Welcome to the ACSS Forums
Please select the forum you wish to enter Science and Society | |
| This forum is to discuss the issues in the Science and Society debate. The responses sent by the Academy to the government \'Science and Society\' [Sept 08] and \'Putting Science and Engineering at the Heart of Government Policy\' [Jan 09]consultations are available from the News page. | |
| The Role of Ethical Review | |
| This forum is to discuss the issues surrounding ethical review, some of which were outlined in Robert Dingwall\'s article in \"21st Century Society\" Vol 3 No 1 (Feb 2008). | |
| HEFCE funding for social science research | |
| Academy Learned Societies are concerned about the research funding allocated by the English funding council to the social sciences following the 2008 RAE results. The figures indicate that some £50 million has been removed from research funding for non-science subjects as a result of the decision to ring-fence funding for science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine.
This decision seems strange at a time when the Cabinet Office is reporting in Future Strategic Challenges for Britain (2008) that the challenges facing the UK are: globalisation; economic prosperity; life chances, talent and social mobility; the ageing and increasing diversity of the population; family life and communities; crime and public safety; climate change; and the modernisation and renewal of the constitution and democratic institutions. In addition, the government has put psychological well being and mental health high on its list of priorities. All of these are social science issues.
There is a strong relationship between research, higher education teaching and contribution to public debate in the social sciences, which are subjects where there is a need to keep abreast of the most recent issues and advances in understanding. This is particularly evident at postgraduate and doctoral level where there is strong demand from international students to study in the United Kingdom.
Underfunding university research in the social sciences is foolish, short-sighted and damaging. How might the Academy and the Learned Societies best lobby to try to change matters?
John Benyon (University of Leicester) Chair, College of Learned Societies, Academy of Social Sciences, representative of the Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom
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| Large Scale Facilities Roadmap Consultation | |
| The Academy\'s response to this consultation can be downloaded from the Home Page of this website and comments can be posted here. | |
| HEFCE REF Consultation | |
| The Academy \'s response can be downloaded from the Home Page of the website and comments can be posted here. | |
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