Government Science & Engineering e-Newsletter
Friday, 31 August 2012
Dear Colleague
It’s been an exciting summer for scientists and engineers around the world. Curiosity landed on Mars and started work and the Olympics were a huge success and a fantastic showcase of what Great Britain has to offer, not only in athletic prowess but also in the engineering and construction of the Olympic Park.
Behind the scenes over August the GSE team have been working hard to learn more about scientists and engineers in Government and the career paths available. One part of this has been the survey of scientists and engineers launched in June. You will have seen an update on the results in July’s newsletter and a bulletin reminding you to have your say by 7 September. We can’t stress enough how useful this survey is in getting a snapshot of the community as it is now and it will help us set the direction for the future of the GSE community. To further develop the conclusions of the survey we will be holding focus groups within departments over the coming months, if you don’t hear anything from your departmental head of profession but would like to take part, please email GSE@bis.gov.uk.
With September almost upon us and everyone returning to work refreshed and restored, GSE will be offering several opportunities for professional development, from a visit to Cranfield University to the return of our popular professional mentoring scheme. Please keep an eye out on GSE Government Science & Engineering on LinkedIn for regular updates.
We hope you had a restful summer and enjoyed the Olympic atmosphere. We look forward to seeing you at a GSE event or workshop over the coming months.
Contents
Articles
Two Grade 7 vacancies in the Government Office for Science
Closing date Friday 14 September.
The first is arguably the most interesting Grade 7 job in the world of science policy - Private Secretary to the Government Chief Scientific Adviser. As with other PS jobs, you would manage a busy private office and act as the interface between the GCSA (a Permanent Secretary) and others across all government departments and beyond! This is a great opportunity for a Grade 7 or high performer on promotion to get rapid experience of working across all parts of government and with the Centre and of a huge range of issues from long-term global problems like climate change to offering advice to the PM and Cabinet Ministers in emergencies. This posting will be particularly interesting because it will span the transition between GCSAs as Sir John Beddington hands over to Sir Mark Walport in April 2013.
The second presents a unique opportunity to contribute to the increasing prominence of horizon scanning across government and the delivery of civil service reform. As a Futures Researcher in the Foresight Horizon Scanning Centre, you would have a varied and interesting role working across the full range of public policy with a wide variety of stakeholder departments to undertake analysis and strategic thinking for long-term policy issues. The job will involve developing, promoting and using horizon scanning and futures analysis methodologies to inform policy and strategy development, the design and facilitation of workshops and the running of a horizon scanning network. Previous experience of futures approaches such as scenario planning is highly desirable.
For the full job adverts and details of who to contact for more information, please log on to the civil service recruitment website.
Civil Service Awards – supporting the Olympics
This year there have been 25 nominees for the Science, Engineering and Technology award. The short listing is about to take place and the entrants going through to the next stage will be announced on the 19th September on the Civil Service Awards website.
Following the Olympics closing ceremony a one off Olympics award has been launched to celebrate individuals or teams who show excellence in delivering the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games. The awards will be judged and presented by Lord Coe.
Nominations for these special awards open in September so start considering which colleagues or teams you think have made a special effort for the Games and who may have shown:
- A commitment to excellence not only within your departments but for those who have also taken the opportunity to volunteer
- Measurable impact on the successful delivery of the Games
- Effective joint working arrangements that bring together colleagues from multiple teams, departments or other internal or external organisations
- Evidence of going the extra mile.
You can submit your nominations from 17 September – 5 October 2012 via the awards pages.
GSE visit to Cranfield University – 5 October 2012
On Friday 5 October, GSE members are invited to join us for a day at Cranfield University in Bedfordshire. The agenda runs from 1030 - 1530.
The theme of the day is Risk and Resilience. The visit will be divided into a morning tour of the facilities, including the Cranfield Impact Centre, the Aircraft investigation facility and the Energy facility, and discussions with the Cranfield staff. Then the afternoon will consist of working discussions for the GSE members and the staff of Cranfield. This event is a fantastic opportunity to see the cutting edge equipment that Cranfield has available. It will allow attendees to explore the subject of risk and resilience and how scientists and engineers in government can contibute to risk appraisal and provide advice on building resilience, as well as providing an invaluable opportunity to network with peers within government and the academic world.
