28/02/07 DTI and Treasury
CaSE was today pleased to take part in a meeting with the DTI's Chief Economist and Lord Sainsbury, who is leading a review of science for the Treasury. At the seminar,organised by the Smith Institute, CaSE's Director, Peter Cotgreave, asked what Vicky Pryce and David Sainsbury thought would be the effect on business confidence in UK science now the Trade Secretary had decided to throw into doubt future promises on science funding, by breaking the previously unbreakable ring fence around the science budget. "Importantly, although he tried not make too much of it, Lord Sainsbury said the decision was 'undesirable'," said Peter Cotgreave, "of course, we at CaSE would rather he and others went further and admitted that the DTI is throwing money after past failures instead of using it to invest in future success".

28/02/07 Funding of universities
CaSE today attended a meeting on financing Higher Education with the shadow universities minister Boris Johnson. Sponsored by the Higher Education Policy Institute, much of the discussion was on two issues: whether the cap on undergraduate fees should be raised and how to improve the present scheme for student loans. Speaking after the meeting, CaSE's Honorary Secretary, Professor Peter Saunders, said that there appeared to be a growing consensus about what ought to be done but that there are some obstacles in the way. "The most intractable of these problems have to do with the ways that different kinds of spending appear in the Government's accounts. Until recently, one of the reasons that the universities were underfunded was that they were made to wait until it was decided whether any extra money should come from students, graduates, or taxpayers. Now the universities may have to wait again, until someone can find a way around the Treasury's accounting rules."

27/02/07 Investment in science
CaSE today urged the Government not to deter private sector investment in research by seeming to lose interest in science. Writing in the Guardian, CaSE points out that the Government's plans for a knowledge-based economy depend on companies wanting to bring their technological investment to the UK, and that their decisions are based on a variety of factors - the availability of skilled people, ready access to collaboration with universities, low corporate taxes. But the signal sent by last week's decision to reduce future plans for the Research Councils' budgets will affect companies' views for the worse. The decision looks niggardly, as if ministers are losing interest in science. The Trade Secretary should, the article concludes, "take the opportunity afforded by the upcoming comprehenshive spending review to make it clear this mistake was a one-off aberration that this government does not intend to repeat."

read the article

23/02/07 Practical science lessons
CaSE today urged the schools system to put more emphasis on science practical lessons. Commenting in the Times Educational Supplement, CaSE's Director Dr Peter Cotgreave said, "Science is a practical subject, so if you are not doing that, you are not doing science." Two years ago, CaSE found that three quarters of schools were cancelling practical classes, mainly because of concerns about behavioural problems of a minority of children who could not be trusted with chemicals and bunsen burners. The latest evidence reported in the TES today appears to suggest that now new technology, such as interactive whiteboards is tempting overstretched teachers to skip practical lessons. "If we want to create the educated workforce the country needs, we have to support teachers to provide the highest quality science education," said Peter Cotgreave.

22/02/07 Economic importance of science
CaSE today urged the Government not to lose its nerve in investing in the future of UK science. Speaking on BBC News, CaSE's Director, Dr Peter Cotgreave, said that the decision by the Trade Secretary to cut the science budget would be economically harmful. "We don't invest in science just for the fun of it, but because it allows us to invent, discover and design things that the rest of the world is prepared to pay for. If we want the knowledge-driven economy every says they want, this decision sends out the wrong signal." CaSE also raised the issue in comments in today's Financial Times, Daily Telegraph and The Times.

22/02/07 Peter Cotgreave attended a meeting of the Institute of Physics Science Board.

21/02/07 Opposition science policy
CaSE today engaged with the Conservative party's science policy review. At a meeting with Ian Taylor MP and members of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, CaSE discussed a wide range of subjects, from science education in schools to wealth creation from new technology. "We are delighted that the Conservatives are putting so much effort into developing good science policies," said Peter Cotgreave, Director of CaSE, "This meeting follows on from an article that the Shadow Education Secretary, David Willets, published in our latest newsletter."

read David Willett's article

20/02/07 Science budget 'underspend'
CaSE today expressed great disappointment at tha Trade Secretary's decision to claw back money from the science budget. Commenting on the Department of Trade & Industry's decision to put £33m back into general DTI funds because it had not yet been spent from the science budget, Dr Peter Cotgreave, Director of CaSE, said: "This represents less than one per cent of the Science Budget - in other words, the people who manage science investment have allocated more than 99 per cent of their budget but carefully avoided overspending; they should be rewarded rather than penalised. There are plenty of excellent science projects this money could have been invested in." Reacting further to the announcment that accounting changes to 'year end flexibility' would be mean cuts to the Research Councils' budgets, Peter Cotgreave said, "If TRade Secretary Alistair Darling was as keen on science as Chancellor Gordon Brown claims to be, he would have found a reason to spend the money on science rather than non-science. And if I was Malcolm Wicks fresh into the job of Science Minister, I would not want to preside over the first 'cut' in science, even if it is a cut in future allocations rather than an actual reduction in year-on-year totals."

read the press release

15/02/07 Fundamental research
CaSE today urged politicians to take more seriously the need to fund fundamental research. Speaking on BBC Radio 4, CaSE's Director said that research funding increasingly came with strings attached that fettered the scientific questions that could be asked. "If you think about all the great breakthroughs from science, from Einstein or Darwin or Newton or Marie Curie, those people weren’t doing work trying to pick a winner – they hadn’t been told ‘this is the avenue you must go down because we can all see that this is going to be useful’ – they were doing very free research, and they discovered things that you just couldn’t have predicted were out there to be discovered. So, I think any attempt to predict what will be most useful is always going to fail."

13/02/07 Hilary Leevers attended a meeting of PolicyNet with Professor Howard Dalton, Chief Scientific Adviser at DEFRA

12/02/07 Peter Cotgreave and Hilary Leevers met with Alice Sharp Pierson, Science Base Manager at the Royal Society

12/02/07 University endowments
CaSE today welcomed the announcement that the Government will be adopting a scheme to promote university endowments similar to that proposed by CaSE. Commenting after it became known that public funds will be used as matching funds to promote giving by university alumni, Dr Peter Cotgreave, Director of CaSE, said: "We suggested an almost identical scheme just over a year ago in an article for the Financial Times, after it became clear that the Government's previous effort at stimulating endowments amounted to a few tens of thousands of pounds per institution. Universities are vastly underfunded for the things they are expected to do, and of all the many potential sources of funds, building up endowments is by far the best, because it doesn't cost strain the taxpayer's purse and the universities end up with money that is not under tight Government control like just about everything else is at the moment."

09/02/07 Treasury
CaSE today enjoyed a productive meeting with the Treasury on its review of science and innovation policy. "The Treasury's review of science and innovation covers all sorts of things from private sector investment in the UK to science in schools," said Dr Peter Cotgreave, Director of CaSE following the meeting, "We have talked to many of our members and gave the Treasury a detailed list of areas that need to be addressed. Overall, there are two potential futures for UK science, and the economy that depends on it. Either we can carry on as we are, loosing ground to other countries, and pay the price, or we can have a serious vision of rejuvenating the science base, compete with the best in the world, and reap the rewards."

05/02/07 Peter Cotgreave and Hilary Leevers met with Barbara Knowles of the Institute of Biology

02/05/07 Peter Cotgreave and Caroline Holland met with Jeff Lucas, Deputy Vice Chancellor, and other staff at the University of Bradford