Promoting physics, supporting physicists

Key Insight Business BriefingScience challenges and priorities across Government: insight from chief scientific advisorsChairman: Peter SaragaThe Institute of Physics15 May 2007www.iop.org

Promoting physics, supporting physicists

Science for development

Sir Gordon ConwayChief scientific adviser, Department for International Development

The Institute of Physics15 May 2007www.iop.org

Key Insight Business Briefing

SCIENCE FOR DEVELOPMENT Key Insight Business Briefing Institute of Physics, London,

May 15th 2007

Gordon Conway Chief Scientific Adviser, Department for International Development, UK

Professor of International Development, Imperial College

The Chief Scientific Advisers

• Roy Anderson Defence• Brian Collis Transport• Gordon Conway DFID• Howard Dalton DEFRA• Sally Davies Health - DG R&D• Anne Glover Scottish Exec• David Harper Health• Michael Kelly DCLG• Dave King OST (The CSA)• Keith O’Nions OST – DG S&I• Paul Wiles Home

Millennium Development Goals – by 2015

•

Halve poverty and hunger• Halve population without access to safe

drinking water• Universal primary education• Gender equality in primary education• 3/4ths decline in maternal mortality• 2/3rds decline in under-5 mortality• Halting and reversing HIV/AIDS• Special assistance to AIDS orphans• Improving lives of 100 million slum

dwellers

Girl’s Toilet in Uganda

Recent & Past Slippages

Avian Flu

Avian Flu Epidemic in Thailand

Replication of the HIV virusReplication of the HIV virus

Insecticide-treated Mosquito Bed Net

Treadle Pumps

Innovation based on Appropriate Technologies

• Traditional Technologies

• Intermediate Technologies

• Conventional Technologies

• Advanced Technologies

In a Mix that is Appropriate

DFID White Paper July 12th

2006

• Double our funding for science and technology research, especially for better drugs and treatments, cleaner water, increased agricultural production and managing climate change – about $400 million by 2010.

UK Collaborative for Development Sciences

• Create a framework for a more co- ordinated approach

• Raise the profile• Identify challenges and opportunities• Provide link to EC Research

Framework Programme; • Develop a baseline understanding of

our international standing

TranslationalResearch

PPCPs

Basic Science

UniversitiesAdvanced labs

Product Development

& Use

National & Private Labs

Entrepreneurs

Regional centres of excellence BRICS

Bilateral Donors& NGOs

Foundations& UN System

MultilateralDonors

An Science and Technology Innovation System for the 21st Century

INSTITUTIONS

TEAMS

NETWORKS

Elements of a Global Innovation System• Began in advanced research institution

– the Medical Research Centre in Gambia

• Multidisciplinary team linked into larger worldwide network– WHO, Wellcome Trust

• Fundamental science and technology – Pyrethroid insecticides

• An international dimension– Impregnated nets using resin from Saudi

Arabia, insecticides from Japan, Chinese workforce

• A range of donors have been involved – MRC, WHO, Dutch and UK governments.

Building National Innovation Systems

Need to develop:

• Coherent science, technology and innovation policies

• An educated workforce• Innovative enterprises• Education, Vocational Training, and

R&D Institutes.

Assessing the Evidence Base• Is the technology or process effective in meeting

the desired ends?– Does it help meet the MDGs for example, or does it help

attain an intermediate goal, such as a diagnostic tool with certain reliability?

• Is it value for money?– Does it produce the desired effect relatively cheaply or is

more cost effective than the alternatives?• Is it equitable and sustainable?

– Do the poor benefit or is it only the better-off and once introduced is it relatively easy to sustain?

• What are the downsides?– Are there undesirable side-effects?

Resilience

The key to Adaptation and sustainable development

SHOCK or STRESS

RESILIENCE

COLLAPSEDEV

ELOPM

ENT

COUNTERSTIME

Figure 1. Concept of resilience

Resilient Livelihoods

Promoting physics, supporting physicists

Googling while Earth burns

Brian CollinsChief scientific adviser, Department for Transport

The Institute of Physics15 May 2007www.iop.org

Key Insight Business Briefing

Googling while Earth Burns

Professor Brian CollinsChief Scientific Adviser

Dept for Transport

Transport issues

Information Issues

Transport Governance

Approaches - separation

Approaches - Integration

Conflicting demands

Knowledge, Learning and Complexity

Foresight example

‘Google’ over part of the landscape transport example

Or

Promoting physics, supporting physicists

Can science save the planet?

Sir Howard DaltonChief scientific adviser, Defra

The Institute of Physics15 May 2007www.iop.org

Key Insight Business Briefing

Can Science save the planet?

Professor Sir Howard DaltonChief Scientific Adviser, Defra

Institute of Physics, May 2007

Observed Global Temperature Change 1861-2003 (Hadley Centre)

Antarctic PeninsulaGlacial retreat at Fossil Bluff

1985/86

1994/95

CO² levels are already unprecedented in the last 800,000 years

CO2 Concentration in Ice Core Samples aProjections for Next 100 Years

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

500

550

600

650

700

Years Before Presen

Vostok RecordIPCC IS92a ScenarioLaw Dome RecordMauna Loa Record

Current(2001)

Projected(2100)

0100,000200,000300,000400,000

CO

2C

once

ntra

tion

(ppm

v)

Modelled temperature changes by 2050s

BedZED eco-village

Peabody Trust - BioRegional - Bill Dunster Architects

Averaged sea surface temperature taken by AATSR, March 2004

© UK Perspectives

© UK Perspectives

© Space Imaging, Ikonos 2005

© Space Imaging, Ikonos 2005

Monitoring agri-environment schemes

Hedge removed

Hedge removed together with change to field

boundaries

fan

Evaporator 2

Evaporator 1

crops

Freshwater

IR

Seawater intake and return

Air flow

Condenser

Sunlight

Seawater Greenhouse

Cultivation outside Cultivation inside

8 litres / m2 / day 1.2 litres / m2 / day

Lifecycle assessment flow chart

final disposal

extraction

manufacture

production

retail

use

Energy

Materials

Emissions

+

Waste

Promoting physics, supporting physicists

Sir Gordon Conway, DFID Brian Collins, DfT Sir Howard Dalton, DefraMichael Kelly, DCLG

Discussion chairman: Peter Saraga

The Institute of Physics15 May 2007www.iop.org

Key Insight Business Briefing

Promoting physics, supporting physicists

The Institute of Physics26 November 2007www.iop.org

Key Insight Business Briefing