Over the past nine months, we have been engaging with organisations across the sector to discuss the major skills challenges they face. We have run roundtable events across the country in partnership with the Open University, Glasgow Science Centre, Vialto Partners and the Gatsby Foundation, thank you to them all for their support. At Diamond, it was great to be able bring members together to discuss our work so far and hear their thoughts.
It was fantastic to bring together CaSE members at Diamond Light Source last month, to discuss our recent work on the skills needs for a more research-intensive UK.
Seeing the breadth of research in action at Diamond Light Source, the UK’s national synchrotron, set the scene for a stimulating discussion about major skills challenges and a real focus on potential policy solutions.
In sub-groups we focussed on four areas:
- Regional challenges
- Technical education
- Re-skilling and lifelong learning
- Immigration
Following the chance to see the synchrotron and talk to the scientists and engineers using it over lunch, we spent the afternoon sharing the early findings of our Discovery Decade project and discussing the importance of engaging the public in R&D.
Along with our own Ben Bleasdale, we heard from Isabelle Boscaro-Clarke, Head of Communications, Engagement & Impact at Diamond Light Source, and Adam Shore, astronomer & Education Lead at Kielder Observatory. They discussed some of the opportunities and challenges around engaging the public, and explored with our audience how our Discovery Decade project could support organisations in their own public engagement.
We hope to be able to use the public opinion polling from our Discovery Decade project to support organisations already engaging with the pubic, adding an additional resource to their work. We look forward to continuing to share this work with members and the wider sector.
Thank you to everyone who joined us for the discussion and fed into our work. It was great to be able to bring you all together and we are using the discussions to shape our final report on skills for a more research-intensive UK, which we hope to publish in the next few months.
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