24/10/05 Industrial R&D

CaSE today expressed alarm at the fall in research and development by companies in the UK, and called for urgent action to encourage more investment.
read the press release

22/10/05 Rosemary Davies attended the Scientists for Global Responsibility Annual Conference

19/10/05 Rosemary Davies attended the JIVE Partners' Annual Conference: Agender for Success

18/10/05 Promoting Innovation

CaSE Committee member Professor Don Braben called for and end to bureaucracy suppressing research in a public lecture delivered at UCL today. Professor Braben spoke about 'Promoting innovation in a Bureaucratic World', highlighting the importance of academic freedom to the economy.

Read the talk

18/10/05 Skills for Renewable Energy

CaSE welcomed a new report on renewable energy needs from the Institute of Physics, attending its launch today. The report highlights the importance of basic research as well as the need to provide support to bring ideas to market. "This is a great case study in the need to promote science" said Rosemary Davies of CaSE "The Government needs to take reports such as this seriously and respond with a step change in research funding".

18/10/05 Rosemary Davies attended the Natural History Museum's Annual Public Meeting

12/10/05 Science in the Department for Education
CaSE today called on the Department for Education to strengthen its commitment to science. In evidence to the Education & Skills Committee of the House of Commons, CaSE pointed out that the Department's Annual Report fails to address issues such as the shortage of science teachers and the chronic underfunding of science and engineering in further education. "The Committee has today started an inquiry into public expenditure in the DfES, and we don't think that public money is yet being used to best effect in the Prime Minister's drive to make Britain 'the best place in the world for science'.

Read CaSE's written evidence to the inquiry

12/10/05 Rosemary Davies attended Demos' Atlas of Ideas launch event at the IEE

08/10/05 Academic careers
CaSE today highighted the poor career structure for academic researchers. In a letter to the British Dental Journal, CaSE points out that problems revealed in a recent report are not unique to careers in clinical sciences. The letter argues that unless the issue of academic career structures is addressed, much of the Government's investment in science will not deliver its full potential.

The text of the letter is given below:
Sir,
The career problems revealed by the report on academic dentists and doctors (and featured in the news pages of the BDJ) are not unique to the clinical sciences. The fact that subjects as crucial as dentistry and medicine are suffering must act as a call for action across the UK's science and engineering research base. The academic research base is a principal source of evidence for the formulation of public policy, and the ultimate origin of almost all useful inventions, which is why the Prime Minister has called the science base 'the absolute bedrock of our economy'.
Since 1997, the stipends of postgraduate students setting out on academic careers have risen sharply, and the career structure for postdoctoral researchers has received a great deal of attention. But the salaries and prospects of trained academics have not kept pace, leaving the research base at risk, together with those parts of national life that depend on it - including the dental and medical professions.
University professors currently earn between 20 and 35% less than people doing jobs of a similar level of skill and responsibility in other sectors. Academic scientists earn less in the UK that they do in Germany, France, Australia or the USA. The recent report shows that, in a fierce global competition for the best talent, the UK is in danger of losing.
No scientific discipline operates in isolation - doctors and dentists depend on chemistry, biology, physics and engineering. So it is important to foster academic work across the spectrum of science and engineering disciplines. Peter Mansfield won the Nobel Prize for Medicine for his part in the development of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, but he is a physicist who solved a physics question, not a medical one.
Over the past seven years, the Government has substantially increased investment in the scientific infrastructure of the university and hospital sectors. If it does not now address the issue of academic careers, in the clinical sciences and elsewhere, it risks the possibility that much of the investment will be wasted.

07/10/05 Peter Cotgreave attended a meeting at the Science Media Centre

06/10/05 Science in Wales
CaSE today outlined its vision for a science strategy in Wales. Testifying before the Economic Development Committee of the National Assembly for Wales, Dr Hefin Jones of the Executive Committee and CaSE's Director Peter Cotgreave, drew attention to the need for much greater coordination of science in Wales, for very substantial improvements in science education and the funding of research, for Wales to be flexible in the way it exploits its research results, and the need for Wales to celebrate its scientific achievements with the same vigour that it celebrates its artisitic, linguistic, musical and poetic achievements.

Read CaSE's written evidence here

05/10/05 Postdoctoral careers
CaSE today encouraged postdoctoral researchers to become more active in campaigning for improved career structures. Speaking to the postdoctoral association at the University of Dundee, CaSE's Director Peter Cotgreave, pointed out that issues such as short-term contracts and relatively low pay will only be tackled when sufficient numbers of the people affected take the trouble to draw the attention of politicans and others to the flaws in the system.

05/10/05 Caroline Holland met with Sue Ferns, Head of Science at Prospect

04/10/05 Centralised planning of science policy
CaSE today expressed its concern about the effects on the knowledge economy of the increasingly centralised control of science policy. In an article for eGovmonitor, CaSE points out the value of freethinking, blue-sky research in the development of a dynamic, technological economy.

Read the article

04/10/05 Peter Cotgreave attended a meeting of the Board of the Science Media Centre