26/06/08 Save British Science
Ian Pearson MP, Minister for Science, used the creation of Save British Science, now the Campaign for Science & Engineering, to question the Conservative’s record on science in response to a question by Adam Afriyie MP, Shadow Minister for Science, about the STFC funding crisis. Commenting CaSE’s Director, Nick Dusic, said ”Save British Science was formed in response to underinvestment in science by Conservative Governments. Although Labour Governments have increased the science budget over the last decade, there is still a long way to go before the Government achieves its target of 2.5% of GDP being invested in R&D. CaSE is looking for all parties to put forward ambitious funding and policy proposals to make the UK a world leader in science and engineering. The STFC funding crisis has put the UK’s standing in particle physics and astronomy in jeopardy. The Government needs to take its share of the responsibility as it agreed the STFC’s funding settlement and the delivery plan that created this mess. It is now time for a solution to the funding crisis before ‘save’ is needed to be used again in the science community.”

25/06/08 Biosecurity
Commenting on the IUSS Committee report on Biosecurity in UK Research Laboratories CaSE’s Director, Nick Dusic, said “The ongoing running cost of any laboratory needs to be factored in before it is built, but this is especially true for high containment laboratories. The Government needs to increase its investment in its laboratories and staff so that the UK can successfully carry out research into human and animal pathogens.”

24/06/08 Laboratory of Molecular Biology
CaSE welcomed the announcement by John Denham that the LMB will receive funding necessary to complete its expansion and redevelopment.

23/06/08 QAA Report
In three Outcomes from institutional audit papers published by the QAA it found evidence for solid achievement but some worries in assessment and marking practices, external examiners reports and the rapid growth in the recruitment of international students to higher education. CaSE will be examining issues regarding the recruitment of international students in its forthcoming Opinion Forum on Attracting, Educating and Collaborating with International Scientists and Engineers.

19/06/08 Energy Research
Commenting on the IUSS Committee report on Renewable Electricity-Generation Technologies CaSE’s Director, Nick Dusic, said “I support the Committee’s recommendation that EPSRC funding should not be earmarked for certain initiatives by Government, such as the Energy Technologies Institute. DIUS and BERR need to work together and fund departmental initiatives from their own R&D budgets and leave the Science Budget to the discretion of the Research Councils.”

18/06/08 CaSE attended the Rolls-Royce Science Prize.

17/06/08 Government's response to Science Budget Allocations Report
CaSE welcomed the Government's commitment to fundamental research and the Haldane Principle within its response to the Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee's report on the Science Budget Allocations. However, it remains deeply concerned both about the process and the implications of the 2008-2011 science budget allocations. Commenting on the Government's response, Nick Dusic, CaSE's Director, said "The STFC funding crisis has cast light on the science budget allocation process. The Government should have responded by agreeing to make the process transparent by publishing any guidance to Research Councils. Without this information we do not know if the Haldane Principle is being applied in practice and who should be held accountable when problems arise. Problems have arisen due to the STFC's funding allocation and delivery plan and it is critical that the Government and the STFC resolve any issues identified by the Wakeham Review."

17/06/08 Science and Mathematics Education
The evidence from Ofsted's report on Success in Science and the DCSF's Review of Mathematics backs up CaSE's long standing position that science and mathematics teachers need to be trained in the subjects they teach. CaSE welcomes various Government proposals to improve the state of science and mathematics teaching, but it must act with greater urgency if we are going to have the skilled population we need for the future.

06/06/08 Nick Dusic, CaSE's Director, met with a Special Adviser to the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills to discuss the Science Budget Allocations, Innovation White Paper and CaSE's forthcoming Opinion Forum on International Scientists and Engineers.

03/06/08 CaSE attended the launch of Darwin200 at the Natural History Museum.

