Dr Lesley Yellowlees

What does the RSC do for us? What is it doing to protect chemistry in the UK and help it flourish and grow? What is it doing to communicate the importance of chemistry to policy makers and politicians? These are just some of the questions that RSC staff and committee members are constantly asked. To try and provide answers, we have produced this bulletin outlining the many activities and policy initiatives the RSC is involved in.

The RSC carries out an enormous amount of policy work ranging from investigating the state of school laboratories to the funding of university chemistry teaching and research. Recently reports have been published on subjects as diverse as chemical science spin-outs from UK universities, chemical science priorities for sustainable energy solutions and good practice in university chemistry departments. The RSC also makes submissions to Parliamentary select committees, government departments, research councils and European bodies; in fact, basically to any relevant body that affects the chemical sciences. 

In addition, the RSC runs workshops in emerging interface areas such as biomaterials, nanotechnology and the chemistry of ageing. More recently the RSC has held science policy seminars jointly with other learned societies and on our own. These seminars are targeted at policy makers, including MPs, and have been held on topics as diverse as science and crime, science and transport and the science of drug addiction and treatment. 

In my experience, the majority of members are unaware of the amount of work the RSC does in the area of science policy. The RSC Policy Bulletin hopes to correct this. We hope that this extra information is useful and gives you an insight into our policy agenda. If you have any comments, the editorial team would be very happy to receive them.

Dr Lesley Yellowlees
Chair, Science and Technology Board