser’s Guidelines, which will be carried out later this year.