03/06/08 School Survey
CaSE was concerned by the findings of the School Survey published today. The survey found that there is still a long way to go before there are enough trained science and mathematics teachers. Commenting on the report, CaSE's Assistant Director, Dr Hilary Leevers, said: “It is vitally important that the Government continues to introduce more measures to increase the number of specialist science and mathematics teachers. Unfortunately, the various initiatives currently running have not yet had the required level of impact.”
read CaSE comment

02/06/08 Report on Mathematics
CaSE attended the launch of the Reform report on The Value of Mathematics. Michael Gove, Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, commented on CaSE's work during his speech. After the event, David Hawksett, CaSE Membership Officer, said "They say you cannot lie with numbers and the conclusions of Reform’s report were frighteningly clear. According to the report, the shallowness of most maths teaching has led to a grave shortage of higher level mathematicians with knock on recruitment problems in science, engineering and the financial sector. If this trend cannot be reversed then we are, in the words of one delegate, ‘in big trouble’."
read the report

29/05/08 DIUS Annual Report
CaSE welcomed the publication of the DIUS's Annual Report. Commenting CaSE's Director, Nick Dusic, said "The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) needs to become a champion of science and engineering across government. Going forward DIUS needs to work closer with the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform to encourage private sector investment in R&D and the Department for Children, Schools and Families on science education in schools. We look forward to working with the Department so that it delivers upon its aim of making the UK a world leader in science and engineering."

21/05/08 Lord Sainsbury on Further Education
CaSE's Assistant Director, Hilary Leevers, participated in a lively breakfast meeting with Lord Sainsbury on the importance of Further Education, hosted by NESTA. Afterwards she commented "While there is much concern about the shortage of highly-skilled STEM workers, these shortages are actually more pronounced at the technician level in many areas."

21/05/08 Haldane Principle
Writing in today's Research Fortnight CaSE's Director Nick Dusic has called for a strengthening of the Government's interpretation of the Haldane Principle to support the independence of the scientific endeavour and the accountability of government.
read the article

20/05/08 The BA Science Communication Conference
CaSE's Director, Nick Dusic, was a panelist discussing "engaging in policy with the purpose of explaining science". The session was organised by Newton’s Apple and chaired by Alok Jha (The Guardian). The other panelists were Dr Stephen Axford (DIUS), Dr Tony Whitehead (DIUS) and Dr Ian Gibson MP.

20/05/08 Science and the Welsh Assembly
CaSE's Assistant Director, Dr Hilary Leevers, represented CaSE at this year's Science and the Welsh Assembly organised by the Royal Society of Chemistry. Jane Davidson, AM, Minister for the Environment, Sustainability and Housing, gave the keynote address emphasising the importance of evidence-based policy making and assuring the participants that her door was always open to scientists who wanted to contribute.

20/05/08 NESTA Innovation Edge Conference
CaSE's membership officer, David Hawksett, participated in NESTA's Innovation Edge conference.

16/05/08 New Fellows of the Royal Society
CaSE congratulates the new Fellows of the Royal Society. However, we are concerned about the lack of diversity within the new group of Fellows. Yesterday, CaSE launched its report on Delivering Diversity: Making Science & Engineering Accessible to All, which recommended that the science and engineering community needed to improve its diversity at the highest levels. Nick Dusic, CaSE's Director, said "The Royal Society has sent the wrong message about the excellence of women in science. The Royal Society estimates that the percentage of women in senior science positions is 9%. However, only 4.5% of the Fellows elected this year are women. The Royal Society needs to play a leadership role and take the radical steps necessary to ensure that the Fellowship becomes a beacon of the diversity of excellence in science."

15/05/08 Delivering Diversity: Making Science and Engineering Accessible to All
CaSE today launched its latest policy report Delivering Diversity: Making Science and Engineering Accessible to All. The report out a series of recommendations to help eliminate the under-representation of certain groups, namely disabled people, people from certain ethnic minority groups or from socially-disadvantaged backgrounds, and women. CaSE called upon the Government to take more radical steps to improve the diversity of the science and engineering workforce. CaSE's Assistant Director, Dr Hilary Leevers, said: “The science and engineering community prides itself on being a meritocracy yet has swathes of society under-represented at its highest levels. Success may depend on merit but it is limited for many by practical barriers and bias.”
read the press release
read the policy report

14/05/08 CaSE met with Claire Curtis-Thomas, MP.

