UK science has a new home following Gordon Brown’s reorganisation of the DTI and DfES into the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF). But the implications for the country’s science base are likely to be of little interest to the public, according to Peter Cotgreave, Director of the Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE).

Science and innovation
Science now falls within the DIUS, a position that has brought cautious optimism from those following its administration closely. CaSE interpreted the creation of a ministry with innovation at its heart as recognition of the importance of science, but added that if it is to be effective, the new department ‘will need to create fresh and robust mechanisms for sustaining strong links with schools and business policy’.
Martin Rees, President of the Royal Society, said: ‘The challenge for John Denham, the new Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills, will now be to ensure that the department has a strong voice at the cabinet table. Science plays a key role in improving people’s lives and as a driver for the economy. It is to be hoped that this new department will allow greater recognition of, and support for, that role.’
Molly Webb, researcher for the think tank Demos, thought that those people who are concerned about the public value of science would be reassured by its positioning with universities rather than business. She cautioned, though, that the new structure adds weight to the idea that ‘government tends to think of science as a first step in the innovation pipeline.’ This, she pointed out, can lead to a narrow focus and preclude the possibility of science rising fully to the huge challenges faced by society. Demos hopes the new structure will in fact be viewed as a ‘real opportunity to think afresh about the relationship between science and innovation’.

Little public impact
Initial disappointment that the word ‘science’ did not appear in the title of the department, expressed both by Peter Cotgreave and Martin Rees, was tempered by the announcement of a new Government Office
 
John Denham: a strong voice?
for Science, which will be headed by the Government Chief Scientific Adviser (GCSA) Sir David King, and which will sit within the DIUS.
But the impressions made on most people by all this are likely to be imperceptible. ‘There is little impact on the public,’ conceded Peter Cotgreave. ‘Half of them wouldn’t even know who the Science Minister is, let alone care about departmental structures!’
The Government Office for Science has responsibility for carrying out Foresight and Horizon Scanning projects, reviewing the management and use of science in government departments, providing the secretariat to the Council for Science and Technology and the Global Science and Innovation Forum, supporting the GCSA and ministers on international science and technology and supporting the GCSA in providing scientific advice to the Prime Minister and cabinet, among other things.

Vanessa Spedding is the Shorts Editor