Monthly report on Professional Affairs - March 2000

Contents

• Professional/policy activities
• Digest of reports in science journals and newspapers
  • Science Policy: UK
  • Science Policy: International
  • Higher Education
  • Secondary education
  • Communication of science

Professional/policy activities

A Working Party set up by the Biochemical Society's Professional and Education Committee (PEC) recently commissioned a pilot study on biochemistry provision, and the currency of the Core Curriculum drawn up in 1996. Twelve departments from a range of different types of universities submitted course documents that were used to inform students, or for Subject Review purposes, and so were readily available. The study found that these documents were sufficient to compare provision across departments. In general terms the participating departments largely covered the biochemistry topics in the core curriculum, and the latter was found to be still relevant. However, the amounts and scope of chemistry teaching and of practical tuition were frequently less than recommended.. The report is due for consideration by PEC and Executive Committees. Participating departments will shortly receive a copy, with notes about their individual provision, and it is anticipated that the report will be circulated later to all departments. A summary of the study will appear in The Biochemist.

Following up the 'Follett report' on Postgraduate Training Martin Raff and Robert Freedman of UKLSC Executive arranged a meeting with the Director General of Research Councils early in April. They were led to understand that PhD stipends will be increased, and that there will be changes to allow individual research councils more flexibility in balancing stipends, course duration, and student numbers. The Society and UKLSC participated in the e-mail discussion forum that elected a slate of 15 people for QAA's Biosciences Benchmarking Group. The list has been circulated and any comments are invited by the end of April.

A review of 1999/2000 policy activities has been written for the August edition of The Biochemist.

Digest of reports in science journals and newspapers

Science Policy: UK
The Council for Science and Technology, the government's senior advisory panel, published a review of the exploitation of science and technology by business. It recommended that government policy should focus on the following areas: increasing the number of top quality people to lead and manage the growth of high-tech businesses; raising the standing of technology in the UK and creating a strong under-pinning platform of enabling technology; developing a financial pipeline to meet the needs of high-tech companies; and providing modern and efficient sponsorship support from government departments. Government should promote the two-way flow of senior technologists between industry and academia, and seek to improve career pathways for students and researchers in science, engineering and technology (DTI news release, 7/3). In this regard the Chancellor's budget statement did little for post-16 education but provided a raft of measures that would benefit universities with spin-off companies, or with links to external companies (THES, 24/3). The government's White Paper on science and innovation has been delayed until after the summer, when the outcome for the science budget of the next Spending Review is known. Ian Gibson MP was reported to be drafting an alternative paper on science and technology, with a central theme of support for researchers in the early stages of their careers (Res Ft, 22/3). Anticipating that the White Paper would focus on developing the role of universities in information and technology transfer, Innovation Policy Review (Feb) asked whether this was the real issue. It drew attention to the lack of investment in R&D by much of industry, and the demand for short-term returns by shareholders and financial institutions, citing unfavourable comparisons with the US and Germany. These points were taken up again by the Professor of Physiology at Dundee in an essay in THES (17/3). Data were presented to show that UK universities are as effective as US ones in terms of activities leading to disclosures, patents, licences, or the return of cash in royalties.

A report from the AUT and the Institute of Education, based on a survey of 2000 academic staff, found that 40% supported a new entrepreneurial spirit in universities and 85% were happy for business to access their services. But there were several barriers to progress: conflict between the academic tradition of early publication of research results and business desire for confidentiality; conflict between the desire to perform research carrying high reward in the RAE, and applied research that was considered to be regarded less favourably; and a lack of recognition and reward for staff who get involved with the business community. The report highlighted issues of academic freedom, university priorities, and the way staff are employed. It also found that despite the statistics above, more than half of those surveyed spent no time on work directly related to the national or local economy, and only 7% spent more than 5h per week (FT, 7/3; THES, 10/3).

Two reports from the Wellcome Trust based on surveys of current and past funded PhD students 'painted a gloomy picture of a community worried about salaries and career prospects in academic science'. The reports reinforced the widely-held view that many young scientists are rejecting academia (Nat, 30/3; Res Ft, 5/4; THES,7/4). Res Ft noted that the reports raised several policy questions, including what was the ideal proportion of PhDs that should be expected to move to industrial research rather than academia, and should current PhD courses be broadened to cater for those who will take up positions outside research.

