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Future innovation threatened by ‘science for sale’

Closer ties between business and university science threaten to stifle public debate about science and distort research priorities, according to a report published by the think-tank Demos. The Public Value of Science: Or how to ensure that science really matters argues that ethical considerations and public engagement should become part of everyday scientific practice.

The report will be launched on Monday 5th September at the BA Festival in Dublin, to coincide with a keynote speech by Professor Robert Winston, this year’s President of the BA. Writing in the foreword to the report, Lord Winston calls on his fellow scientists to do more to engage the public:

“The scientific community once believed it could assuage public concerns over the misuse of science by better communication. Now the watchword is ‘engagement’ and with it ‘dialogue’. The scientific community is beginning to realise, but often reluctantly accept, that we scientists need to take greater notice of public concerns, and relate and react to them. Expressions of despair at public ignorance, impotent polemics about the advantages of technology, assertions that our economy is threatened by reactionary attitudes, attempts at manipulation of the press, are all totally inadequate responses. The time is right for examining the means and the details of public engagement.”

The report’s authors, James Wilsdon and Jack Stilgoe of Demos and Brian Wynne of Lancaster University, recommend that the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee investigates the influence of business on academic research.

“Collaboration between universities and businesses is important,” says James Wilsdon, co-author of the report. “But we need to ask who’s setting the agenda for science. There’s a real danger that commercial pressures will restrict the openness of academic research, and stifle wider debate about the role of science in society.”

The report also proposes a radical overhaul of the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), which fails to recognise the value of ethical reflection by scientists or engagement with the wider public.

“Scientists need more opportunities to talk about the ethical choices they are making, and the purposes to which their research might be directed,” says James Wilsdon. “The structures surrounding university research – for funding, career development and research assessment – currently push in the opposite direction.”

The pamphlet also proposes a Commission on Emerging Technologies and Society, which would support public and policy debate about key developments in nanotechnology, biotechnology and neuroscience. Half of the Commission’s members could be scientists, policymakers and other stakeholders, and half could be drawn from the general public. The Commission would also be tasked with initiating wider public engagement exercises.

Welcoming the publication of the report, Roland Jackson, Chief Executive of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, said:

“This publication echoes the theme of this year's BA Festival of Science - 'Setting the Agenda for Science'. Society's relationship with science and its applications is at a critical phase. People are increasingly asking, why we do science, where it is taking us and who it is for. Fundamentally, the tensions around science and its applications are concerned with values, ownership and democratic participation. This pamphlet from Demos offers both a challenge and an enormous opportunity for the scientific community to inform and co-create a vision of the public value of science.”

Notes to editors

  1. The Public Value of Science: Or how to ensure that science really matters   is published by Demos on 5th September 2005. Copies can be downloaded from www.demos.co.uk/publications/publicvalueofscience or ordered from Central Books on 020 8986 5488.
  2. Dr James Wilsdon is Head of Science and Innovation at Demos. His previous publications include See-through Science: Why public engagement needs to move upstream (with Rebecca Willis). Brian Wynne is Professor of Science Studies at Lancaster University. Dr Jack Stilgoe is a Researcher at Demos.
  3. Demos is an independent think-tank. The Public Value of Science is part of Demos’ research programme on science and innovation.
  4. The Public Value of Science was produced in partnership Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Environment Agency, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Practical Action and the British Association for the Advancement of Science. It was partly funded by the government’s Sciencewise programme.
  5. The BA Festival of Science 2005 will take place in Dublin from 3-10th September. The theme for the Festival, as decided by the President for 2005 Professor Robert Winston, will be 'Setting the agenda for science'.