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Science and Society: Mapping the landscape

One of Ian Pearson’s first acts as Science and Innovation Minister was to commission a mapping exercise to look at work currently being carried out under the broad science and society banner. This has included:

• the Public Sector (Government Departments and Agencies);
• international players;
• important actors such as Professional institutes, academies, charities and delivery agents; and
• the private sector (including companies, trade associations and support organisations).

We conducted the mapping by a combination of refreshing an existing 2005 Whitehall (Government/Agency) mapping, input from key organisations and desk research using the web. In some cases a qualitative measure of activity was applied to the categories below (high, medium, low priority); for the desk research a quantitative `tick in the box’ has been used.

The mapping has explored five areas across two broad target audiences:

• Public, including general public, children under 14, young people (14 and over), families and special interest groups such as teachers
• Other groups, including media (specialist and general), policy-makers (e.g. government, business, research, funders) and opinion formers (e.g. MPs, journalists, government)

The five areas that were mapped across these audiences are:

• Education: direct engagement with science in schools and higher education
• Public engagement: raising public awareness, engagement and support for science and innovation; science communication and dialogue; influencing science policy
• Public confidence: increasing public confidence in government’s regulation, governance and use of science; risk, ethics, codes of conduct, attitude surveys, etc
• Science workforce: ensuring that the UK economy has a sufficient supply of scientists and engineers; encouraging careers in science and engineering
• Increasing diversity: increasing involvement of women and ethnic minority groups in science and its governance; training, skills, flexible working practices

Initial analysis

The mapping work is ongoing but, from the data gathered so far, we have some emerging findings:

1. Public Sector (Government Departments and Agencies)

We are grateful to the Science and Society Champions Network for helping to generate this information.

Overview
There is generally a good to high level of engagement across government in all five policy areas. Relevance and consequent priority given by individual departments and agencies varies in line with their remits. Further work will be done to better establish how joined up and effective this is, including use of the existing Science and Society Champions Network (SSCN).

Education
Good to high level of engagement overall. Among central government departments, this is a notably high priority for DFT, DH and Scottish Executive.

Public engagement
This is a strong focus for most, especially interaction with media, policy-makers and opinion formers. It is also a high priority for many, e.g Defra and related agencies, BERR for bioscience issues and nuclear consultations teams, and Scottish Executive. It is clear that there is less actual interaction with the public, including schools, but still a priority for most.

Public confidence
Generally this is similar to Public Engagement, being a high priority, especially for DFT, HO and DH. Public confidence is treated as an even higher priority than public engagement where the general public is concerned. Again, this is lower where children and young people are concerned.

Science workforce
This is more relevant for some than others but a clear focus for those for whom this is an issue. Broadly, engagement on the workforce issue is with policy-makers and opinion formers – and to a slightly lesser extent the media – rather than with the public. This issue is a notably high priority for HO, DH and Scottish Executive.

Increasing diversity
Priority varies but is a focus for most, somewhat more so for agencies than for central government departments – though a notably high priority for HO, DH and Scottish Executive.

2. International science and society comparisons – points of interest

We are grateful to the Science and Innovation Network for arranging for this information to be provided.

Education
Educational activities are a stated priority for all but two of the 18 countries, with activities ranging from prizes for children to annual holidays with a scientific theme in France. Countries such as Ireland and Australia encourage linkages with the science centre community: in Ireland continuing visits to the science centre (across both parts of the island) is a statutory requirement of successful completion of schools programmes engaging both the primary and secondary sectors.

The Irish F1 (Formula 1) in Schools programme is a private initiative sponsored by organisations such as Honda, Dell and the Irish Computer Society to name a few. The programme is targeted at secondary level pupils, and involves building a 1/20th-scale F1 racing car capable of travelling at over 110km/hr – using advanced 3D design software, automated manufacturing technology

Public Engagement

Festivals: Out of 18 countries, 16 have well-publicised festivals with at least some element of Government funding. 9 of them had a publicly organised week long festival, while 5 had day long events (including science picnic days in Poland and Christmas science concerts in Korea) devoted to celebrating science. Singapore’s festival lasts for a month. In the US, where there doesn’t appear to be a federally-arranged festival, there are significant regional festivals in place. Regionally organised and/or private festivals were apparent in 9 countries, including those without a nationally arranged festival.

Other science campaigns, such as The German “Land of Ideas” campaign, for instance, enabled close linkages with interest in the 2006 World Cup. Getting the “science message” across has been attempted by a science barge in Germany, and by the Danish commissioning Galathea 3, a boat which circumnavigated the globe drawing attention to scientific discoveries. In South Africa, university students demonstrate scientific advances in shopping malls.

Awards & Competitions: 14 of the countries had some kind of award system in place, while a further 6 had awards resulting from competition activities aimed purely at school children. Awards were presented for communicating science and teaching of science (3 countries). Dedicated Prime Minister or Science Minister Awards exist in two countries, while South Korea offers awards for those involved in provision of online science content, and for those producing scientific literature. There is a similar aim in New Zealand, where there is a dedicated programme to support links between science and the arts.

