SCIENCE AND GOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED-KINGDOM - SOME CURRENT ISSUES

This paper considers briefly some current issues affecting science and government in the United Kingdom: coordination, priorities, proximity to market, interdisciplinary research, personnel, international collaboration, quality, and value. It concludes that scientific bureaucracy must be self-effacing, ensuring propriety and accountability in the use of public funds, but otherwise operating with a light touch so that scientists are left free to get on with the science; that scientific decisions, including decisions about scientific priorities, are best taken by scientific minds; but that decisions about the public financing and organisation of scientific research are a matter for Government.