The Scottish Government

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CALL TO ACTION

19. Achieving the vision set out earlier depends on all of the individuals and organisations that make up the science base in Scotland - in the public, private and voluntary sectors. The focus of previous sections has been on what Government will do. This section lists a number of shared challenges. It is not exhaustive or prescriptive, but it is a call to action.

Local Authorities and schools should:

• Take forward robust implementation of science elements of Curriculum for Excellence in primary and secondary schools, and work with colleges and universities to produce and sustain effective, articulated learning pathways for learners.
• Engage with science CPD programmes and Determined to Succeed links to the world of work.
• Use Do something creative, Do science and The Path is SET material to encourage young people to study science.

Colleges should:

• Support implementation of the science elements of Curriculum for Excellence and the new Scottish Science Baccalaureate.
• Enhance the match of skills, competencies and qualifications to the needs of science industries through flexible learning opportunities, tailored courses, vocational qualifications, and a wide range of task-orientated competency-based learning.
• Increase their capacity further to work collaboratively with businesses to develop science skills and knowledge programmes which enhance personal effectiveness, technical ability, productivity and support sustainable business growth.
• Work with universities to meet the needs of learners and employers through comprehensive integrated provision, science research and knowledge transfer, while promoting skills utilisation.
• Work collaboratively with universities to enable a stronger contribution to international development and poverty reduction through harnessing an enriched combined capacity making possible increased 'research into results' and the securing of external funding from Scottish business, UK and international sources.
• Enhance the range of work-based vocational learning, assessment and accreditation opportunities, working in partnership with employers and Skills Development Scotland.
• Promote increasing participation in science, engineering and technology.

Universities should:

• Support implementation of the Science Baccalaureate and science elements of Curriculum for Excellence in primary and secondary schools, and work with schools and colleges to produce and sustain effective, articulated learning pathways for learners.
• Aim to better match science course provision to student and employer or sector demands and work with the Scottish Funding Council to address systemic barriers.
• Work collaboratively with local businesses to respond to their needs and develop their capacity to use science, research and product development to deliver innovation and sustainable growth.
• Grow the volume and economic value of research funding they secure from UK, EU and international bodies and business.
• Work towards the New Horizons shared ambition for the university sector.
• Work together and with HIE, SE and SFC to develop proposals for enhancing the way available IP is managed to optimise economic benefits for Scotland.
• Work collaboratively with colleges to enable a stronger contribution to international development and poverty reduction through harnessing an enriched combined capacity making possible increased 'research into results' and the securing of external funding from Scottish business, UK and international sources.
• Encourage scientists to participate in EU secondment programmes.

The Royal Society of Edinburgh should:

• Progress its plans to establish a business-led Forum to explore ways in which business demand for the exchange of scientific knowledge and its investment in R&D can be stimulated.
• Create an Education Committee to draw on the Society's fellowship and its partners to contribute authoritatively to the development of the science component of the Curriculum for Excellence, the Scottish Science Baccalaureate and the new qualifications framework.
• Plan, with partners and the Scottish Government, a seminar designed to highlight the opportunities for the development of science provided by Curriculum for Excellence; and for opportunities for partnership with schools.

The Scottish Qualifications Authority should:

• Ensure through a process of review that the content and assessment arrangements for science qualifications are both up-to-date and relevant.
• Take opportunities offered by the development and promotion of Scottish Science Baccalaureates to encourage greater uptake of science in the later stages of secondary and enhance both links and transition between school, college, university and employment.

The Scottish Funding Council should:

• Support research infrastructure which underpins existing and emerging world-class science.
• Prioritise both research excellence and strategic knowledge exchange.
• Increase support for knowledge exchange in order to support - with SE and HIE - industry-led strategic projects which will help key business sectors deliver increased and sustainable economic growth.
• Work with colleges, universities and others to better match science course provision to student and business demand.
• Work with universities to develop the research pooling model within available resources, by promoting inter disciplinarity, knowledge exchange and the international profile of science in Scotland.
• Support the development of research assessment arrangements which better recognise excellence in basic and applied research.
• Work with Universities Scotland, HIE and SE to develop the sector's proposals for enhancing the way available IP is managed to optimise economic benefits for Scotland.
• Work with colleges and universities to develop an enriched combined capacity for 'research into results' aimed at international development and poverty reduction and facilitate external resourcing from Scottish business, UK and international sources.
• Support Curriculum for Excellence and the delivery of National Outcomes.
• Work with colleges and universities to promote and support improved and more effective progression routes in science.