Competitions for school children tended to be of the “Olympiad” variety, with China, for example, focusing on mathematics, and the US offering a Department for Energy-sponsored national Science Bowl.

Public Dialogue: Public Dialogue activities are not featured that highly on websites etc. At a national level, some form of dialogue/engagement seemed to be promoted by 5 countries.

Support for Media Initiatives: 6 Governments have defined links with news networks and the wider media, with Italy, for example, reportedly having a contract with the TV network to provide a dedicated science channel.

Public confidence
Concepts associated with tasks to build public confidence in science did not feature highly – only two countries were recorded as having conducted public attitude surveys, for example. However, increasing scientific literacy and building connections with different elements of society was approached in other formats – for example through Italy’s Science Citizenship programme, Japan’s Science & Technology in Society Forum and South Korea’s Science for Leaders programme, the last two of which involve building linkages between scientists and other elements of public society to foster greater understanding.

Science workforce
Ten of the countries seemed to have some clearly-defined mechanism in place for encouraging young people and those already at University to pursue careers in science. Methods include awards for various subject areas, to the Sci-Fest On the Road programme in South Africa. Enhancing the abilities of those involved in teaching science is also a consideration in four countries, with training and purchase of equipment being supported. Role model activity, such as the use of Ambassadors akin to the SEA programme, was mentioned by Korea only, although this should not be taken to indicate that this type of activity is not ongoing in other countries.

Increasing diversity
4 countries had policies in place to promote science to women, with 2 organisations similar to the UK Resource Centre for Women in SET (UKRC) in place and other initiatives including a Science Prize for Women (South Africa) and a National Girls Day (Germany). China and South Africa both have programmes in place to promote science to rural and agricultural communities, which may be geographically and educationally isolated.

3. Important Actors (Professional institutes, academies, charities and delivery agents)

Note: this section has largely been done using a desk research approach, looking at what is available to the public via web sites, prior to involving a wide spectrum of organisations.

Education
Education is one of the main priorities for this group. Almost all the organisations have varied activities in place ranging from providing information, educational resources, awards and prizes to specific activities and programmes aimed at increasing education of all groups. This is mainly targeted at children, young people, teachers, young professionals and businesses. The charities give financial support for educational activities and projects, and Nuffield Foundation have developed a Science in Society Course at A–Level in partnership with other educational partners.

Public engagement
Public engagement with each target group is another main activity of professional institutes with a number of activities within each group undertaken in varying degrees.

Public confidence
It has been difficult to glean from the web sites what specific activities are being carried out to increase public confidence. However, publications on ethical issues, issues of concern or codes of conduct embedded within organisational policies show attempts to bring awareness to public. Sense About Science, a charitable organisation is devoted solely to promoting good science and evidence to public.

Science workforce
In particular it is clear that there are a range of activities directed at encouraging, enthusing and supporting children and young people to study engineering. Charities are providing financial support in the form of grants, science competitions, initiatives, and special residential courses for 9-12 age group.

Increasing diversity
Women appear to get the bulk of the activity here with more limited attempts at broader diversity. Various sponsored awards such as Young Women Engineer of the Year, Young Women Engineering Apprentice of the Year, Women in Physics, Girls in Physics, Professional Engineering Award for People Effectiveness and UKRC Diversity Awards.

4. Private Sector (companies, trade associations and support organisations).

Note: this section has largely been done using a desk research approach, looking at what is available to the public via web sites, prior to involving a wide spectrum of organisations.

Education
This group provide varied and specific activities aimed at increasing education of all target groups, but mainly children, young people, teachers, young professionals and own members. The majority of organisations, especially companies, provide tailored educational resources, programmes and educational initiatives such as Chemical Industry Educational Centre and AstraZeneca’s Science Teaching Trust. Sector Skills Councils also work with government in development of courses, such as 14-19 Diplomas.

Public engagement
For children, young people and professionals the usual activities such as conferences, roadshows, industry days are common. However the majority of engagement is with media, government and opinion formers as representative of their sector.

Public confidence
Specific groups do not appear to be targeted. Most of the companies and organisations have company policy commitments for Health and Safety matters, environmental protection policies, environmental performance and impact assessments, while the Bioscience and Pharmaceutical industry have their code of practice, information centre on Animals in Medicine Research. Examples include: ABPI are members of Ministerial Industry Strategy Group on New Technologies; The BioIndustry Association (BIA) have a strategy of communicating benefits of innovative bioscience technologies; and AstraZeneca have in place a bioethics policy in their research and clinical trials.

Science workforce
There are a number of general and specific activities for children, young people, teachers and young professionals, from career advice, resources, prizes, scholarships, campaigns etc. Industry bodies and companies produce material for the media, policy makers, MPs etc, though much of this is of a lobbying nature.

Increasing diversity
Sector Skills Councils manage a Women in Work Programme. E-Skills run Computer Clubs for girls. For other organisations, it is not clear from the web sites whether there is any specific activity in this area but there are likely to be policies and programmes within organisations and companies to support diversity.