Research Councils (Hansard, 11 July 2000)

§ Ms Hewitt

Research Council expenditure on public understanding of science activities in the years 1994–95 to 1999–2000 was as follows:

not practicable to provide accurate total costings of promotional activities or to provide a breakdown for the cost of activities aimed at children.

My Department's largest investment is through the Science Budget grant-aided activities of the Research Councils, who all have science promotion as one of their responsibilities. Estimates of expenditure by the Research Councils are given in answer to the preceding question. The Royal Society also undertakes activities in this area some of which are grant-aided from the Science Budget at about £1 million per annum, and supports among other things the activities of COPUS.

The Department also administers two main programmes. A general programme administered by the Office of Science and Technology (OST), provides core funding to the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and funds the BA's co-ordination of National Science Week. It also provides additional support for the COPUS grants scheme, including its projects aimed specifically at promoting SET for women and ethnic minorities, and funds innovative projects aimed at bringing science to a wider audience through, for example, drama, art, and the Internet. In order to gain a better understanding of the public's attitudes to science, the OST also funded last year's 'Public Consultation on Developments in the Biosciences', and this year, in partnership with the Wellcome Trust, has undertaken a survey looking at public attitudes to science in the UK. The OST's budget for these activities in 1994–95 was £1.0 million, and has since risen to an average of £1.25 million per annum.

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The second main programme, supported from the Department's Innovation Budget specifically supports engineering and has had several manifestations since 1994. They include: The Action for Engineering (AfE) Initiative ran from October 1994 to June 1996. AfE brought together 125 people representing industry, education, the engineering profession and Government to take co-ordinated action to increase substantially the influence, involvement and achievement of professional engineers for the benefit of British industry. A total of £820,000 was spent under this programme over the period 1994 to 1999. One of the key outcomes of AfE was the establishment of the Science Engineering Technology Mathematics Network (SETNET), which has the objective of bringing coherence and co-ordination to the many schemes and resources aimed at fostering the teaching and learning of engineering related subjects (the sciences, mathematics, design and technology) in schools. In the period 1996–99, SETNET received funding of half a million pounds. A further £260,000 has been committed in this financial year to enable SETNET to plan for expansion of its network of SETpoints. The Year of Engineering Success (YES), which followed AfE in January 1997, was an industry led initiative that received some £520,000 in Government support. It was aimed at increasing the awareness of the vital contribution of engineering to the nation's success and prosperity, through an ambitious public participation exercise during the calendar year 1997. The Campaign to Promote Engineering (CPE) was formally launched in July 1998 following the conclusion of the YES. Funding of up to £425,000 per annum was approved in February 1999 for an initial three years with an option for a further two years after review.

The various scientific advisory bodies, including those that fall within my Department's responsibilities all see engagement of the general public as an important part of their activities, and the Chief Scientific Adviser's Guidelines on the use of scientific advice in policy-making stress the importance of transparency.