A vision of Scotland becoming a science nation
Our Dynamic Earth: dramatic venue for Science and the Parliament event
 The sixth annual ‘Science
and the Parliament’ event was held
once again at Our Dynamic Earth,
Edinburgh on 1 November 2006. SCI
Scotland was one of 30 organisations
that took part in the exhibition
that ran during breaks in the
conference and during the evening
reception. The stand was manned
by SCI Scotland committee members
Andrew Ainsworth and Tom
Clarkson.
With the Scottish Parliament
elections due to be held next May
the event was subtitled ‘A Manifesto
for Science’. With all the major
political parties in the process of
writing their manifestos for the
forthcoming elections this was an
opportunity for the scientific community
in Scotland to influence
certain areas of policy.
Participants were welcomed by
Jim Feast, president of the Royal
Society of Chemistry, followed by
speeches by Nicol Stephen MSP,
Deputy First Minister and Science
Minister, and Anne Glover, the recently
appointed Chief Scientific
Adviser for Scotland. Both speakers
share a vision of Scotland becoming
a science nation.
A consultation paper, available
from the Scottish Executive, has
been produced to debate the issues
that will affect Scotland’s growth
into a science nation; this was
circulated to delegates in advance
of the event.
Preparing A Manifesto for
Science consisted of four breakout
groups each discussing one of four
policy areas:
- Enterprise and lifelong learning
- Energy
- Environment
- Education
Each group had to develop five
key themes for its policy area. These
were then presented to the whole
meeting and members of the
Scottish Science Advisory
Committee were on hand to make
comments on the themes and answer
pertinent questions. All the
themes from the breakout sessions
were collated by Ross Martin from
the Centre for Scottish Policy to be
forwarded to MSPs.
The formal part of the day was
concluded by an address by a representative
from each of the main
political parties at Holyrood.
Although none of the MSPs, David
Davidson (Con), Robin Harper
(Green), Jim Mather (SNP), Elaine
Murray (Lab) and Jamie Stone (SLD),
were able to discuss the manifesto
for the 2007 election, each gave a
general overview of their party’s
scientific policy and a few personal
opinions.
Tom Clarkson,
Scotland Regional Group
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