DR LLOYD ANDERSON, PROFESSOR LORNA CASSELTON AND DR BERNIE JONES

6 JUNE 2007

  Q178 Chairman: Welcome to our second panel this morning and, first of all, my sincere apologies for over-running on the last session. I hope you found some of those answers interesting because we want to pick up on them and see how much you have listened and taken in. We welcome Professor Lorna Casselton, Foreign Secretary and Vice-President of the Royal Society and also a Fellow; Dr Bernie Jones, Head of International Policy, the Royal Society and Dr Lloyd Anderson, the Director of Science at the British Council. Welcome to you all. Can I start with you, Professor Casselton, and ask how important is international research activity to the Royal Society?

  Professor Casselton: Since I am nominally in charge of our international activities I would say they are very important. We are very keen to support the very best scientists in the UK but we are also committed to ensuring that they can engage with the very best science internationally.

  Q179  Chairman: The Research Councils say that the UK is very good at doing it—that is their quote, that we are very good at it. Is that your view, are we very good at it?

  Professor Casselton: We are very good at it but we are concerned that we are losing our position. Other countries such as France and Germany are investing considerably in collaborations with overseas scientists, particularly in countries with developing economies such as China and India which we are very interested in. They are very competitive so we need to be equally competitive in ensuring that we can fund the best collaboration between international partners.