Campaign for Science and Engineering

Campaign for Science and Engineering
Abbreviation CaSE
Formation 1986 (Name changed in 2005)
Legal status Non-profit organisation, company limited by guarantee
Purpose Promoting science and engineering in the UK
Location
  • Gordon House, 29 Gordon Square, Bloomsbury, London, WC1H 0PP
Region served
UK
Director
 Dr Sarah Main
Website CaSE

The Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE) is a non-profit organization which promotes science and engineering in the UK. It focuses on arguing for more research funding, promoting a high-tech and knowledge-based economy, highlighting the need for top-quality science and maths education at all levels, and scrutinising the mechanisms by which government uses science and evidence.

History

The Campaign for Science and Engineering was founded as Save British Science (SBS) in January 1986. The organisation started out when 1,500 scientists banded together to pay for an advert in The Times.[1] It called on the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher to 'Save British Science'.

The organisation changed its name to the Campaign for Science and Engineering in 2005. Many of the original 1,500 subscribers still support CaSE, but the group began to attract organisations to give official support, including universities, funding bodies, learned and professional societies, charities, businesses and unions. CaSE now has over 100 official supporters.[2]

Structure

CaSE is based in Gordon Square, in Bloomsbury, London. It receives its funding from its members. It has over 100 member organisations, and they currently include companies such as Astra Zeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Google, and Rolls-Royce; universities such as the University of Oxford and University of Cambridge; societies such as the Society of Biology, Institute of Physics, and Royal Society of Chemistry; and charities including the Wellcome Trust and Cancer Research UK.

CaSE has a Board of Directors[3] who meet several times each year, to discuss CaSE's strategy and set its campaigning priorities. Professor Hugh Griffiths FREng is the current Chairman. It also has an Advisory Council[4] of distinguished scientists, engineers, industrialists and parliamentarians who are concerned about the health of British science. This includes Nobel laureates: Professor Antony Hewish FRS; Professor Sir Aaron Klug FRS; Professor Sir Harold Kroto FRS; Professor Sir Paul Nurse PRS; and Professor Sir John E. Walker FRS, amongst 23 other Fellows of the Royal Society.

Areas of focus

CaSE focuses its activity on cross-sectoral issues such as science funding, immigration, education, and tax and innovation policies. In 2010, CaSE played a key role in the Science is Vital[5] campaign, which lobbied against cuts to the UK science budget in the Comprehensive Spending Review of October that year. The science budget was frozen in the final review.[6]

A record of issues with which CaSE is concerned and active is maintained on its website.

Further reading

References

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