Britain's Council for Science and Technology Issues A Vision for UK Research. (March 3, 2010)

The Council for Science and Technology (CST) is the UK Prime Minister’s top-level advisory body on science and technology policy issues, Gordon Brown's equivalent of US President Barack Obama's PCAST.

The fourteen members of CST:

Professor John Beddington (co-chair), Chief Scienctific Advisor to the UK Government
Professor Dame Janet Finch (co-chair)
Professor Geoffrey Boulton
Professor Peter Davies
Professor Dame Wendy Hall
Dr. Hermann Hauser
Professor Alan Hughes
Dame Sue Ion
Sir Paul Nurse
Dr. Raj Rajagopal
Dr. Philip Ruffles
Professor Michael Sterling
Professor Kathy Sykes
Sir Mark Walport

Yesterday CST released a 53-page report, A Vision for UK Research about the future of Britain's scientific enterprise. It emphasises that: "There is a real sense of urgency – and one that is brought into sharper relief by the global economic crisis and the present age of austerity – which reinforces the need for expenditure on research to compete successfully with other financial demands facing Government." The authors go on to urge: "that the debate [on resourcing research should be] re-cast to emphasise two linked processes: first focusing on excellence across the research base, and second harvesting the products of the research base."

The Council goes on to make seven sweeping recommendations. So far neither the Labour government nor the Tory opposition have commented publicly on the report.

The Recommendations