Marine Research Report

The House of Commons' Science and Technology Committee have released their report Investigating the Oceans, which addresses marine science in the United Kingdom. The Committee recommend the following:

• Urge Defra to bring forward to draft Marine Bill without delay.
• A new marine science agency should be established to coordinate marine science and research in the UK, to promote the education on marine science in schools, universities and the UK public to overcome the skill shortage in marine science.
• Both NERC and the government need to commit to ensuring that the research vessel planned for 2011 is delivered on time and that NERC should develop a case for a new coastal vessel.
• It is essential that the government establish Marine Protected Area (MPA) pilot sites ahead of the Bill, to assemble the necessary evidence required to develop the science needed to underpin MPA's and that MPA policy is directly linked to the draft Climate Change and Energy Bills.

Defra Science Advisory Council Meeting

Defra's Science Advisory Council (SAC) meeting yesterday covered Defra's science strategy development, social science research, Defra's animal disease strategy and climate change. The SAC announced that a sub-group would work along side Professor Robert Watson, the Chief Scientific Advisor, advising on the process of Defra's assessment on its scientific capability and capacity needs. The SAC stressed that current capacity and capability should be addressed to assess and analyse social science research as it is imperative that it is embedded into all policy decision making. Current research on ice cover in the Arctic during September 2007 was presented followed by council members welcoming Defra to fund pioneering studies on geo-engineering technologies. Concerns were made by the public regarding budget spending, whether aviation is to be included in the Climate Change Bill and adaptation to climate change.

Comprehensive Spending Review

In the 2007 Pre-Budget Report and Comprehensive Spending Review:

• Defra will receive an average annual increase of 1.4%, increasing the total budget from £3,508 million in 2007 to £3,960 million by 2010-11. This increase will provide the delivery of an increase to £800 million spent on flood and coastal risk management, a step-change in investment for sustainable waste management and a £570 million contribution to the Environmental Transformation Fund.
• NERC will receive an increase of 5.4% each year totalling £1.2 billion over the next three years which will assist in the Next Generation Science for Planet Earth 2007 - 2012 Strategy which will be launched in November this year. The Department for Innovation, University and Skills' budget of 18.7 billion in 2007-2008 will rise to £20.8 billion in 2010-2011, an average annual increase of 2.2%. This increase supports the Government's aim for Britain to be a world class place for science, research and innovation.

Sainsbury Review

Lord Sainsbury has published his review of the Government's science and innovation policies. The report entitled a Race to the Top calls for:

• A new leadership role for the Technology Strategy Board Working with the RDA's the Research Councils and government departments to co-ordinate public sector support for technological innovation, leverage public sector resources and simplify access to funds for business.
• Building on our success in knowledge transfer by giving more support through the Higher Education Innovation Fund to business-facing universities, setting targets for knowledge transfer from Research Councils, doubling the number of Knowledge Transfer Partnerships and extending these further to FE Colleges.
• A major campaign to enhance the teaching of science and technology including raising the number of qualified STEM teachers, increasing the number of young people studying triple science, improving careers advice, establishing a National Science Competition, and rationalising the many schemes to inspire our young people to take up careers in science and engineering.
• A key role for Government Departments based on an improved procurement capability, a reformed Small Business Research Initiative managed in partnership with the TSB, and consideration for the incorporation of innovation into the duties of the economic regulators.
• Increasing the focus of RDAs on science and innovation by encouraging them to put additional resources into TSB programmes, Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, high-technology clusters around world-class research universities, and proof-of-concept schemes consistent with a nationally agreed specification.

The Government has announced that it will invest £1 billion over the next three years to boost business innovation and technology development and will create a new science and innovation strategy, to help position Britain as a key knowledge economy at the forefront of 21st century innovation.

Review of Environmental Research Funding

The Environmental Researchers Funder’s Forum (ERFF) has produced a report analysing the placement of environmental research funding. The report aims to assist the UK’s primary funders of environmental research to maximise the coherence and effectiveness of research funding by identifying gaps and overlaps in the distribution of funding. Data was collated from environmental research projects funded in 2004 – 2005 by the 12 members of the ERFF including Defra, NERC, BBSRC and SEPA.

The period of 2004-2005, £263.56 million was spent on environmental research and £22.99 million was spent on environmental research training totalling a spend of £286.55 million. NERC and Defra accounted for 75% of the total spend during 2004-2005 making them the largest public funders of environmental research. Out of the 12 priority research areas that were analysed, £104 million was spent on natural resources; £95 million was spent on farming, fisheries, food, forestry and land use and £68 million was spent on climate change. The lowest spend was £6million on human health, flooding and flood defences. The allocation of funding for environmental research training coincides with the distribution of funding for research showing that natural resources gains the highest allocation of funding for both research and training.

Severn Barrage Development

Today the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC) released a report on the development of the Severn Barrage. If fully exploited, SDC have suggested that the barrage will supply 10% of the UK’s electricity which will combat both current issues of climate change and energy security. The barrage would generate large quantities of low carbon electricity thus assisting in reaching the 2050 climate change reduction targets and the renewable energy targets. Despite the potential advantages of the barrage, the SDC says there are serious environmental costs that need to be addressed.

The Severn Estuary is home to unique ecosystems that are protected under national and international legislation. The estuary is an internationally important site for 65,000 migratory birds, five of which are of international importance and ten are of national importance. The estuary is designated a Special Protection Area (SPA) under the EU Birds Directive and is a candidate Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) under the EU Habitats Directive. Surrounding areas of the Severn Estuary are also protected under international and national statutory designations such as RAMAR, SSSI and both Local and National nature reserves. These ecosystem habitats would be directly affected by the development of the barrage. Under the EU Directives, the development must go through a series of tests which includes providing habitat compensation costing in the region of 7.5million for a new 115ha habitat.

NERC Science Champions

The Natural Environment Research Council has named its 'champions' that will encourage partnerships across the research and stakeholder communities:

• Climate Change: Rowan Sutton
• Biodiversity: Lloyd Peck
• Earth System Science: Tim Jickells
• Natural Hazards: John Rees
• Sustainable Use of Natural Resources: Louise Heathwaite
• Environment, Pollution and Human Health: Roy Harrison
• Technologies: Alastair Lewis