13/05/08 Children, Schools and Families Committee Report on Testing and Assessment
CaSE was pleased to see that the Children, Schools and Families Committee had listened to the concerns of the community in writing its latest report on Testing and Assessment. The committee reported that the relentless testing of children in the core subjects of english, mathematics and science, not only caused undue stress to children but led to a reduction of teaching of non-core subjects. Even within the core subjects, the taught curriculum has been narrowed with much "teaching to test" inhibiting creative teaching and learning. CaSE's evidence on the problems that result from differing difficulty among A level subjects had also been noted.
read CaSE's response
read the report

12/05 /08 CaSE met with EADS Astrium.

08/05/08 Nobel Prizes
CaSE Director, Nick Dusic, discussed the crisis under which Save British Science was founded and the challenges that CaSE now targets in an article in today's Times Higher Education. The article featured many UK Nobel prize-winners some of whom are on CaSE's Advisory Council and considers what facilitates this level of excellence.
read the article

30/04/08 Science Budget Allocations
CaSE supports many of the findings of the Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee report on Science Budget Allocations. Commenting, CaSE's Director, Nick Dusic, said, "The Government needs to respect the Haldane Principle and stop interfering with how Research Councils allocate their funding. The Science Budget Allocations targeted funding at various government priorities leaving most Research Councils unable to maintain their investment in fundamental research. The STFC was the hardest hit by this and the Government must now find a solution to the funding crisis in physics and astronomy before the UK’s loses its scientific standing in these areas."
read the press release

29/04/08 Science Funding
CaSE welcomed John Denham's speech today on Science Funding. Commenting, CaSE's Director Nick Dusic, said "It was good to hear the Secretary of State supporting the Haldane Principle and fundamental science. However, the last Science Budget Allocations did not reflect today's good words. The Government had too much influence over how Research Councils allocated their funding and there was too much emphasis on economic impact. It is critical that DIUS produces a clear science policy strategy that sets out how it will support the UK's scientific and engineering community."

28/04/08 Crucible 2008
CaSE enjoyed the opportunity to meet early career researchers. After attending the NESTA Crucible reception for 2008, Hilary Leevers commented that it was great to see how enthused these up and coming researchers were to broaden the range of their collaborations. She was also pleased that they were keen to understand and influence science policy as well as to engage with the media.

23/04/08 Implementation of the REF
CaSE welcomes the Government's acknowledgement that the Research Excellence Framework proposals need more work and the provision of an extra year to develop them. CaSE voiced serious concerns about the use of bibliometric indicators and it is critical that over the next year a workable and appropriate system is developed with genuine input from the science and engineering community. Nick Dusic, Director of CaSE added: "The revised proposals for science and engineering subjects must include greater flexibility including provision for meaningful peer review. As the REF will have a significant impact on the practice of science and engineering in the UK, it is critical that the Government and HEFCE get this right."
Read the Response

17/04/08 Nick Dusic met with specialists in the Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee and the director of the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology.

14/04/08 Women in Science
The Women's Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) Committee of the European Parliament voted to adopt a new report on the under-representation of women in science. The report made many recommendations including improving stereotypes, supporting the scientific careers of women, improving transparency of recruitment procedures and the inclusion of at least 40% women (and 40% men) on evaluation and selection committees. Hilary Leevers commented "We welcome all measures to improve the representation of women in science. Despite much effort, progress has been slow and it is time to make sure that real change is occurring. We are looking forward to launching our own report on under-represented groups in science and engineering soon, entitled Delivering Diversity, which we hope will precipitate effective action in this area."

14/04/08 CaSE met with Oxford Instruments.

09/04/08 CaSE met with EADS Astrium.

08/04/08 CaSE met with Syngenta.

02/04/08 Biology Policy
Nick Dusic gave a presentation about CaSE to the Institute of Biology's Science Policy Board.

01/04/08 Engineering Seminar
Nick Dusic, Director of CaSE, participated in the Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee seminar on engineering hosted by the Royal Academy of Engineering. CaSE earlier provided written evidence to this inquiry and was pleased to further support the Committee's work.