5 April 2022 - Delivering a UK science and technology strategy - Oral evidence

Departmental Chief Scientific Advisers and delivering a UK science and technology strategy

The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee will hear from two panels in its seventh evidence session in the inquiry: Delivering a UK science and technology strategy.

The Committee will continue taking evidence from Government witnesses. On the first panel it will talk to the Chief Scientific Advisers from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. On the second panel, it will hear from those who hold the equivalent roles in the Ministry of Defence, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and Department of Health and Social Care.

• Parliament TV: Delivering a UK science strategy

The Committee will ask about the how the research and development priorities, and the role of Chief Scientific Adviser, differ from department to department. It will seek to understand the mechanisms departments have to conduct or commission their own research and the role that publicly funded research establishments do, and should, play in this research. It will ask about the possibilities for the use of increased departmental research and development budgets. As part of this, the Committee will explore relationships across Government, for example, between departments and UK Research and Innovation.

The Committee will ask for a departmental perspective on how the establishment of the National Science and Technology Council and Office for Science and Technology Strategy will affect the work of the departments and Chief Scientific Advisers. The Committee will explore how effectively departments use public procurement to support research and development.