Annex B
COUNCIL FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
TERMS OF
REFERENCE
1. To advise the Prime Minister on the strategic
policies and framework for Science & Technology (S&T)
in the UK with the overarching aim of sustaining and developing
UK S&T and maximising their contribution to the nation's wealth
creation and quality of life.
2. The Council will take a medium to longer
term, strategic approach to its core tasks of keeping under review
and making recommendations on ways of improving:
(i) the performance of the UK (public and
private sectors) in S&T, in relation to current and future
national needs and opportunities;
(ii) the overall impact of the funding arrangements
for publicly supported S&T including those for research in
higher education institutions;
(iii) the effective use and exploitation
of S&T by business, Government and the public services to
create wealth and improve our quality of life; and
(iv) the synergy between the UK's domestic
and international S&T activities and the scope for the UK
to get more benefit from S&T collaboration.
3. The Council will also deal with more
specific strategic issues of national importance on which the
Government seeks its advice.
REPORTING LINES
4. The Council is advisory to the Prime
Minister and will submit its reports to him through the Cabinet
Minister for Science and Technology who chairs the Council on
behalf of the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is responsible
for appointments to the Council and the Government's Chief Scientific
Adviser is the Deputy Chairman.
MEMBERSHIP AND
MODE OF
OPERATION
5. The Council may work through sub groups
chaired by one of its members and possibly involving additional
non Council members with appropriate expertise who are co-opted
to help deal with particular, time limited pieces of work. Members
and non members may include appropriate experts from overseas.
6. The independent members will be drawn
from very senior, widely respected people active in the worlds
of academia, business, the City and from charitable sponsors.
They will represent the entire UK and be appointed on the basis
of personal merit and expertise following wide consultation.
7. The Council and its sub-groups may commission
studies as background to their work, and may invite and consider
papers from Government Departments, Research Councils, Funding
Councils and other relevant publicly funded bodies. The OST will
provide the secretariat.
8. The Council will be selective in its
approach, concentrating each year on a small number of matters
of strategic significance (say three or four) and dealing with
them in depth. One of the first tasks of the Council will be to
agree a forward work programme. Examples of strategic matters
within the Council's core tasks are provided below.
9. The Council will publish an annual report
and information about its work programme. Its advice will normally
be published.
EXAMPLES OF
STRATEGIC MATTERS
Task (i)
The performance of the UK (public and private
sectors) in S&T, in relation to current and future national
needs and opportunities;
— international benchmarking of inputs
and outputs to UK S&T;
— assessment of strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats concerning the UK's national S&T
portfolio, taking account of national and international trends
and developments;
— consideration of the balance within
this portfolio (eg between disciplines, between basic and applied,
between directed and responsive modes etc) in relation to longer
term national needs;
— consideration of industry's needs
for highly qualified S&T personnel and the extent to which
these are being met.
Task (ii)
The overall impact of the funding arrangements
and organisation of support for publicly funded S&T including
that undertaken by higher education institutions;
— monitoring of trends in public spending
plans for S&T and consideration of their implications;
— strategic overview of the national
dual support system for university research including consideration
of the optimal degree of selectivity and concentration of funds
for university research and of the operation of peer review;
— review of synergy between public
and private sector S&T investment in particular areas, and
between S&T investment between Government Departments and
Research Councils.
Task (iii)
The effective use and exploitation of S&T
by business, Government and the public services to create wealth
and improve our quality of life;
— review of indicators of exploitation/commercialisation
of S&T in UK, with international benchmarking of our performance;
— review of different models of transferring/diffusing
S&T skills and know-how from the research base to industry/other
users, and consideration of their policy implications including
those for dual use;
— review of international evidence
on role that fiscal instruments can play in stimulating commercial
exploitation of S&T.
Task (iv)
The synergy between the UK's domestic and international
S&T activities and the scope for the UK to get more benefit
from S&T collaboration;
— review of trends in patterns of UK's
international S&T collaborations;
— review of returns to UK from participation
in bilateral and multilateral overseas collaborations;
— consideration of scope for harnessing
international S&T activities to the UK's wider export promotion
and inward investment objectives;
— consideration of scope for UK to
promote national interests by more systematic development and
prioritisation of its bilateral S&T links overseas;
— consideration of UK's strategic aims
for sixth European Framework Programme;
— consideration of the scope for encouraging
international sharing of major scientific facilities and equipment.
March 1998
CST INDEPENDENT
MEMBERS
Professor S Kumar Bhattacharyya CBE FEng, Professor
of Manufacturing Systems, University of Warwick.
Professor Sir Aaron Klug OM PRS, President of
the Royal Society; Former Director, MRC Laboratory of Molecular
Biology.
Sir Robin Nicholson FRS FEng, Chairman, Pilkington
Optronics Ltd; former Director, Pilkington plc; former Chairman,
ACOST (predecessor body to CST); former Government Chief Scientific
Adviser.
Dame Bridget Ogilvie ScD FIBiol FRCPath, Director,
The Wellcome Trust; Trustee, Science Museum.
Professor Sir Stewart Sutherland FBA, Principal
& Vice Chancellor University of Edinburgh
Sir Richard Sykes DSc FRS, Chairman and Chief
Executive, Glaxo Wellcome plc.
Mr J Martin Taylor, Chief Executive, Barclays
Bank plc; former Director, Courtlands plc; Team Leader, Government
Review of the Tax & Benefits System.
[NB The above were all previous members
of the Council and have been reappointed.]
Professor Sir Alec Broers FRS FEng, Vice Chancellor,
University of Cambridge; formerly Professor of Electrical Engineering.
Career in IBM, becoming Manager of Advanced Development (UK) and
member of Corporate HQ Technology Committee.
Professor Keith O'Nions FRS, Professor of the
Physics and Chemistry of Minerals, University of Oxford; Chairman,
Research Council Individual Merit Promotion Panel. Links with
USA and Norway.
Miss Emma Rothschild, Director, Centre for History
& Economics, Cambridge; specialist in impact of technology
on society; Board Member, British Council; former member, Royal
Commission on Environmental Pollution. Links with USA and Sweden.
Professor Julia Higgins CBE FRS, Professor of
Polymer Science at Imperial College; Dean, City and Guilds College;
member, EPSRC.
Dr Christopher Evans OBE FBiol, Founder of Chiroscience,
Celsis and several other firms in biotechnology and other areas;
Chairman of Merlin Ventures (a venture capital fund supporting
high-tech start-ups); Professor of Biotechnology, University of
Exeter; member, President's Advisory Group on Competitiveness.
Dr Rob Margetts CBE FEng, Director of ICI, including
responsibility for research, technology, engineering, manufacturing
and personnel; member, Foresight Steering Group; Governor, Imperial
College; member, Council for Industry and Higher Education; Chairman,
Action for Engineering; former Vice President, RAE.
Mr David Potter CBE, Founder and Chairman, Psion
plc; Vice-Chairman, Press Association; member, London Regional
Council of the CBI; Board Member of HEFCE; former member, National
Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education; former Director, Charterhouse
Venture Fund Management Ltd; former lecturer in electronics, Imperial
College.
March 1998
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