The Parliamentary and Scientific Committee

The UK has a number of influential national academies. The Academy of Medical Sciences www.acmedsci.ac.uk serves the medical sciences in the same way that the Royal Society www.royalsoc.ac.uk serves the natural sciences, the British Academy www.britac.ac.uk serves the humanities and the social sciences and the Royal Academy of Engineering www.raeng.org.uk serves engineering science.

The independent academies of the UK are dedicated to promoting excellence in their respective fields. They play an influential role in national and international science policy and support developments in science, medical science, engineering and technology in a wide range of ways including providing objective advice for government and policymakers on science, its relationship with society and education.

The Institutes and Societies are leading international professional bodies and learned establishments, created to promote the advancement and dissemination of science in their particular field. The Institutes may have a world-wide membership, are major international players and often as part of their role, seek to influence government, inform public debate; promoting public awareness of their science. e.g. Institute of Physics, Institute of Biology, Royal Geographical Society and the British Ecological Society. The Royal Society of Chemistry www.rsc.org runs links days and has an active programme in Parliament.

The Foundations main purpose is to bring together in a neutral forum, representatives of both Houses of Parliament, officials from Whitehall, industrialists, academics and others to debate policy issues with a science or technology element www.foundation.org.uk.

The Foundation organises dinner/discussions and workshops on relevant issues when parliament is sitting.

The Foundation also provides a support service to learned and professional societies. Around 230 subscribe to receive the two monthly Newsletter. Seminars are organised on a regular basis on topics relevant to managing large and small societies.

Organisations such as CASE - Campaign for Science and Engineering in the UK www.savebritishscience.org.uk, Noise: New Outlooks In Science and Engineering www.noise.net and WISE; Women in Science and Engineering www.wisecampaign.org.uk seek to raise the profile of their cause with Parliament.

CASE in particular seeks to communicate to Parliament and the nation as a whole the economic and cultural importance of science and technological research and development, and the vital need for the funding of this research by Government and Industry.