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.

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    24 October 1995] [Continued (iv) Some personal, small group communication exercises with key players may also be appropriate. (v) It may be appropriate to present panel findings and discuss prospects for implementation directly with Research Councils and Government Departments. In this case, to avoid possible duplication, it will be helpful if arrangements were made via OST. (vi) Rather than pursuing all recommendations simultaneously, panels might choose to tackle two or three “flag ship” recommendations during 1995. (vii) In considering action to take forward particularly R&D projects, panel should bear in mind two main mechanisms: (i) the existing LINK scheme and (ii) the Foresight Challenge Competition. OST will arrange briefing for panels on (i) from the LINK Secretariat and will provide guidance on (ii) following on from consultations with academia and industry about the general features of the Foresight Challenge Competition. (viii) OST will similarly arrange briefing for panels on international collaboration, in particular the European Framework Programme of collaborative research and other relevant S&T international agreements. (ix) OST will compile and circulate to panels a regular diary of foresight related events drawing on information from panels, research councils, departments, trade and professional bodies. BUDGET AND RESOURCES 4. OST will make available up to £40,000 to each panel for running costs over the financial year 1995-96 including regional workshops, other events, panel member travelling expenses and subsistence. In addition, as noted, support is available from DTI to pursue specific dissemination events with industry. Bids are to be channelled through OST. 5. OST will also provide a panel secretary (one per two panels) whose job will be to support the panels in achieving the tasks outlined. Where appropriate, panels should also seek to gain support from professional bodies, industrial associations and individual companies to help co-fund and organise dissemination events. OVERALL CO-ORDINATION, CROSS SECTORAL LINKAGES AND GENERIC ISSUES 6. Through the work of the panel secretaries on a day-to-day basis, and through periodic meetings with panel chairmen, OST will secure overall co-ordination. OST will also take the lead on the generic S&T priorities and on the generic “infrastructural” priorities identified in the Steering Group’s report. Progress here will be reported back to panels. Where appropriate, OST will form sub-groups consisting of members from different panels to address generic/cross sectoral priorities. NEw PANEL MEMBERS 7. Panel Chairmen are free to recruit new panel members (on a full or associate membership basis) as they see fit in order to discharge the above remit. The OST stands ready to provide Panel Chairmen with names of potential members from the original Conomination exercise conducted in 1994-95, should they wish to employ Conomination as a quarry. It might be thought appropriate to conduct preliminary consultation about new members among existing panel members and/or among key sectoral organisations (e.g., trade associations, professional bodies, universities). It would be helpful to bear in mind the need to draw new members from as wide a community as possible, and address issues of balance in respect of age, gender, business and academic representation, and regional interest in extending invitations to potential new members. Panel secretaries should provide contact details for all newly recruited panel members. MILESTONES 8. OST to arrange briefing on (vii) and (viii) in paragraph 3 above during July/September. Panels to produce a short report outlining their broad strategy and events to date by mid-November to feed into the OST/Steering Group’s first progress report on implementation by the end of the year. Panels to provide fuller account of progress to date by end-February 1996 for OST to provide Forward Look assessment. OST June 1995