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 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