Blogs

The UK National Audit Office has published a report on cross-government funding of research and development.  This can be seen in the context of UK plans on Brexit and the need for UK Research and Innovation to develop leadership and strategic capabilities for the UK science base for the future. The findings are summarised as:

“Some areas of research have well-established arrangements to support coordination and collaboration between public-sector funders. But some newer areas, including important emerging technologies and areas of national importance, need more effective leadership.As a proportion of GDP the UK spends less on research and development than many comparable nations. Government needs a coherent view of the UK’s research strengths relative to other nations and analysis of funding in key areas of research, so that it can prioritise areas where activity is lagging behind and ensure the UK is investing in the right areas.”

In addtion to the Report, there are more detailed documents on methodology and key sectors that receive funding from multiple sources in government:

• Research and Development Evaluative Framework
• Research and development case study Climate research
• Research and development case study Energy research
• Research and development case study Human health research
• Research and development case study Robotics and autonomous systems research
• Research and development case study Advanced materials research
• Research and development case study Animal and plant health research

The UK Government Office for Science, headed by Sir Mark Walport, has published its 2014 annual report.  It covers the functions of the office, including the key workstreams for 2013-14:

• science, big data, analytics and the City [of London] - creating a new alignment [use of big data in finance]
• opening up scientific research data [G8 and open data]
• Alan Turing Institute [UK research capabilities in data science]
• Climate change; science and communication [there was also a House of Commons committee report on this in 2013]
• Chief Scientific Adviser's forthcoming report on innovation, risk and regulation
• security
• flooding
• horizon scanning [there was another parliamentary committee report on this as well]
• foresight - manufacturing, city futures, demographic change, ageing society, computer trading in financial markets, and migration and global environmental change.

The European Commission has published an In-depth Report on Environmental Citizen Science (December 2013) as part of its Science for Environmental Policy programme. Refers to natural history museums a number of times.

The UK National Audit Office has produced a memorandum - Research and Development Funding for Science and Technology - for the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee in preparation for an inquiry on R&D funding - deadline for submission of evidence 28 August 2013.

Sir Mark Walport, the UK government's Chief Scientific Adviser, spoke to the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee on 21 May 2013.  Streamed content on parliament tv