The science community has long recognised the need for better science careers information for school students.  As such the Science Council is leading a collaborative project to tackle this need: 

Careers from Science is a primarily web-based initiative to engage young people and encourage them to appreciate why they study science and maths in school and to understand the breadth of opportunities that are available from studying science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).  Though targeting 11-19 year olds it will have sections for teachers, careers advisers and parents.  The project will build an awareness of the skills developed by studying science and maths, how they help keep options open and it aims to ensure that students have the right information to hand when choosing subject combinations.   Careers from Science will bring together good quality material, new and existing, to produce a website – FutureMorph - with a content and ethos which is strongly audience driven rather than organisation or discipline driven.

We hope to enable students from all backgrounds (and their parents) to be positive about opting for science and maths, improve the engagement of those pre-16 students who currently have to study these subjects, and increase the numbers of those choosing to study STEM post sixteen.

Careers from Science builds on an initial research project which scoped the need for such a resource and the content that would be required.  This research was made possible by contributions from the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Royal Society and the Institute of Physics.

An initial version of the website will be live from March 2008 with the final version and full materials available from September 2008, the web address will be www.FutureMorph.org

Details of recent project activities can be found here.

For further information please contact Nicola Hannam or download the documents on the right.

SCORE

Key players in the science community have become increasingly concerned about a number of long-term trends within science education and have set up a new partnership, SCORE, to bring collective action to bear on these trends. SCORE partners will take a strategic approach to strengthening science education, and believe that the key to maximising the impact of their efforts, especially their influence on government, lies in a greater degree of collaboration and in having a sense of common purpose.

The founding partners are the Association for Science Education, Biosciences Federation, Institute of Biology, Institute of Physics, Royal Society, Royal Society of Chemistry and the Science Council.

For further information please contact Nicola Hannam or download the documents on the right.

Integrated Diagnostics

The Integrated Diagnostics project was led by the Science Council's Science in Health Group in collaboration with the Academy of Medical Sciences. It aimed to identify opportunities for improving diagnostics - from the point of testing to the interpretation of results - taking account of the molecular revolution, automation and the application of informatics.

The report, entitled Integration and Implementation of Diagnostic Technologies in Healthcare, was launched in January 2008. The executive summary can be downloaded on the right, or for a copy of the full report, please contact Ali Orr.

Equality and Diversity

For further information please contact Lucy Stead.

Public Benefit Working Group

The joint working party founded between the Science Council and the Foundation for Science and Technology, will explore the implications of a public benefit test for learned and professional organisations within science with the intention of producing guidance for the sector and in particular what this might mean in practice for the advancement of science.  The working party will consider how the activities of learned and professional bodies fit within the principles of public benefit and the proposed guidance outlined by the Charity Commission and how learned and professional bodies can best demonstrate and account for their contribution to public benefit.

The agreed terms of reference for the group are as follows:

• to explore the implications of a public benefit test for learned and professional organisations within STEM sectors
• to increase awareness of, and produce guidance for, learned and professional bodies on the implications of the changes in charity law and regulation in particular in relation to reporting on public benefit
• to explore what the legal changes might mean in practice for the advancement of science 

Members of the working party include, Keith Lawrey (foundation for Science and Technology) Peter cooper (London Mathematical Society) John Brindley (Institute of Physics), Richard Dyer (Bioscience Federation), Diana Garnham (Science Council), Mary Manning (Academy of Medical Sciences) and Anne-Marie Piper (representing the Charity Law Association). 

Details of this project will be updated on this site. For further information please contact Lucy Stead