TUESDAY 1 MAY 2007

PROFESSOR GIDEON HENDERSON

  Q120  Dr Spink: Are many of the post-grads from abroad in this discipline?

  Professor Henderson: A fair number, yes. I am afraid I do not have the statistics to hand but there is a fair number. That is a number probably I could put my hand on, if you wished.

  Q121  Dr Spink: Where are they coming from, Asia or further afield?

  Professor Henderson: There is a fairly large number from Asia; we see quite a lot from Australia as well and from America, although the Americans generally want to stay in their country, but there is a certain amount of exchange between.

  Q122  Mr Newmark: I guess, having got your education and gone through the whole process, at the end of the day, is there a skills shortage in areas around marine science and technology or not, and, if so, how is that gap being filled?

  Professor Henderson: From an industry perspective, I find that quite difficult to answer because I am not in that sector. I can see, from a research perspective, that there is a looming skills shortage and we are seeing subjects which Britain used to be strong in, and again physical oceanography would be a good example, become weaker because fewer people are going into that field. I think, certainly from a research and both a strategic and non-directed research point of view, there is a looming skills shortage in some areas.

  Q123  Chairman: Professor Henderson, you sounded very gloomy this morning and your evidence was a little gloomy; do you think you reflect other academics, in other universities, in the marine science area, in your frustrations, particularly with Oceans 2025 and NERC?

  Professor Henderson: I do. As I think I said in my document, I became aware of this only quite late in the process, but from informal discussions before writing the document and since, with people, I think there is a general level of frustration about how able we have been in the past to influence NERC strategy in the marine area and to tap into strategic funding, and that is widespread. Many people in my direct field and similar fields feel that we are doing strategically important work for the country but we are not able to tap into funding for that work.

  Q124  Chairman: If you had to write a chapter in our report about how to rectify that situation, so you would all be singing and dancing again, what would be the sort of main recommendation you would make?

  Professor Henderson: I think the main recommendation is to open up the bidding process for strategic research to involve many more institutes so it is not a closed shop. You cannot break that down to very small projects because it would become too cumbersome, but to enable consortium groups to come in and bid for aspects of the strategic research.

  Q125  Chairman: Is it not important to have the strategy first of all, so that, if you like, there is an agreed common strategy which then you can bid for; and that seems to be the bit you are most aggrieved about, that you have not been able to make real inputs into the strategy?

  Professor Henderson: I am not sure it is true to say that is the bit I am most aggrieved about; I may be aggrieved about.

  Q126  Chairman: One of the things you are aggrieved about?

  Professor Henderson: I think it would be much easier to build a strategic consensus if all the people who were interested in marine science thought that they could get some money out of it, at the end of the day. The problem is it is difficult to involve people in the process when they think that they are going to be excluded from the final result. I think you would find it impossible to build a strategic consensus.

  Q127  Linda Gilroy: I have one question, which has just occurred to me, about dissemination of research by NERC. How does that look, from where you are standing; are they good at disseminating research, from the universities' point of view?

  Professor Henderson: To the public, or to Government?

  Q128  Linda Gilroy: I think to people who would be interested in it, in university communities, but to the public as well, if you want to comment on that, because that is important, of course that is important, as well?

  Professor Henderson: I think NERC are certainly improving and I think that they are getting pretty good at disseminating to the university sector. I think probably there is still further to go and one way to do it might be to have in universities a formal NERC liaison person who was responsible for making sure that the right people had seen the right documents within the university.

  Q129  Linda Gilroy: It is more proactive, perhaps?

  Professor Henderson: Perhaps more proactive. It might not be a NERC person, it might be someone from the university who was identified as a liaison person. These days, we get so many e-mails from so many institutes that knowing which are the important ones is difficult, and someone who can help sift that and make sure that the right documents are on the right desks would help the transfer of information, I think.

  Chairman: We hope our report will go some way to supporting the work that you do, and indeed the institutes. Professor Gideon Henderson, thank you very, very much indeed for your evidence this morning.