The Council for Science and Technology (CST) was asked to explore how interaction between academia and public policy makers could and should be improved.
There is a firm belief that when working well this relationship is extremely mutually beneficial and is an important part of the policy making process. However it can be improved.
CST has now delivered it’s report: How Academia and Government can work together [PDF 170kb] which is publicly available for you to comment on. (An executive summary [PDF 19kb] of this report is also available.)
You can join the continuing discussion on the issues and recommendations by posting your views on any aspect of CST’s report on this blog.
Comments made on this page will be brought to the attention of the respective policy handlers for this issue on a weekly basis.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Your recommendations, which seem very sound in general, must be brought in line with the RAE 2014 (or whatever term is applied).
In particular:
“Core recommendation to Academia: Recognise and reward engagement with
Government through academic career development, in particular:
(i) By rewarding quality in non-research and non-publishable engagements
between academia and Government through career progression in the same
ways that traditional academic research excellence is rewarded.”
This appears a hugely ambitious goal but is absolutely vital to ensuring serious engagement by mid-career academics - otherwise you are left with those so secure in post that they can somewhat ’sacrifice’ their RAE contribution to the demands of relevant policy debate.