Government Science & Engineering e-Newsletter
Wednesday, 30 November 2011
Dear Colleague
It’s almost Christmas; a good time to take stock of progress of our personal and team goals for the year. Judging from last week’s Civil Service Awards, some of us have evidently exceeded our goals. Many congratulations to the Atmospheric Dispersion Group in the Met Office who scooped up the award for the best Science, Engineering and Technology project of 2011. You can read more on this story below.
Also in this newsletter, we bring you further achievements across government, as well as a mini-survey on how we can increase the number of women in STEM and in senior positions within science and engineering professions. We'd like to encourage you to join the debate on our Linkedin Group about opportunities for progression and would be happy to hear from you on this or any comments or questions you may have. Please email us on GSE@bis.gov.uk.
Wishing you a wonderful festive season.
The Skills & Profession Development Team at the Government Office for Science
Contents
Articles
Congratulations to the winner of the Science, Engineering & Technology Award 2011
This year’s Civil Service Awards took place at Lancaster House on Thursday 24th November. Sir Gus O’Donnel, Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service, presented the award to the winner of Science, Engineering and Technology category, the Atmospheric Dispersion Group in the Met Office.
The Group was recognised for its handling of two natural hazard events that occurred in the first half of 2011 which required an authoritative and customer-focused response and use of world-leading atmospheric dispersion science. Firstly, the Japanese earthquake and tsunami severely disabled the Fukushima nuclear reactor in March, prompting concerns over the possible dispersion of radioactive nuclides both locally and on an international scale. Secondly in May, just a year after the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull, the Grimsvotn volcano erupted on Iceland requiring ash cloud advice for the airline community and the Department of Transport to help inform the response.
Following the Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident in 1986, the Met Office developed its NAME (Numerical Atmospheric-dispersion Modelling Environment) in order to predict the likely transport of radioactive material from future incidents. Using wind and precipitation forecast data from the Met Office's world-leading computer forecast model to predict the dispersion of atmospheric contaminants, NAME is now in its third generation and is used for a variety of purposes including the transport of volcanic ash.
Congratulations to the Atmospheric Dispersion Group on a job well done and a rightly deserved award.
Photo copyrighted to Paul Heartfield – www.paulheartfield.com
Revised Code of Practice for Scientific Advisory Committees Published
The Government Office for Science (GO-Science) is pleased to announce that the revised Code of Practice for Scientific Advisory Committees (2011) is now available its website.
The Code of Practice for Scientific Advisory Committees (CoPSAC) 2011 brings the 2007 code up to date, making it more accessible and linking it specifically to the ‘Principles of Scientific Advice to Government’. The document has been completely restructured to address ambiguity or gaps identified through consultation, although the content of the guidance has not altered substantially.
The team hopes that you will find CoPSAC 2011 a useful reference guide on all aspects of Scientific Advisory Committee governance and operation. Please do contact the team at sigsciencestrategy@bis.gsi.gov.uk if you have any queries or wish to discuss the code in more detail.
Foresight presents “a new and improved” Horizon Scanning Centre
The Foresight Horizon Scanning Centre (HSC) in the Government Office for Science is entering an exciting new phase in its programme. The team is continuing to offer timely inputs into government strategic thinking by working with departments to examine key policy issues using futures or scenario planning techniques. Alex Salvoni has recently joined the team on secondment from the MOD where he used futures methods extensively to inform the department's strategy-making and he will be joined by another Futures project leader early in the New Year.
The HSC are also reviewing the highly-regarded training in Futures and scenario planning which it runs for participants from across government. This training is intended to help government policy-makers, strategists and analysts incorporate a more forward-looking dimension into their work. If you would like to find out how you can access the training or wish to discuss your requirements for training or for futures advice please contact Alex Salvoni.
Royal Society Partnership Grants – applications open on 3 January 2012
The Royal Society would like to encourage GSE members to work with students through its Partnership Grants scheme.
The scheme provides up to £3,000 for schools to work with scientists and engineers on creative investigations that inspire students with the wonder of cutting-edge science or engineering research. A Partnership Grants project offers students the chance to get really ‘hands-on’ with science or engineering, and develop their practical and critical thinking skills whilst enhancing their scientific knowledge. Bringing a scientist or engineer into school can be a fantastic source of careers inspiration, and long-lasting partnerships such as these can benefit schools for years to come. Great examples of creative projects can be found on the Royal Society website.
Funds are available for projects working with students aged between 5-18, as long as the project involves a UK school or college, and a practising scientist or engineer. The next round for applications opens on 3 January 2012 and closes on 24 February 2012. For more details about eligibility criteria and to find out how to apply via the online application system, go to the RS website.
Royal Society is happy to discuss ideas for projects, and the team can be reached on education@royalsociety.org or 0207 451 2554.
New GIS data download service launched by the Forestry Commission
The Forestry Commission has formally launched its DataDownload service, which enables users of geographic information systems (GIS) to download spatial datasets directly from its website.
Users previously had to ask Commission staff to manually prepare and download datasets for them. Sixty-two datasets are now available, many of which had not previously been publicly available. A total of 1800 datasets were directly downloaded by users during a pilot project between June and mid-October, saving the equivalent of 900 hours of Forestry Commission staff time.
Peter Weston, Head of Inventory, Forecasting and Operational Support (IFOS) for the Commission, said,
“We’re delighted to be able to offer this service to our customers, which has several benefits for them, us and the taxpayer. It:
- provides users with unlimited and faster access to our GIS data without any need for our staff to get involved;
- assisted the Commission towards compliance with the European Union’s INSPIRE directive on data sharing;
- uses standardised data and metadata ‘products’ to offer greater usability and consistency;
- improves the currency of the data, with all the datasets being updated to agreed timetables;
- improves our knowledge of the use being made of the data, and helps us to increase its use;
- features seamless handling of data licensing as part of the download process;
- facilitates and reduces the number of Freedom of Information requests; and
- opens the possibility of our being able to recover costs by charging for more bespoke and complex data requests.”
The service is available from the Commission’s website, and further information is available from the IFOS team (olly.stephenson@forestry.gsi.gov.uk; tel: 0131 314 6142 or ian.macleod@forestry.gsi.gov.uk; tel: 0131 314 6427).
How can we increase the number of women in science and engineering profession?
Sir Adrian Smith, Director General of Knowledge and Innovation, and champion for Equality and Diversity in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), posed an open question to colleagues on 15 November on the BIS intranet. He asked “what can be done to improve the low participation rates of women in many areas [of science and engineering], with few women making it to the top in a number of academic and scientific and engineering professions.” As this is a problem that government, academia and industry continue to struggle with, he would like to hear from anyone with a possible solution. GO-Science would be pleased to hear from GSE members on their thoughts on this issue and communicate with Sir Adrian’s office accordingly. Members are also welcome to ask for charts showing GSE gender comparisons if they are interested.
Please email us on GSE@bis.gsi.gov.uk by end of December 2011 or post your views on the Linked-in discussion board. Thank you.
Interested in systems analysis?
Make learning your new year’s resolution! We’re in the process of setting up an ‘Action Learning Set’ on systems engineering and systems analysis. This will build on existing initiatives in a number of departments to share methods and knowledge on systems engineering and support the development of skills applicable to a wide range of policy areas.
How does it work? By bringing together GSE members with common learning objectives we hope to help them to share knowledge, skills and experiences and potentially seed the development of 'communities of practice' within GSE that can work together across departmental boundaries on topics of common interest.
Please email us on GSE@bis.gsi.gov.uk by 6 January 2012 if you are interested in participating. You are also welcome to contact us if you have an idea for other action learning set topics. Thank you.
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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