Gordon Brown Kills UK Department of Trade and Industry Creates Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills. (June 30, 2007)

John Denham, UK's new Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills.

   Britain's new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown in his revamping of UK ministries has done away with the Department of Trade  and Industry and created  the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS).

The science budget will move to the DIUS, as will funding for university research, distributed by the higher education funding councils. A spokesman for Mr Brown said the purpose of the change was to bring science policy closer to higher education, and the Office of the Chief Scientific Advisor is to come under DIUS.

A written statement by Britain's new Prime Minister says: "The new department will be responsible for driving forward delivery of the government's long-term vision to make Britain one of the best places in the world for science, research and innovation and to deliver the ambition of a world-class skills base.
    "It will therefore assume responsibility from the DTI for science and innovation - including ensuring world-class research and increased business innovation. The department will oversee the science budget, which will remain ring-fenced and the dual support system for funding will be retained."

The Guardian reports that overall: "University and science groups welcomed the move, saying it will cement the relationship between higher education and the economy."

However, the Campaign for Science & Engineering (CaSE) warned that splitting responsibility for universities and schools into two departments could endanger efforts to improve science education in schools and reverse falling numbers of students taking science subjects at university, and urged DIUS to build strong links with the new Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory reform.

"Putting innovation and science right at the centre of a major Whitehall ministry is an excellent idea," said Peter Cotgreave, director of CaSE. "But there are real problems with science education in schools, so the new Secretary of State for Children and Schools is also going to have to spend a lot of time focusing on science, and if the new business and enterprise ministry is going to succeed in its stated goal of 'creating the conditions for business success' it will have to make sure the UK is seen by industry as an attractive place for science investment. It won't be able to just leave science and engineering issues to the DIUS".

The Royal Societies media release states: “Science plays a key role in improving people’s lives and as a driver for the economy. It is to be hoped that this new department will allow greater recognition of, and support for, that role ... we would have preferred the word ‘science’ to have appeared in the new department’s title.”

Science's Daniel Clery points out: "The United Kingdom's science budget had been managed by the Department for Trade and Industry, and higher education, by the Department for Education and Skills. But their coming together in a new Department for Innovation, Universities, and Skills (DIUS) is causing concern because a single department is now responsible for both arms of the "dual support" funding system--competitive grants provided by the research councils and direct funding to university science departments. "John Denham is going to have to ensure that the two halves remain distinct and that both sustain high levels of funding," says Peter Cotgreave of the Campaign for Science and Engineering."

John Denham will be the new Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills at DIUS. Born in 1953 he was educated at Woodroffe Comprehensive School, Lyme Regis and Southampton University, where he took a degree in chemistry though he has never worked as a chemist. He is in fact a career politician.

According to his Wikipedia entry: "Though regarded as a Blairite, Denham was a regular critic of the Blair administration as chair of the Home Affairs committee. Highly regarded by many in the party he has been suggested by some in the media as a potential modernising candidate for not only the Deputy Leadership of the Party, but as a credible challenger against Gordon Brown, although Denham did nothing to publicly encourage these rumours."