10 | EVENT REVIEW | ARMA ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2014
"HER SPEECH WAS HERALDED BY AT LEAST ONE DELEGATE AS LIKELY TO ‘TRANSFORM THE SECTOR’"
LEARNING FROM THE PAST; PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE
By David Coombe, Director of Conference Planning
ABOVE & RIGHT: The 24th Annual Conference took place on Monday 9 to Wednesday 11 June at the Hilton Hotel and Conference Centre in Blackpool
THIS YEAR’S CONFERENCE was entitled ‘Learning from the past; preparing for the future’. It might equally have been entitled ‘Speaking truth to power’ because of the hard-hiting speeches by two speakers with high- level experience of research-informed policy-making from the policy-making angle and the research angle respectively: Andrew Miller MP, Chair of the House of Commons Select Commitee on Science and Technology critiqued the use (and abuse) of scientific evidence and called for greater openness to evidence- based policy-making but also for more willingness on the part of universities to involve themselves in providing and communicating that evidence; and Professor Dame Judith Rees, co-Director of the high- impact Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment (LSE) and President of the Royal Geographical Society exposed the under- funding of science policy and the cross-subsidisation of research by student tuition fees, and the irrationality of building the nation’s science capacity on the vagaries of undergraduate student demand. Her speech was heralded by at least one
delegate as likely to ‘transform the sector’. We will see; but certainly it has already caused waves among senior funders and has finally brought out into the open an awkward truth. If anyone wants to dispute it – and policy-makers will – they need look only at the evidence. But back to the future (and to past lessons): If Judith gave us an exposé of government
science policy, Andrew offered a critique of the other side to the uneasy relationship between government and science: the use of scientific evidence on areas of policy-making. He criticised the propensity toward ‘policy-based
evidence-making’ exemplified by John Howard’s complaint that ‘policy-makers are being bullied by zealots’ (Judith and her climate change colleagues have experience of bullying in the opposite direction!) and the mainstream media for offering a false ‘balance’ in the face of overwhelming evidence. But he also sounded an optimistic note, pointing to the significant success of his commitee in promoting the use of science and the increasing number of chief science advisors even at the highest levels of government. Nor did Judith blame all the sector’s ills on science
policy. Pressures to publish (or perish) and to publish in ‘top’ journals, the skewing of the jobs market and internal promotions, and the undervaluing of innovative and interdisciplinary research cannot be blamed on the REF, she said, for the issues are to be found across national boundaries. The blame lies squarely at the feet of academics themselves, who are making these decisions and forming these judgements. The call therefore to us, as we prepare for the
future, is to look within and to do what we can do inside the institution to ensure that the best research is rewarded; and to look outward, to communicate findings to those who can use it – to keep up the pressure for full funding of research. UB
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