The government came under fire for deciding to site the new synchrotron at the Rutherford Appleton laboratories rather than at Daresbury. It considered that the scientific case for both sites was balanced, and said that it made its decision in accordance with Wellcome Trust and French government preference. The decision was softened by announcing a �50 million package to strengthen the science base in the north-west (all papers 14/3; Nat, 16/3; THES, 17/3). Supporters of Daresbury complained of a lack of transparency in the decision-making process and of the disproportionate influence of the Wellcome Trust, whilst the Commons Science and Technology Committee also expressed its unease about the decision to the government (Gdn, 15/3; Nat, 23/3). The French embassy said that the French government had no clear preference as to site, but this was later denied by UK government sources (FT, 23/3; THES, 24/3). Sir Richard Sykes supported the government in a letter to FT (27/3), arguing that the synchrotron was best located close to a leading centre for structural biology. Res Ft (22/3) asked whether the government was wise to ring-fence money from the science budget for one particular region. Other regional development agencies could produce similar strategic plans for exploiting research, and the government could not meet all expectations.

Huntingdon Life Sciences has urged the government to take strong action against animal rights activists who are targeting its shareholders with threats of 'peaceful demonstration' outside their homes. The police view was that the action of the activists in writing to shareholders warning of demonstrations if they did not sell their shares was not itself a criminal offence (FT, 31/3). The Research Defence Society revealed that it is receiving about 30 complaints a month about animal licence applications being unduly delayed by the Home Office. The administrative burden of processing applications appeared to have increased beyond the system's capability to cope, and more inspectors were needed. The downward trend in the number of reported animal procedures was halted last year, chiefly due to increased usage of transgenic mice. The RDS estimated that the future use of transgenics could increase the number of animal procedures by 5% a year, and this would be embarrassing for the government (Nat, 6/4).

Science Policy: International
The joint statement by Clinton and Blair that sequence information from the Human Genome Project should immediately be made available to other researchers resulted in a marked fall in biotech share values, despite the fact that the statement also noted that patent protection for gene-based inventions would play an important part in stimulating the development of future health-care products (Gdn, Ind, 15/3FT, 16/3; Sci, 17/3). Sci (24/3) considered that the temporary fall reflected a lack of understanding of many shareholders of the nature of biotechnology, but that it also provided an opportunity for international action to clarify the boundaries of intellectual property protection for gene-based inventions. The US National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the Royal Society supported the Clinton/Blair statement, and noted that the reward provided by a patent must be commensurate to the benefit to the public. It did not serve society well to have broad gene sequence-based patent claims accepted for future therapies or diagnostics without real evidence for the applications (Nat, 23/3).

In a recent policy statement the US NAS called for more stringent checks on GM crops but concluded that there was no evidence that the new foods constituted a threat to health. The breeding process was not the issue, it was the specific product that should be the focal point of regulation. Both GM and conventional crops bred to resist pests, for example, could have unintended impacts on other insects (Gdn, 6/4). German researchers were pressing the government to reconsider its laws on embryo protection so as to allow better access to embryonic stem cells. At the present time they could use human stem cell lines produced in other countries but could not create their own (Nat, 30/3). In the UK the Nuffield Council on Bioethics recommended that cloning for therapeutic purposes should be allowed using stem cells from embryos that would otherwise be destroyed, and with the consent of the embryo donors (all papers, 6/4). The panel of experts drawn up by the government was now expected to recommend a change in the law to allow use of embryonic stem cells for such research (DT, 3 /4).

At a meeting of EU research ministers and heads of European science organisations it was agreed that the ministers would ask the Commission to provide money for the running costs of European research facilities. Last year, for instance, the European Bioinformatics Institute in Cambridge faced a funding crisis because EU money was disallowed for this purpose. The scientists at the meeting strongly criticised EU peer-review systems and called for greater transparency and efficiency (Nat, 16/3). Claude Allegre has been replaced as the French minister for research and education. His arrogance and inability to consult or negotiate effectively were considered to have been his undoing. He had recognised the problems in French research and introduced initiatives to help young scientists, but had been unable to institute broader reform. His successor would need to rebuild confidence in the research community and seek to bring about negotiated change (Nat, 30/3; Sci, 31/3). 83 Life science journals have agreed to make their back issues freely available on the web through the not-for-profit organisation High Wire Press. For most journals this would be 1-2 years after print publication. Some journals questioned the need for PubMed Central, arguing that it was preferable to be able to select their own host sites rather than being forced into a common site (Nat, 9/3).

