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03/02/10 CaSE met with Evan Harris
CaSE met with Evan Harris, Liberal Democrat Science Spokesman, and one of his advisers to discuss the use of impact to allocate research funding and also the development of Liberal Democrat science policy.

03/02/10 Nick Dusic gave Evidence to the Science and Technology Committee
Nick Dusic, Director of Campaign for Science and Engineering, gave oral evidence to the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee on the impact of spending cuts on science and scientific research. He emphasised the need for stability of science funding by seeing through the 10 year framework, and the need to look at the portfolio of ways in which science is funded. Earlier in the week Gordon Brown said that the reason why the US had to put science at the heart of its economic stimulus package was that the US had not made the historically high investments made in the UK over the past decade. Dusic pointed out that increases in government science investment in the UK and US were comparable prior to 2007. Dusic also argued that the evidence base for science policy formulation needs to be improved.
Watch the session
Listen again to coverage in Today in Parliament (from 24 min until 10/02/10)

02/02/10 CSA for the Welsh Assembly
The Welsh Assembly Government today announced the appointment, by the First Minister, of Professor John Harries, as Wales' first Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA). Having a CSA in Wales is something that CaSE has long campaigned for along with a number of other organisations, most notably the Royal Society of Chemistry.

02/02/10 Roundtable at the Lords
Nick Dusic participated in a discussion meeting at the House of Lords to discuss the Principles on Scientific Advice.

28/01/10 Meeting with Lord Drayson
Nick Dusic met with Lord Drayson and others to discuss the government's Guidelines on Scientific Analysis for Policymaking consultation, including the proposed Principles on Scientific Advice.

28/01/10 Keeping Engineering on the Agenda
In a blog on the New Scientist S Word website, Professor Hugh Griffiths, chair of the CaSE executive committee, argues that while science and engineering have many issues in common, it is important that politicians do more than just pay lip-service to the latter. He commented that “Science and engineering are tightly intertwined and depend on many of the same structures and principles - as do mathematics and other related subjects - typically dealt with under ‘science policy’. But it is important to recognise that there are specific issues for each area.”
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28/01/10 Setting a positive tone for Science and Engineering
This week’s Nature editorial urges scientists to repeatedly deliver a coherent pro-science message rather than fighting their corners against planned or anticipated cuts. It singles out CaSE for its collaborative work in the run-up to the election. As well as working behind the scenes for supportive policies for science and engineering, CaSE has organised a Cross-Party Science and Engineering Policy debate and will be writing to the party leaders asking them to set-out a positive science and engineering policy agenda. CaSE is also be building the resources available on this blog to track the relevant commitments of the different parties as well as allowing discussion of election issues that affect science and engineering.
Read the Nature editorial.
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20/01/10 General Election Meeting
CaSE members and collaborators attended a meeting at the CaSE offices to share and develop their pre-election activities.

18/01/10 Nick Clegg on science
Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats, today gave his first speech on science at the Royal Society, which CaSE attended. On the blog, Hilary Leevers analyses what the speech actually tells us about Liberal Democrat commitments to science and engineering in the run up to the election.
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View a wordle of Nick Clegg's speech

13/01/10 Science and Engineering Debate
350 people attended the CaSE Science and Engineering Policy Debate between Lord Drayson (Lab), Adam Afriyie MP (Con) and Dr Evan Harris MP (Lib Dem) at the Institution of Engineering and Technology, chaired by Roger Highfield of New Scientist. They were joined by 150 people watching the debate online and a host of tweeters eager to join the discussion. Responding to questions from audience, the three speakers agreed and differed a on range of issues including research funding, education, innovation and scientific advice in government.
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Watch the debate

12/01/10 Academy of Medical Sciences
Professor Sir John Bell, President of the Academy of Medical Sciences, has outlined his vision for UK medical sciences on the CaSE Notes blog
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05/01/10 Voting Science
Hilary Leevers argues on the CaSE blog that science and engineering issues need to feature in the run up to the General Election and outlines some of the work that CaSE is doing to achieve this. Voters need to know where the parties stand on science and engineering issues and prospective MPs need to become engaged with them before the successful ones enter Westminster.
Read the blog post



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