News

AsSIST-UK members joined with members of of both the House of Commons and House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committees to discuss how the Association can build lines of communication and policy advice to parliament. The meeting was extremely valuable and plans are underway to take various agreed actions forward. Details of the meeting can be found here AsSIST_UK + ST Select Comm meeting_agenda

The latest Newsletter from Edinburgh’s Institute for the Study of Science, Technology and Innovation has been published today. AsSIST-UK colleagues report on a range of new research grants they have won including on Food Security, the use of digital systems in the NHS and a new Centre for Biomedicine, Self and Society.

Further information can be found at:

ISSTI Newsletter November 2017

Patrick Vallance, president of research and development at the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, has been appointed as chief scientific adviser, the UK government announced on 8 November.

AsSIST-UK member and science policy expert, James Wilsdon, c hopes that Vallance will act as a bridge between the science community and policymakers, and will be open to a wide range of people and perspectives. The network of chief scientific advisers is not yet operating at full strength, he says, “so re-energising the collegiality and connectivity of that network though Whitehall is a really important thing”.

Further details

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The UK government recently published its review of and future plans for the life sciences and industry/NHS relations. The full document can be found at this link.

Continue reading “Life Sciences Industrial Strategy published”

AsSIST-UK is holding a themed day on STIS/science policy within the forthcoming Science In Public Network Conference being held at the University of Sheffield. Further details can be found at Conference programme

The report on the November 29th meeting in Edinburgh which was linked to ISSTI’s 50th anniversary and which brought together over 100 AsSIST-UK members is available

Continue reading “Report on AsSIST-UK/ISSTI Conference”

The S&T Select Committee has just published its latest report,  concerning science communication and (public) engagement. AsSIST-UK submitted evidence to the report during its deliberations. Continue reading “S&T Select Committee Report on Science Communication and Engagement released today”

The newly enlarged Innovation Caucus – now with 70 member from across the social sciences, includes a number of AsSIST-UK members. This is an important opportunity for STS to engage with policy. The Caucus is supported by the ESRC and Innovate UK. Continue reading “Enlarged Innovation Caucus and UK Industrial Strategy”

At the recent EASST/4S meeting in Barcelona, Pablo Santoro and Arthur Ferreira organised a meeting of STS/STIS national associations to discuss collaboration. Continue reading “New Directory of STS Associations”

There is a useful commentary by Dan Sarewitz in this week’s Nature on Trump’s election and the sort of science policies his presidency might consider pursuing.

Continue reading “Advice to President-Elect Trump”