The Parliamentary and Scientific Committee

The Department for International Development (DfID) leads the Government's response to tackling world poverty through its support to long term programmes addressing the underlying causes of poverty and provision of emergency and disaster relief. DFID is represented in Cabinet by the Secretary of State for International Development and in the House of Commons by a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State.

The SoS is advised by both a Chief Economist and a Chief Scientist (CSA). The role of the Chief Scientific Advisor is to:

• Identify where new S&I can contribute to poverty reduction and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.
• Advice on systems by which DFID can access S&I and understanding how it might be used to promote poverty reduction.
• Enable DFID to be an "intelligent" customer of S&I.
• Promoting coherence across DFID and other departments in ways which will increase the contribution of the UK Governments scientific work to reduce global poverty.

DFID and Research:

• New science, technologies and ideas are crucial for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, but global research investments are insufficient to match needs and do not focus on the priorities of the poor.
• Many technological and policy innovations require an international scale of research effort.
• DFID's Central Research Department (CRD) commissions research to help fill this gap, aiming to ensure tangible outcomes on the livelihoods of the poor.
• CRD seeks to influence the international and UK research agendas, putting poverty reduction and the needs of the poor at the forefront of global research efforts.
• CRD manages long-term research initiatives that cut across individual countries or regions, and only funds activities if there are clear opportunities and mechanisms for the research to have a significant impact on poverty.
• CRD works closely with DFID's Chief Scientific Adviser to maintain external links, particularly with UK Science, Whitehall and political stakeholders, to promote DFID's agenda.

Contact Details

Website:	www.dfid.gov.uk
Address:	1 Palace Street, London SW1E 5HE
Telephone:	020 7023 0000
Email:	enquiry@dfid.gov.uk