DESIGN PLUS CASE ANNUAL LECTURE
At the end of World War Two the
importance of science in policy led
to the creation of the ‘scienti c civil
service’ in 1945, while in the 1960s
the then Prime Minister Harold
Wilson’s ‘white heat of technology’
saw the appointment of the rst GCSA
and the publishing of the Fulton report.
“In recent years we’ve seen the
formation of UKRI which has enabled
multidisciplinary opportunities, the
creation of Chief Scienti c Advisers
who are now embedded in every
government department and the size
of the Science and Engineering Civil
Service Fast Stream being doubled.”
According to Sir Patrick, until
the Government’s recent budget
announcement, there had been a
rapid decline in departmental R&D
expenditure outside key departments
with protected research budgets.
“In some of the larger departments,
R&D investment is now a fraction of
1% of total departmental budgets. The
current situation regarding the use
of science advice means there are
pockets of government where science
is embedded and is excellent, but
this is greatly variable,” Sir Patrick
suggested.
He went on to make the point that
it is easy for departments to say ‘we
are not a science department’ as a
rebuttal to doing more but that’s no
longer possible to argue, when there
are so many challenges that need to
be tackled by science.
“Issues such as genomics,
which are inherently scienti c,
can have an impact with regard to
education, employment, health and
forensics which cross departmental
boundaries,” he explained.
Departments are now being
compelled to publish Areas of
Research Interest (ARIs) and the
identi cation of these priorities is
crucial in supporting research work
across Whitehall.
Sir Patrick said that the Public
Sector Research Establishments
(PSREs), that can be found up and
down the country, are underutilised
and need to work more effectively with
experts in business and industry in
helping to solve cross-governmental
issues.
“We need to be better at accessing
expertise wherever it is in order to
provide the best scienti c advice,” and
Sir Patrick outlined the need to create
better links with industry.
“PSREs should be better utilised
for this, as they have great links to
local communities and businesses.”
Realising our ambitions
Sir Patrick discussed the newly
published Government Of ce for
Science report, ‘Realising our ambition
through science’ and highlighted three
crucial themes from the report.
“The rst is building science
capacity across the civil service,
of which Chief Scienti c Advisers
(CSAs) are crucial when it comes to
embedding science in departments,
but it is also about having more
people with science and engineering
backgrounds in the civil service.”
According to Sir Patrick just 10% of
civil service fast stream entrants hold
a STEM degree.
“We need much greater diversity of
background to ensure more scientists
work in Whitehall,” and Sir Patrick
said that scienti c method was critical
in the process of decision making.
“It can be of real bene t to policy
decisions.”
He also raised the importance of
ARIs as government is not always
good at admitting what it does not
The third theme touched on by Sir
Patrick was using all resources and
accessing expertise wherever it is, to
provide the best scienti c advice.
Sir Patrick emphasised the need
for better links with industry in helping
to achieve the best possible access
to expertise pointing to the role of
PSREs.
“The government also needs
synthesis of the best available
evidence and evidence synthesis, I
believe, needs to be recognised as an
important research discipline.”
According to Sir Patrick, by tackling
these three themes of recruitment,
ARIs and better use of all available
resources, it would be possible
to enhance science across all
government departments.
“We need to improve systems in
order to holistically and systematically
solve problems across Whitehall.”
He also warned that the strength
of UK science was dependent on its
international standing, and said that
future immigration and collaboration
would need to be maintained and
made as easy as possible in order to
ensure UK science and research got
the resources and talent it needed.
Sir Patrick, who was speaking
before the Budget, made it clear
that a mixture of public and private
investment was required in order to
raise R&D as a percentage of GDP
and he closed his lecture by saying
that realising our ambitions through
science would need research and
science to be embedded across
government.
“Behavioural science will be
incredibly important in understanding
how new technologies will be
approached by the general public
when changing personal habits and we
need to engage with the public, that’s
critical.
“We also need to get the right
skills in the civil service to help
foster dialogue with the general
public on scienti c issues, and make
communities feel included in scienti c
discussions.”
Below: The audience
interacts with Sir
Patrick Vallance
know.
34 24 March 2020 www.newelectronics.co.uk
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