If you would like to register please use the following link - https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/W7T39RP
Attendees or their departments will be expected to fund their travel to either Milton Keynes or Bedford train station. A bus service will then be provided to the Cranfield campus. Limited parking may be available on request. Further detail will be sent with joining instructions or contact Alison Williams at alison.williams@bis.gsi.gov.uk or on 0207 215 0657 for more information.
Have you joined the LinkedIn GSE community?
Do you want to get more involved with the latest news and discussions going on in the community? Or do you need help of advice from other GSE members?
The LinkedIn community is open to members of the GSE community and restricted to Civil Servants only. We currently have 231 members and would love to welcome more of you to the group and hear your views.
The current hot topics are:
• ‘Taking the dinner party test – how do you describe yourself?’
• The value of engineers in government
• Women in science and engineering
We have also created a systems thinking LinkedIn subgroup created to allow members to expand cross-govt networking opportunities for people working in roles requiring (or benefiting from) systems approaches and to encourage the sharing of ideas, knowledge and practice to improve the systems skills base across Government.
Met Office science supporting the Olympics and Paralympics
The Met Office provided weather forecasts for all Olympic and Paralympic venues during the Games. As part of the services provided for London 2012, additional weather observation equipment was installed and enhanced forecasting capability was developed. During the Olympic and Paralympic games the Met Office showcased some cutting-edge weather techniques and technology in its forecasting, as well as providing additional services for the public. To add specialist knowledge and expertise, the Met Office also had 12 forecasters on site across the Olympic venues throughout the games.
The science and technology developments for the Olympic and Paralympic Games helped to deliver increasing accuracy and detail in the weather forecasts available. The developments include daily air quality forecasts, high resolution wind and wave modelling for
For example, Met Office forecast models currently generate atmospheric weather data for every 1.5 km over the whole of the
Your chance to provide feedback on Science and Society Action Plans
The Science and Society Team in BIS is currently reviewing its programme of activity. The purpose of this review is to develop a set of BIS objectives for our science and society work, and a programme to achieve them, within the wider science and society community endeavour. We want to engage with as broad a stakeholder community as possible to ensure that our BIS objectives & programme complement the common direction of travel, adding value and contributing to overall greater impact.
In 2010 we published Action Plans on various aspects of our work (public engagement with science, the issue of trust in science, STEM careers and Science and the Media) which had been pulled together by Expert Groups from the Science and Society community. Over the summer these groups have reviewed the Action Plans and updated plans will be published shortly on the Science and Society Interactive site. http://interactive.bis.gov.uk/scienceandsociety/site/
We would welcome any feedback on how you may have contributed to the delivery of the actions within the plans and we would also like to hear any ideas for where this work could/should go in the future. We will be using the interactive site extensively during the review. You can either leave a comment on the website or email: scienceandsociety@bis.gsi.gov.uk
We look forward to hearing from you!
Side by side: innovation and engineering in disability sport 03 - 14 September 2012
The Royal Academy of Engineering is hosting a series of events combining a conference, workshops, lectures, reception and an exhibition at 3 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5DG.
The events aim to examine the role of sports, particularly disability sports, as a driver for engineering innovation and to illustrate new sporting opportunities to facilitate active lifestyles for people with disabilities.
See the Academy's events page for more information.
GSE needs you!
GSE Annual Conference 2013 is starting to come together and we need your help!
We need volunteers and ideas from the GSE community to help us build a worthwhile, engaging and educational event.
Please email GSE@bis.gov.uk or call Alison Williams on 0207 215 6057.
About the GSE e-Newsletter
The GSE e-Newsletter is produced by the Government Office for Science (GO-Science). It is circulated on a monthly basis and highlights areas of interest to the profession, including news updates, highlights of departmental activities, and details of events. The newsletter is for all civil servants with a science and/or engineering background or those with a strong interest in matters relating to the profession.
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