Technology foresight : first report. Volume II, Minutes of evidence and appendices / Science and Technology Committee.

  • Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on Science and Technology
Date:
1995
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: Technology foresight : first report. Volume II, Minutes of evidence and appendices / Science and Technology Committee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/204 (page 2)
    24 October 1995] [Continued . — £70 million additional funding for DTI to support innovation and Foresight, part of which would be matched by industry. — The matching sums from industry would provide a total package worth some £170 million. 2.5 Mr Taylor also noted several other responses to Foresight, including new LINK programmes (see paragraph 4.2); and the Information Society Initiative designed to spread awareness of the opportunities and benefits that an information-based society can bring about. The Minister further announced that part of the Foresight Challenge Fund would be directed towards the components of EQUAL—an initiative to Extend Quality Life, which aims to take forward several foresight priorities, particularly in the health and medical field, under one umbrella. . 2.6 The OST and DTI welcome this opportunity to provide the Committee with an early insight into progress with the Technology Foresight Programme. The key objectives of the current phase of the Programme are: — Dissemination of the ideas contained in the reports of the Foresight panels and the Technology Foresight Steering Group. — Sustaining and extending the Foresight networks which are building partnerships between science and business. — Urgent consideration of Foresight recommendations. The OST, which leads the Programme, intends to provide an interim report on progress in pursuit of these objectives in December 1995, as announced in the 1995 Forward Look; and a first annual report in May 1996 with the 1996 Forward Look on Government-funded science, engineering and technology (SET). This memorandum, therefore, provides the Committee with a preview of how Foresight objectives are being taken forward. 2.7. The Government’s general strategy for taking forward Foresight is in two parts: (i) First, the Foresight panels themselves have been given a remit to disseminate their findings and to encourage the take-up of their recommendations in the public and private sectors. Where appropriate the Government will seek to broker joint action by panels in furtherance of priorities which envisage similar outcomes. (ii) Second, the Government collectively and individual Departments of State will seek to respond to Foresight priorities where a leading role for the public sector is required, for example, in reviewing policy and regulatory frameworks. Apart from the this general strategy a multitude of entirely voluntary actions by both public and private sector bodies are being undertaken. The Foreign Programme has encouraged a wide range of independent concerns— professional institutions, learned societies, trade associations, universities and firms—to review their strategic thinking and to initiate their own Foresight analyses. 2.8 The Government intends to encourage these developments. As the Steering Group recognised in its report (paragraphs 5.10 and 5.11) one of the main aims of Foresight is to promote Foresight activity at several levels in the economy. In due course, the Foresight “habit” will thereby become deeply embedded in the culture of our institutions. 2.9 The remainder of this memorandum reflects the Committee’s interests as stipulated in paragraph 1.1. Section 3 summaries the recommendations in Chapter 4 and 5 of the Steering Group’s report, Section 4 sets out how the priorities in Chapter 4 of that report are being taken forward with reference to Forward Look plans, and Section 5 describes the mechanisms being put in place to ensure that those recommendations are being addressed. Two concluding sections provide details of the resources devoted to the Programme (Section 6) and look to developments over the coming months (Section 7). | 3. PRIORITY RECOMMENDATIONS IN CHAPTERS 4 AND 5 3.1 The Steering Group identified two sets of priorities in Chapter 4 of its report. First, twenty-seven generic SET priorities were identified, ranging from work on the effects of demographic change to life cycle evaluation in relation to sustainable technologies. Second, eighteen generic infrastructural priorities were listed in respect of skills development, the science base, the communications infrastructure, finance, and the policy and regulatory framework. Annex A gives summary details of the Steering Group’s priorities. 3.2 In Chapter 5 of its repott the Steering Group made sixty-four recommendations, detailing action to be taken by the OST, Departments of State, Research Councils, Universities, Higher Education Funding Councils, and private industry. These recommendations are given in full in section 5.