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THEME 1: MAINTAINING AND DEVELOPING THE EXCELLENCE OF THE SCIENCE RESEARCH BASE
Main issues
1. Scotland's science research base is excellent in many areas. But we need to grow more areas of excellence, and ensure that we are set on an upward track over the next 20 years and beyond. We need to ensure that funding is delivering a base of international reputation, and one that is ready to seize opportunities as the science and innovation agenda shifts. In this consultation we therefore need to take views on:
- How we maintain, and build further, the competitiveness and excellence of the science research base
- How we build synergies and connectedness in the science research base and where necessary restructure it, so that we maximise its responsiveness to new opportunities
- How we promote the strengths of the science research base more effectively both at home and abroad
- How we identify strengths and areas requiring capacity building as well as areas requiring de-prioritisation
- How we link into and work with the UK science and innovation agenda
Excellence in the science research base and optimising synergies across the science research base
2. Against a backdrop of strongly increasing global competition in science we need to maintain and develop the competitiveness of the Scottish science research base, in order to attract investment and gain maximum economic and social benefit. To help meet this challenge the Executive and UK Government have increased investment in science and research very significantly in real terms in the last two spending reviews. However, in a country of Scotland's size, there are inevitably questions about the balance between funding for basic, "blue-skies" research, and targeted funding for a strategic purposes. Similarly, there is a debate about how far funding should be concentrated on the very best research departments, or spread more thinly to ensure promising research is fostered. In Scotland, university research funding has been less concentrated amongst the highest rated departments than in England. We already have a number of promising initiatives that encourage partnership working, which take advantage of Scotland's relatively small size, and this needs to be further developed. The appointment of a Chief Scientific Adviser for Scotland in 2006 will help to co-ordinate such developments.
We need to:
- ensure that following the next Research Assessment Exercise in 2008, funding for university research is allocated in a way that enables excellence to be maintained and developed.
- be able to identify and fund research opportunities that have the prospect of delivering excellent economic, social and environmental benefits.
- develop excellent horizon scanning for new opportunities,
- continue to support the strengthening of strategic linkages and synergies between the various parts of the research base, and to develop a consensus on how best to achieve this.
Identifying and promoting the strengths of the science research base
3. Scotland has an excellent reputation in several areas of science, including those where there is likely to be significant growth and economic impact, such as e-science, drug discovery and nanotechnology. While the original science strategy proposed developing clearer funding priorities around such areas, in practice it has been difficult to establish a consensus amongst stakeholders about which areas should be targeted in this way.
We need to:
- have a flexible approach to recognising and funding such opportunities
- develop the promotion of the particular strengths of the Scottish science research base alongside this, in order to attract investment from outside Scotland, and to forge new strategic links with international science.
Ensuring the science research base is fully connected to UK funders
4. The Executive fully supports the UK Government's Science and Innovation Investment Framework 2004-2014 and Next Steps reports . The Government's intention is to increase investment in science by at least the rate of annual GDP growth. This should benefit Scottish science greatly, given that our share of Research Council spending has averaged around 12% of the UK total.
We need to ensure that:
- we continue to play strongly into UK funding priorities
- UK funders appreciate the strengths of the science research base in Scotland as a valuable resource in UK terms
- the science research base here continues to make strong collaborative links with that in the rest of the UK
- public agencies in Scotland work with the UK Government to implement the Science and Innovation Investment Framework: 2004-2014 and Next Steps
5. Views are sought in this consultation on what else can and should be done to ensure that we further develop our excellent science research base.
Commitments and actions from the Progress report on the science strategy
6. In responding to this consultation it would be helpful to have views on the following proposed aspirations and actions:
Long term aspirations
We will:
- Maintain and develop excellence in the Scottish science and research base and ensure that it remains globally competitive
- Continue to promote Scotland as a "science nation": a world-class location for science and research and development, with productive international education and research links in both existing and new markets
- Continue to develop our ability to identify new areas of scientific opportunity or strategic importance to Scotland's economy and society
- Develop strategic investment in research, in particular: to generate beneficial collaborations across the science research base in Scotland and with overseas partners; in emerging areas where Scottish science has the potential to be world leading; and to inform policy making where scientific evidence can play a significant role
Short to medium term action points
We will:
- Encourage further research pooling, and other strategic research funding initiatives and collaborations across the science research base which build on Scotland's research reputation
- Support the policy of Full Economic Costing of higher education research through the Executive, its agencies and Non-Departmental Public Bodies
- Survey periodically the shape and strengths of the research base across its breadth to identify opportunities
- Ensure the Scottish science research base is fully connected to UK funders and is valued by them
- Increase Scotland's influence in the UK science agenda through the activities of the Executive's three Chief Scientific Advisers
- Increase dialogue and links between the Scottish Executive, Whitehall Departments and the UK Research Councils
- Ensure that the Scottish Executive and its agencies work with the Next Steps agenda to maximise the benefits for Scotland and the UK
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