This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Strategic Science Advisory Panel
02/11/2005
A new group to act as an expert independent source of strategic scientific advice to the Department of Environment and Rural Affairs was announced today.
Deputy Environment and Rural Development Minister Rhona Brankin said:
"High quality scientific evidence is vital to our work in this portfolio. The Advisory Panel will assist me in ensuring the Department continues to fund strategic research which is of high quality and relevant to the continuing challenges we face in the environment and land use in Scotland.
"Increasing scientific activity not only increases our knowledge pool it also provides revenue and job opportunities for the people of Scotland. "
Professor Peter Holmes, Vice-principal at the University of Glasgow, who will chair the Strategic Science Advisory Panel, added:
"I am delighted to accept this appointment as Chair to the new Strategic Advisory Panel. I am looking forward to working with the other members of the Panel to ensure we provide the best possible advice to the Department on the implementation of its new research strategy and on the development of its future research programme."
The membership of the SSAP is:
- Professor Peter Holmes has a distinguished career in veterinary medicine and was Head of the Department of Veterinary Physiology at Glasgow for many years. He was Vice Principal for Research for eight years and chaired the University's Research Committee, which develops and implements its research strategy. He is currently Vice Principal for Biomedicine. He is a member of the recently formed Scottish Funding Council (SFC) and has chaired the Research Policy Advisory committee of SHEFC for two years.
- Professor Janet Sprent is Emeritus Professor of Plant Biology at the University of Dundee
- Professor Chris Pollock is Research Director of the Institute of Grassland and Environment Research Aberystwyth
- Mr Ian Duncan Millar is a farmer from Perthshire.
- Professor Joe Brownlie is a veterinary surgeon and is currently Professor of Veterinary Pathology at the Royal Veterinary College in London
- Professor Mark Shucksmith is Professor of Planning at the University of Newcastle of Tyne
- Dr Susan Walker is a specialist in water and land management and currently has her own consultancy business, specialising in river basin management
- Dr Jeremy Wilson is Head of Research for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in Scotland
- Dr James Robb is a farmer in Lanarkshire
SEERAD spends, directly and indirectly, over £100 million pounds on a wide range of environmental, biological and agricultural science and research. A large proportion of this research is carried out by the research institutes including SAC and RBGE. It also supports the Fisheries Research Services and the Scottish Agricultural Science Agency and the scientific work of SEPA and SNH.
The research strategy published in January 2005 set out a series of changes to the way in which SEERAD commissioned its research. This included setting up a new Strategic Advisory Panel to provide independent advice to SEERAD on the implementation and development of its research strategy including horizon scanning and foresight aspects.
The SSAP is advisory only. It will have no funds to direct to research itself. It will meet two to three times per year and its proceedings will be open and transparent. Any advice given by it will be published. The Chair and members are appointed for a period of two years commencing January 1, 2006.