-----Original Message-----
This boils down to a disagreement between Ogilvie and the Royal Society
about how quickly Copus can be changed. There may be nothing more to it
than
this... [but] the slow pace set by the Royal Society may well have
damaged
Copus beyond repair... The work plan the Copus Council devised was a
sound
one and, as Ogilvie insisted, has the support of the broad community
that
its membership now represents. If the Royal Society does not want to
implement it, then others should be given the opportunity to do so.
-----End Quoted (and cut) Message-----
Which comes back to the role of the RS. It is, in effect, no more than a
money laundering operation on behalf of the Government. The Gov believes
that it should support PEST work. It can either do it within the Office
of Science and Technology, or it can farm it out to another body. It has
traditionally used the RS to manage ventures that need quality but that
are not appropriate for, say, the research councils.
Take the RS fellowships, the support for bright young things going
places. Not subject specific, so best done through an organisation that
can straddle the disciplines. The Royal Academy of Engineering plays a
similar role.
PEST work also crosses boundaries. So the RS has acted as a funnel for
money to flow to such organisations as the BA. While in recent years the
RS has swept away some of the cobwebs, it seems to have a few murky
nooks and crannies. Maybe the time has come for the Government to go
directly to the BA.
As things now stand, the money for COPUS is just a part of the RS's
money for PEST and COPUS has to compete against other bids from within
the RS. (That is how one person described it to me when we talked about
this on the phone the other day.)
I no longer have good connections with the OST PESTs. But I do know that
a few years back they had concluded that COPUS had reached the end of
its shelf life. It would be interesting to know if there is any strong
interest in PEST within the OST. Did Research Fortnight quote anyone
from there?
MK
_______________________________________________________________________
Michael Kenward OBE / Phone: +44 (0)1444 400568 Fax: 401064
/
Science Writer & Stuff / Have words will travel
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