25/07/06 Peter Cotgreave met with Dame Bridget Ogilvie of the Advisory Council and Dr Simon Denegri, Chief Executive of the Association of Medical Research Charities.

24/07/06 Science teaching in schools
CaSE today highlighted the need for measures to attract and retain qualified specialists in the teaching profession. Publishing its evidence to a House of Lords inquiry into science in schools, CaSE urged the Government to do more to reinstate practical work into the school timetable, to provide more subject-specific professional development for science teachers, and to accept that in the economic market for talent, the earnings potential of science professionals is considerable, so the public sector can only expect to attract them by remunerating them adequately.

read CaSE's evidence to the inquiry

24/07/06 Peter Cotgreave attended the Royal Society of Chemistry's summer party.

20/07/06 Annual Review
CaSE today published its Annual Review of activities, setting out what it has done in the last twelve months. "For most people, who just want an overview of our impressive range of activities, there is a summary version of the review," said Professor Richard Joyner, Chairman of CaSE, "but for our members and anyone else who wants to read it, there is a also a slightly more detailed version. Both are available via the website, and give a clear impression of how CaSE punches above its weight in campaigning for science and engineering." The Annual Review covers the period July 2005 to June 2006.

read CaSE's Summary Annual Review

read CaSE's Full Annual Review

17/07/06 Science in schools
CaSE today met with Shadow Education Secretary David Willetts to discuss science in schools. At a meeting in Westminster, CaSE, also attended by Ian Taylor MP, current running the Conservative Party's science policy review, CaSE pressed the urgency of recruiting more qualified science teachers, especially in physics. "There are changes going on in the currciulum," said Dr Peter Cotgreave, Director of CaSE, "and we have concerns about schools' ability to deliver them, but that is a secondary issue. Quite simply, the pressing need is to generate more physics graduates, and to make teaching an attractive career for them. If we don't, the economy is going to be serious trouble, and the Government's plan of making the UK the best place in the world for science will become a joke".

15/07/06 Conservative science policy
CaSE today urged the Conservative party to build a coherent agenda for science in its policy review. In its written evidence to the review, CaSE points out that all sorts of changes have happened in the way science is done and organised, but the Government's mechanisms for supporting it have not kept pace. This has led to a blurring of the edges, so that money reputedly for 'blue skies' research comes with strings attached, and it sometimes seems as if one part of Government is going in completely the opposite direction to another.

read CaSE's evidence to the review

14/07/06 Science in schools
CaSE today highlighted the need to attract more people into science teaching, and to give science teachers more opportunities to engage with the research and industrial communities. Speaking on BBC Radio 4, CaSE said that while it applauded attempts to make the science curriculum more exciting, there was a need to get more scientists to think of teaching as a career. "A quarter of secondary schools in England don't have any specialist physics teacher, and it's hard to enthuse children about physics when they don't even have a relevant teacher," said Dr Peter Cotgreave, Director of CaSE. "Equally importantly, teachers tell us they want the opportunity to go into industry and learn about what is going on in the real world, so they can share it with their pupils."

13/07/06 Science progress report
CaSE today welcomed the Government's publication of its Annual Report on progress in science policy. "The important thing about these annual reports is that they show that Gordon Brown will not let Whitehall forget about science," said Dr Peter Cotgreave, Director of CaSE. "Of course, these documents are inevitably rather self-congratulatory, but to be fair, it does start out by saying that 'clear challenges remain'". CaSE believes that the three broad, interlinked, challenges are (i) making the UK an attractive place for private companies to invest in research, (ii) sorting out the mess of financing science in the universities and colleges, and (iii) providing enough specialist science teachers in schools to educate and train the next generation.

12/07/06 Dialogue with politicians
CaSE was today pleased to take part in a discussion between a group of scientists and politicians of all parties to help improve dialogue between the two communities. At a dinner in Parliament, hosted by Labour former minister Charles Clarke and attended by Conservative former minister Ian Taylor and Liberal Democrat science spokesperson Evan Harris, CaSE urged scientists to provide more information in the form that politicians want it, and urged the polticians to show more leadership towards science. "The John Innes Centre, which organised this event, is clearly making every effort to ensure that the importance of its work is understood by politicians," said Dr Peter Cotgreave, Director of CaSE, who attended the event, "just as CaSE is constantly making the case for science and engineering in general."

10/07/06 Executive Committee meeting at Tavistock Square

05/07/06 Scientific Community
CaSE was pleased to attend the Royal Society's annual exhbition this evening as part of its schedule of keeping in touch with the wider scientific community. "This week, at various meetings, we have met with various members of the scientific community, including Chief Executive of one of the Research Councils, representatives of the pharmaceutical industry, the Chief Executive of the Scientific Alliance, and Treasury civil servants," said Peter Cotgreave, "and tomorrow, we'll be meeting MPs and represenatives of learned societies. One of the things that makes CaSE so effective is keeping in touch with what's going on throughout the scientific and engineering community".