The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS), which is responsible for higher education in the UK, is seeking feedback to help it develop its new science strategy. The DIUS has put together a website for this purpose: interactive.dius.gov.uk/scienceandsociety/. There, you can read its latest report, comment on various sections of the report, or provide general feedback. I think that it's great that the UK government is seeking this sort of feedback, so if you're interested and have some time, go participate in this worthy endeavor.
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As expected, the special report issued by the IUSS Committee recommends the creation of a dedicated committee overseeing science policy in the UK Government.
Amid the carnage surrounding Gordon Brown's cabinet reshuffle, science has lost its footing and looks like it may end up as simply another tool for business and enterprise (read: grants redirected to profitable areas of research).
Today the motion for creating a dedicated committee to oversee science policy across Government was discussed in Parliament. Good news, we're getting it back. The Campaign for Science & Engineering had this to say:
That's quite interesting, I doubt I'll have time to do much in the next few months, but I'll certainly keep an eye on it. Of course, the cynic in me wants to point out that they've had rather a lot of feedback already from the scientific community, which has been largely ignored :S