30/09/05 Private funding of university research
CaSE today stressed the importance of commericalising university research, while maintaining the independence of the universities. In a letter in today's Times, CaSE points out that recent protests about industrial funding of university research have confused the need to generate economic benefits from research with the importance of ensuring that universities are free to conduct research according to their own priorities.

The text of the letter is given below:
Either the students arrested for protesting about business interests in universities (report, September 26) or those reporting their actions have conflated two issues – commercialisation of research and independence of universities.

It would be absurd not to commercialise research with potential applications that might bring economic, social, health or environmental benefits. Industry is essential to the development process, because companies can inject money into the venture, because they are more likely to have people with the right commercial skills, and because researchers from the private and public sectors can share experiences and learn from one another.

Whether or not universities are independent, and thus free to choose which scientific questions they seek to answer, is another matter. Government funding schemes that are only unlocked when universities raise ‘matching funding’ are clearly only available in areas where someone else (usually an industrial company) has enough interest to expend large sums of its own money. More and more public funding is distributed in this way, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to fund truly ‘blue-sky’ research, carried out for no other reason than that the questions seem interesting.

That is not only upsetting to purists who distrust commercial interests, it is also harmful to the long term strength of the economy, because it is fundamental research that generates genuinely new ideas, on which all applied and commercial research is ultimately based.

28/09/05 Rosemary Davies attended the Visions of Science Awards ceremony

19/09/05 Political interference in research priorities
CaSE today strongly welcomed fresh calls for ministers to stop interfering in the direction of research funding. In comments in The Times, CaSE wholeheartedly associated itself with an attack by the Director of the Wellcome Trust on the way in which political obsession with fashionable areas is damaging the national science base. "Some of the most important breakthroughs have come from entirely 'blue-sky' research, and it is deeply damaging for the Government to ring-fence pots for their pet projects or things they see as 'useful' when the scientific community may have much more exciting ideas in other areas," said Dr Peter Cotgreave, Director of CaSE.

16/09/05 Peter Cotgreave met with Dr Robert Kirby-Harris, Chief Executive of the Institute of Physics

13/09/05 Peter Cotgreave spoke about "Funding university science" in a talk at the University of Southampton

07/09/05 University research in today's society
CaSE today highlighted the importance of the breadth of different kinds of research undertaken in universities. Giving the Keynote Lecture at King's College London's Randall Division, the Director of CaSE argued that one of the purposes of universities - to undertake research that really challenges received wisdom is losing ground to other kinds of research. "Nobody is saying that it is wrong for universities to do more work with industry or to take more contract research than they used to, but we must be careful not to lose the unique blue skies research that made British universities such fantastic places in the first place."

5-9/09/05 Rosemary Davies attended the BA Festival of Science at Trinity College Dublin

02/09/05 Higher education strategy
CaSE today strongly criticised the draft strategic plan published by the Higher Education Funding Council. In its response to the Council's 'pre-consultation,' CaSE points out that the draft plan is unclear and imprecise, mixes means with ends, and confuses strategy with tactics. CaSE concludes that this document 'cannot seriously be considered the basis for future action and investment in the English university system'.

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