(This inaugural meeting of a new UK organisation within our field seems to me to be an important and welcome event. The organisers ask for this preliminary note to be circulated to any relevant people and groups, especially in the UK. JA) 

Invitation and Preliminary Notice

Launch Event: Association for Studies in Innovation, Science and Technology - UK (AsSIST-UK)

August 25 2015, Hosted at SPRU, University of Sussex

This note provides advance notice of a one-day conference to launch AsSIST-UK: a national association for UK scholars across diverse disciplinary domains* working in the broad area of Science, Technology and Innovation Studies (STIS). The meeting will consider proposals for the aims, governance and development of AsSIST-UK. We invite colleagues to help us ensure the widest possible participation by drawing this to the attention of members of the community who may be interested.

The Launch

The launch event is planned for August 25th and is to be hosted at SPRU, University of Sussex. The principal aim of the meeting is to establish a new national association, AsSIST-UK, whose purpose is primarily to establish much stronger links between and a national voice for STIS. It will focus on the contribution that UK STIS has made and can make towards our understanding of (scientific) knowledge and the values/value practices shaping it, governance, innovation systems, and the role of civil society. The meeting will see a series of panels and time for extended discussion around these themes. It will also provide the opportunity for agreeing a statement of foundational principles, a draft of which will be circulated when the final programme for the Launch is distributed in the near future.

The programme will be circulated shortly, prepared by a STIS Development Group made up of colleagues from across the UK, the background to which is explained below. We are keen to invite others who might be interested in contributing to the DG or becoming a member, to help us build as wide a community of interest as possible. The Launch will also provide an initial step a book proposal on Controversies in STIS which will provide an opportunity for the UK community to make a strongly programmatic statement on STIS, as well as marking the establishment of the new body, AsSIST-UK.

Please can colleagues circulate this preliminary note to all contacts they have across the UK STIS community and networks so as to give early notice of the meeting in August. Anyone interested or wanting further information should contact either Andrew Webster [log in to unmask] or Robin Williams [log in to unmask] A notice relating to Registration will be published shortly on the university of York website.

We look forward to seeing as many as possible at the meeting on August 25.

Members of the Development Group.

The group comprises colleagues from across the STIS field: Brian Balmer, Anne-Marie Coles, Jakob Edler, Kieron Flanagan, Dawn Goodwin, Reiner Grundmann, Adam Hedgcoe, Anne Kerr, Javier Lezaun, Paul Martin, Theo Papaioannou, Stevienna de Saille, Johan Schot, Vicky Singleton, Jack Stilgoe, Andrew Webster, and Robin Williams. In addition, STIS PhD students have subsequently joined: Julia Swallow, Ros Williams and Farzana Dudhwala

Background:
An exploratory meeting in York in June 2014, which brought together 35 UK-based colleagues including PhD students from STIS ESRC Doctoral Training Centres, discussed the possibility of launching a new national association for STIS. Robin Williams (RW) and Andrew Webster (AW) helped coordinate that meeting which had been preceded by two ad hoc planning group meetings (in Sheffield and Leeds) involving a dozen or so STIS colleagues. RW has been acting as convenor for AsSIST – the Association for Studies in Innovation Science and Technology. AsSIST was formed in the run up to the 1996 Research Assessment Exercise – driven by the need to represent the concerns of the fledgling STIS community to Research and Funding councils. There was a decision taken at that time that we were not in a position to launch a viable membership organisation. AsSIST was a virtual organisation – a committee of representatives of those organisations exchanging ideas and information by email.

The subsequent growth of the field has created the opportunity and the need for a more inclusive and more proactive organisation today when the apparatuses for research training and research funding are being transformed – e.g. current pressures to concentrate research funding in selected leading universities and for regional collaboration over research training. There is a need for us to shape the agenda – most immediately for example, regarding the next generation of ESRC Doctoral Training Centres (DTCs), and the likely importance that will be given to interdisciplinary work across the social and natural sciences.

Other new foci of activity include the BSA STS group with lively national conferences that Anne Kerr and Paul Martin have been coordinating; and the growth of ESRC DTCs – many of which have STIS pathways adds further momentum. In getting to this stage we have been helped by the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST) which under Fred Steward’s leadership has become much stronger and has been working with emerging national organisations in many countries.

Recent Developments

Following the York meeting, an ad hoc Development Group was established, its members meeting face-to-face and via telecom to help take forward the ideas proposed at York. The DG has now moved in its discussion to proposing a formal Launch of a new national STIS body, and we are delighted that EASST and SPRU are supporting this Launch event. The new body, to be known as AsSIST-UK, will seek to be very broadly based and inclusive, recognising the differing needs and interests of individual scholars attracted to this field as well as members of larger centres and of early career researchers and PhDs as well as more experienced members of the STIS community. We have identified the following main areas of activity the new body can support: AsSIST-UK will work


We look forward to discussing these and other issues with colleagues in August.


* Including but not limited to Science and Technology Studies, Innovation Studies, Science and Technology Policy, Political economy of Science and Technology, Economics of Innovation, History and Philosophy of Science, Technology and Medicine, Technology Management as well as cognate approaches from geography, environment studies, organization studies, policy studies etc