Summer 2007

From the Chair

Stempra AGM 2007

Dummies at Westminster (and some mannequins)

Science advice for government? It's in the POST

Science communication with MPs

Saving British Science; Interview with Peter Cotgreave

The BA Science Communication Conference, any good, or not?

Eurochat

Stempra newsletter

Science advice for government? It's in the POST

Science and technology issues are becoming increasingly integral to public policy. Parliamentarians are bombarded daily with lobbying, letters from constituents, and media stories, relating to science and technology. They could deal with anything from the future of trident, to the impacts of climate change or the future of UK energy supplies. The number of parliamentary questions on science and technology reflects this trend - studies show that in 1988 only 1 in 100 questions related to S&T, but this had increased to over 1 in 20 by 1999. However, few parliamentarians come from a scientific or technological (S&T) background so they need support to help them tackle S&T issues. There are many roles for scientists in parliament - for example scientists work within the House of Commons library research service, as specialist advisers to select committees, or within the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST).

POST was set up in 1989 to provide parliament with independent, balanced and accessible analysis of public policy issues relating to S&T. We are probably best known outside parliament for our 4-page briefing papers or "POSTnotes" which cover a wide range of topics - recent examples include "tackling malaria in developing countries", "Computer Crime" and "Carbon footprint of electricity generation". About two thirds of all parliamentarians have signed up to receive our publications and they are also available on our website and in parliament's libraries. "POSTnotes" are widely read outside parliament -we receive requests from all over the world and from readers ranging from government ministers to sixth form students. Our publications are seen as reliable synopses of the current state of debate on any S&T issue - partly because they go through a review process involving external experts, drawn from across industry, government, NGOs and academia.

As well as writing POSTnotes, a substantial part of our work involves supporting parliamentary select committees with informal advice, oral briefings, data analyses, background papers or follow-up research. We also organise seminars and receptions within parliament. For example in April we co-hosted a parliamentary reception on international polar year. The reception attracted over 200 people - both parliamentarians and polar scientists - and helped parliamentarians learn about the importance of the polar regions and their impacts on climate change.

All our work is overseen by a board which includes 14 parliamentarians drawn from both the House of Commons and the House of Lords as well as leading non-parliamentarians from the science and technology community. The current chair is Ashok Kumar, MP for Middlesbrough, with Lord Winston acting as vice chair. POST is a relatively small organisation - we have six permanent science advisers, covering the fields of biology and health, physical sciences, IT and communications, environment and energy and science policy. We also run fellowship schemes with scientific societies and research councils, whereby PhD students can spend three months working with us, usually to prepare a POSTnote.

Details of all our publications and fellowship schemes can be found on our website.

Chandrika Nath
POST

<< Back to
current newsletter