Scottish Development International should:

• Target and grow inward investment which links the requirements of international businesses with the research excellence of Scotland's science base.
• Work with the Office of the Chief Scientific Adviser and others to enhance the international marketing of science in Scotland and mobilise Global Scots and scientists to exploit their capacity to promote Scotland when travelling and working internationally.

Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Island Enterprise should:

• Encourage the commercial exploitation of scientific and technological breakthroughs that contribute to business growth in Scotland.
• Direct increasing support to key business sectors, using business demand to define strategic projects focused primarily on sustainable economic growth for Scotland. (Many of Scotland's key business sectors are dependent on science based innovation for their growth opportunities.)
• Assist science-based businesses to achieve accelerated growth by facilitating their access to investment and/or international calibre business management.
• Directly assist businesses with growth potential in Scotland to identify, and to implement, science-based business innovation.
• Nurture opportunities for co-creation of new scientific knowledge, which is of value to businesses in Scotland, by stimulating new demand led business-academia collaborations.
• Work with key industries to identify emergent market opportunities where Scotland has world leading research capability and the potential to become a world player in its exploitation, and to work collaboratively with the business sector and agencies of Government to align public investment with these market opportunities.
• Work collaboratively with Government and its agencies to assist in balancing the priorities for research excellence and strategic knowledge exchange, recognising that the latter is critical in realising exploitation in Scotland.
• Work collaboratively with Government and its agencies to ensure that science and technology students are encouraged to develop entrepreneurial, business leadership and marketing skills.
• Work with Government to influence the creation of the most appropriate fiscal, regulatory and taxation regime to stimulate business investment in R&D and innovation.
• Work with Universities Scotland and SFC to develop the sector's proposals for enhancing the way IP is managed to help grow successful businesses and optimise the economic benefits for Scotland.

Skills Development Scotland should:

• Support improved science skills utilisation, workplace innovation and business demand for science as part of skills, training and development skills.
• Support and build on the Do something creative, Do science marketing campaign by developing and sustaining a new, national careers programme - The path is SET.
• Work with businesses and learning and training providers to foster improved management, marketing and product development (the D in R&D) skills and capacity in Scotland.
• Work jointly with SE and HIE to gain better business intelligence on what businesses require in terms of science for shaping skills and training interventions.

SEMTA should:

• Establish a science skills forum to engage stakeholders and delivery partners and to improve collaboration and responsiveness to changing cross-sectoral skills requirements.
• Develop an MA in Life Sciences to help support the growing need for technicians to support industry and monitor stimulation provision in other science areas.

Businesses in Scotland can and should:

• Deliver profitable business growth using science as a source of product and process innovation to build competitive advantage in existing and emergent markets.
• Articulate the science and innovation challenges which key business sectors face in delivering to upcoming customer and market needs - thereby setting key challenges to which the science base can be asked to respond.
• Be more ambitious and demanding consumers of Scotland's capabilities in science and research.
• Work with Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, industry advisory boards, colleges, universities and others to build capacity to use science and innovation to deliver economic growth across Scotland's key business sectors.
• Engage in business-with-business and business-academia research collaborations, as appropriate, recognising that collaborative approaches can deliver increased benefits through sharing of knowledge, resources, costs and risks in delivery of the strategic research that underpins future product and process innovation.
• Develop and enhance the management, marketing and product development (the D in R&D) skills and capacity within Scotland's businesses.
• Support science education in schools by helping to develop Curriculum for Excellence, supporting teacher CPD or joining the Science Ambassador programme.
• Work with universities and colleges to ensure that Scotland's student population is aware of (and is inspired by) the challenges, opportunities and rewards of a career within a science-based key industry.

20. Detailed implementation of Science for Scotland will be driven forward and monitored through:

• The National Performance Framework, and Scottish Government's corporate and business planning arrangements.
• The corporate and delivery planning and reporting arrangements in place in respect of key bodies such as Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the Scottish Funding Council, Scottish Development International, NHSScotland, Skills Development Scotland and Rural, Environmental and Marine Delivery partners.

21. Each individual public body must review their detailed performance metrics - relating to for example the scale, impact and outcomes of improved knowledge exchange - to ensure they remain fit for purpose over time in terms of accountability and delivery.

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