Higher Education
A report for HEFCE on funding selectivity confirmed that a few universities are taking the bulk of research funds and that their rate of growth is accelerating. Research grants and contracts have gradually shifted towards large universities with medical schools. Since 1987 the proportion of research students trained in such universities increased from about 66% to greater than 70%, and about 75% of total research active staff were from this group. The RAE had resulted in better management of research and made the system more transparent, with better communication of research results (Res Ft, 8/3; THES, 24/3). All the sub-groups examining options for future funding had now produced interim reports and HEFCE had drawn up a number of alternative assessment mechanisms for consideration. These included funding based on a formula linked to research income, competitive bidding, partial dual support transfer, combined teaching and research assessment, rolling assessment, and partial RAEs eg excluding 5 and 5 star rated departments in alternate cycles (Res Ft, 5/4). SHEFC has also been carrying out a review. It was considering increasing the weighting in its research block grants to take into account success in attracting research income from industry, in line with the priorities of the Scottish Executive (Res Ft, 5./4). It was also consulting on how its mainstream funding could be improved to give greater job security to contract research staff (Res Ft, 8/3; THES, 10/3). Two of the priorities for BBSRC in the next two years were to provide a stronger strategic steer on research grants, and to increase the number of 5-year support grants (Res Ft, 22/3).

UCL was reported to be leading a campaign, with support from about a dozen universities, to force QAA to reconsider its planned quality assurance framework. There had been discussion of a body other than QAA conducting subject review for some universities, anticipating that institutions would group according to status and mission (THES, 24/3). The Chief Executive of QAA raised doubts about government plans to provide 2-year Foundation Degrees primarily through FE colleges, because QAA had found that quality failings were disproportionately high in such colleges (Ind, 6/4; THES, 17/3).

The third round of the Joint Infrastructure Fund backed 27 projects in 21 universities, with a 1 in 8 chance of success. At least half the awards in this round went to the biomedical sciences, with new facilities for genomics research prominent (Res Ft, 5/4; THES, 7/4).

Secondary education
The Council for Science and Technology made recommendations on how to improve school science teaching, drawn from the results of a survey of school teachers performed by KCL School of Education in 1999. It called for improved subject-specific, classroom-based continuing professional development for qualified teachers, and for the government to facilitate the identification of best practice in science teaching and to encourage teachers to make the most of resources and support provided by a range of organisations in the voluntary and public sectors. The KCL study had found that nearly 30% of physics teachers, 26% of biology teachers, and 13% of chemistry teachers taught GCSE classes though they did not have an A-level in the particular science (DTI press release, 7/3).

The annual report of OFSTED inspections in 1998/9 also noted that the quality of science teaching in secondary schools had declined relative to other subjects, and pupils were generally not making enough progress in science during early secondary school years (TES, 24/3). Figures released in April showed that applications for maths PGCE were down 23%, biology 12%, chemistry 22%, and physics 10%. The �5000 'golden hellos' for new teachers had boosted recruitment in the first year of their introduction, but had had little effect the following year. The Secondary Heads Association thought that the nature of the job-considerable government prescription, and a failure to feel valued and appreciated-was more of a disincentive than salary level (all papers, 13/3). In response to the 'crisis' the government announced that PGCE students would be paid a �6000 stipend, with those in shortage subjects such as maths and science receiving a further �4000 (TES, 31/3). Whilst the money was generally welcomed it was seen a threat to the future of BEd degrees, which train mainly primary teachers (THES, 7/4), and letters to TES (7/4) considered that the government had made the wrong diagnosis of the problem. There may be more recruits, but many would still leave teaching in the early years after experiencing the nature of the job, albeit with lesser student debt!

Communication of science
The comprehensive report from the Lords Science and Technology Committee on its inquiry into Science and Society was well received and widely reported (all papers 14/3; New Sci, Nat, 16/3; THES, 17/3; Res Ft, 22/3). It noted that the public considers that science today is exciting, that there is a great deal of public interest, but also public mistrust of certain areas of science. The report recommended ways to improve the dialogue between the scientific community and the public: through redirecting 'public understanding of science' approaches so that they appeared less condescending; through providing scientists with advice and training on how to present their work better to the public and to the media; and by changing the culture of government policy-making so that it becomes normal to bring scientists and the public into dialogue about new developments at an early stage. The report recommended that efforts to communicate science should either be recognised through the RAE, or there should be an alternative funding stream to reward this activity (Res Ft, 22/3).

A survey of 1800 members of the public by the DTI and the Wellcome Trust reinforced the view that the public recognises the value of science. Large majorities supported statements including: "scientists and engineers make valuable contributions to society" (84%); "science and technology are making lives easier, healthier and more comfortable" (67%); "Britain needs to develop science and technology in order to stay competitive" (80%); and "basic research that may bring no immediate reward, but that advances the frontiers of knowledge, should be supported by the government" (72%) (DT, 18/3).