How we got here
About the Consultation
This site originally supported the consultation to develop a new Science and Society Strategy for the UK, looking at the engagement of science with society in its broadest sense, including the use of science by society, science education and the diversity of the science workforce.
The consultation period closed on Friday 17 October, and this section is maintained purely as an archive.
Consultation Summary Report
Thank you to everyone who responded to the Science & Society consultation. We have summarised all of the 3000+ comments (pdf).
Please note, the report is purely a reflection of your responses without indication of weighting or priority and in no way represent a Government view.
The Consultation generated a wealth of ideas such as making science a part of every day life and the importance of science in driving economic growth. The Science: So What? So Everything campaign will support the consultation to:
- Make science more relevant by making more people excited by and engaged in science;
- Encourage the media and scientists to work closely together on new science programming;
- Support teachers by encouraging closer working with scientists and researchers;
- Encourage more young people to study science and Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths (STEM) related subjects; and
- Make sure science careers are available to all.
But we still need your help to identify local initiatives and best practice – if you know of anything that works, please leave a comment below.
Thanks to everyone who contributed their ideas! We’ve had a good response to our consultation. We received responses from 180 organisations (many of these being consolidated responses representing many other organisations). In addition we received responses from over 220 individuals. We received nearly 3200 individual question answers. A full list of the people and organisations who responded is available.
Of the 34 questions posed in the consultation document, some were more popular than others. The number of answers we received to each question is shown in the graph below. The most frequently answered are on the schools science curriculum and telling young people about career opportunities (Qs27 and 28). Other popular areas are ethics (Q13) and the role of the media (Qs7 & 14). The role of scientists in public engagement, rewards and how to make science interesting (Qs 3-5) feature strongly. The least answered questions are those on interaction between policy makers and scientists (Qs 21, 24 & 25) and on the role of technology as an enabler in engagement (Q18 & 19).
65% of question answers were submitted via this website, either through the question widgets or the online form. 35% were submitted by email (and a couple by post).
Initial analysis of the responses we’ve received have revealed the following key themes:
- Teaching science – relevance, excitement and flexibility; support/CPD for teachers; exposure to scientists and business; business/FE/HE involvement in schools
- Media – roles and responsibilities; relevance and expertise; role models; balance; channels
- Social & historical context – in curriculum, public understanding, policy consideration, excitement v engagement, relevance
- Public engagement & raising literacy – status of engagement & outreach; responsibilities of scientists, policy and business; methods of engagement by each group; reward and recognition for scientists, policy makers, business; governance of science.
- Careers – role models; business engagement with schools; careers advisors; supply and demand
- Cross-cutting issues – Diversity & inclusion; Governance; monitoring, evaluation and quality; use of technology
As a visual illustration of the words used in the responses to the consultation, we used Wordle to plot some frequency charts – more frequently-used words appear larger (n.b. ‘science’ and significant words from the questions were excluded)
Q3 – How can scientists further improve and professionalise engagement with the public?
Q7 – How can the media better support society’s need for balanced information that accurately portrays the nature of science and improves scientific literacy?
Q26 – What further support do teachers need to help young people understand how science works, how government works and how the media works?
What next?
We are now completing a detailed analysis of all the responses. When this is complete we will be holding further stakeholder events and workshops to discuss the findings. Further details of the analysis and future events will be published here shortly.
If you want to contact us in the meantime, please email: scienceandsociety@bis.gsi.gov.uk
