SUMMARY OF CST MEETING ON 17/18 June 2009
Attendees
The meeting was held in London and chaired by John Beddington and Dame Janet Finch. Attended by Geoffrey Boulton, Peter Davies, Alan Gilbert, Wendy Hall, Hermann Hauser, Sue Ion, Raj Rajagopal, Philip Ruffles, Michael Sterling, Kathy Sykes.
Apologies were received from Mark Walport, Alan Hughes and Paul Nurse.
CST discussed the presentation of the Infrastructure report to the Prime Minister. Amongst the recommendations that were made, three were highlighted for the meeting with the PM –
Government should decide which Department should lead on implementing the recommendations
the lead Department should be supported by a high level stakeholder group
there should be a review of the regulatory regimes to see that they are fit for purpose to deal with future challenges to the UK Infrastructure.
At dinner, CST discussed machinery of Government changes, economic stimulus, feedback from the meeting with the Prime Minister, agreed the Infrastructure report and how to publicise it, had an update on the Government’s project, ‘Science and Society’. CST also agreed that further work on nanotechnology would only be taken forward by CST after the Government publishes its strategy.
The No.10 Commissioning Board also asked CST to investigate the UK Science and Technology Base, in particular the Government’s policies designed to address strategic challenges facing the science and technology agenda over the next 10 years.