28/05/10 CaSE met with Merck

28/05/10 CaSE met with Hertfordshire University

27/05/10 CaSE met with Kingston University

26/05/10 CaSE met with Roger Williams MP to discuss current issues and future work

25/05/10 Hilary Leevers met with an adviser to the education, science and society section of the British Council to discuss their forthcoming work

26/05/10 Science and Technology Select Committee Returns
Confirmation that the Science & Technology (S&T) Select Committee will be re-formed for the new Parliament has been welcomed by CaSE. Before the election, the Select Committee did a fantastic job of scrutinising Government and public policy across a range of issues relating to science, engineering, and technology, and CaSE will be looking to engage closely with the new committee.
Read CaSE's full comments

25/06/10 CaSE met with the Royal Astronomical Society

24/05/10 CaSE verdict on cuts
CaSE has responded to the government's announcement of £6.24bn worth of cuts to public spending, which includes £836m cuts to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills(BIS), and £670m to the Department for Education. CaSE has registered its disappointment with these cuts and has called for reassurance from the government that investment in science and engineering will be maintained.
Read the press release

21/05/10 Science in the Cabinet
The Cabinet Office today released the new Ministerial Code, as well as details on the new Cabinet Committee System. There’s interesting news for science and engineering in both documents.
Read CaSE's comments

21/05/10 MPs to watch
CaSE has developed a list of those MPs with an interest or background in science, technology, engineering or maths (STEM) who have been re-elected or newly elected to Parliament. We have now written to these MPs, inviting them to engage with science and engineering issues.
View the list

20/05/10 Coalition Programme for Government
The coalition government today published its programme for government. The programme does not add much to the initial coalition agreement with respect to science and
engineering policies, and CaSE has called on the coalition to explain how and when it will develop a long-term strategy for science and engineering.
Read the press release

19/05/10 Royal Society Event
A post-election summit, hosted by the Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering, which looked back on a series of influential reports on Science & Innovation which were published in the run-up to the election, and forward to the most pressing issues for the new Government to address.

19/05/10 Imran Khan
CaSE is pleased to welcome Imran Khan on his first day as the new Director of CaSE

19/05/10 Collaborator Meeting
CaSE chaired a meeting between its collaborators and members focussing on post-election activities.

18/05/10 Science and the Assembly
Nick Hall attended the Science and the Welsh Assembly event at the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, hosted by the RSC. The theme of this year's event was 'science, innovation and enterprise'.

18/05/10 Education Policy
Hilary Leevers talked to Education Policy Lunchbox about Influencing Science Policy and Working Collaboratively

17/05/10 CaSE Letter to the Leader
CaSE wrote to the Leader of the House of Commons, Sir George Young, urging him to appoint a dedicated cross departmental Science and Technology Committee for the House of Commons.
Read the letter

17/05/10 CaSE Coalition Briefing
CaSE has produced a briefing document for its members looking at what the new Lib Democrat-Conservative coalition government will mean for science. The briefing looks at areas of agreement and difference in the two parties’ manifesto commitments and additional commitments made in letters from David Cameron and Nick Clegg to CaSE and elsewhere.
Read the briefing

14/05/10 CaSE met with the University of Leicester

14/05/10 CaSE met with the Institute of Food Science Technology

14/05/10 Welcoming Willetts
Dr Hilary Leevers has written for the CaSE blog on what the appointment of David Willetts means for science and engineering.
Read the blog

13/05/10 Scientists' turn to win votes
Rather than bemoaning the loss of science-savvy politicians in the election, this week’s Nature editorial urges scientists and researchers to engage with politicians. It singles out CaSE as a non-partizan organisation well-placed to make a broad appeal to the new parliament. CaSE has already started this work by writing to new MPs with a science background and has also written to the new Leader of the House, urging him to retain the Science and Technology Committee.
Read the Nature editorial

13/05/10 David Willetts appointed Minister of State for Universities and Science
CaSE welcomes the appointment of David Willetts as Minister of State for Universities and Science in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) with Vince Cable as Secretary of State for BIS.We look forward to working with him in the near future, starting with making a positive and strong case for funding science and engineering prior to the first budget. In 2007 David Willetts gave the Annual CaSE Distinguished Lecture on the relevance of science to all areas of society, as a basis for rational thought, and of how fundamental it is to our well-being.
Read the press release
Read the summary of David Willetts' CaSE lecture

13/05/10 CaSE met with Cancer Research UK and the University of Nottingham

12/05/10 Coalition Commitments
The election outcome gives the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats an opportunity to rethink and refine their election commitments. Science and engineering did not feature in the coalition negotiation agreement produced today, but looking through the parties’ manifestos and additional commitments made in letters from David Cameron and Nick Clegg to CaSE, gives us a feel for what the future might hold.
Read CaSE's analysis

12/05/10 Nick Hall attended an AMRC post-election discussion

12/05/10 Hilary Leevers met with the science adviser to the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee to discuss their and CaSE’s work.

10/05/10 Imran Khan appointed New Director of CaSE
CaSE is delighted to announce the appointment of its new Director, Imran Khan.

Imran has a strong background in science and science policy. He studied Biological Sciences at Oxford before taking an MSc in Science Communication at Imperial College, London. He built upon this background with work in the media, including periods at the Guardian, Radio 4, Understanding Animal Research, and the World Health Organisation.

Most recently, he has been developing his knowledge and experience in science policy by working in the UK parliament as senior researcher and head of Westminster office to Dr Evan Harris, former Liberal Democrat Science Spokesman. During this time, he pursued his interest in evidence based policy making by co-convening Westminster Skeptics. Imran also has a long history of voluntary work, often in the science and education sector, and is Governor of a local school.
Imran will be taking up the position on May 19th and will be attending CaSE’s meeting with its organisational members and collaborators that day to discuss future work.
Sign up to attend

07/05/10 Nick Dusic leaves CaSE
CaSE and many of its members and collaborators bid Nick Dusic a fond farewell as he left CaSE today.

Nick started at CaSE in December 2007 and has achieved a great deal since then. Under Nick’s leadership, CaSE developed a five year strategy for the organisation, published a number of policy reports, and modernised its communications, including revamping CaSE News and the monthly update and introduced CaSE to twitter and the blogosphere. CaSE has also expanded both the number and range of its organisational members. CaSE’s focus is on improving policies for science and engineering and Nick has achieved much in this area, working closely with Government Ministers, parliamentarians, and civil servants as well as other organisations. He has given evidence to the House of Commons and House of Lords Select Committees and is a frequent commentator in the media. In recent weeks, much of this work came to fruition, as CaSE secured, published and publicised commitments on science and engineering from the three main parties in the run-up to the election.

Fortunately, Nick will continue working with CaSE in the future as he has joined one of our member organisations, Pfizer, as Director of Science and Medical Public Affairs. He goes with our very best wishes.

07/05/10 Looking to the Future
With a hung parliament the likely result following yesterday's election, Nick Dusic sets out the challenges facing the new parliament, new government and science and engineering. Meanwhile Nick Hall looks at those new MPs with a science background who have been voted into Westminster.
Challenges for new parliament
Challenges for new government
Challenges for science and engineering
Read Nick Hall's blog

06/05/10 Election Day
Today millions of people in the UK have gone to the voting booths. Writing on the New Scientist S-Word CaSE Director Nick Dusic argues that thanks to CaSE and others, science has been placed much higher on the agenda for this election.
Read the blog post