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Like many young scientists these days, after embarking on
a research career, I realised that although I was fascinated by all
aspects of science--especially my own field of ecology--I did not
want to spend the next 30 years writing grant proposals, carrying
out experiments, and publishing technical articles.
I certainly could not do my job if I were not the sort of person
who reads the newspapers every day, regularly listens to
current-affairs programmes on the radio, and is actually interested
in what is happening in Parliament.
After a postdoctoral research fellowship in France and a brief
period as a university lecturer in the United Kingdom, I was
looking around for something that combined my interest in research
with my wider interests in science. Today, I am the director of
Save British Science ( SBS ), a campaigning
organisation that presses the governments in London, Edinburgh,
Cardiff, and Belfast for better funding for science, stronger
science education in schools, and policies that give the general
public greater access to the benefits of scientific and
technological research. This is by far the most fascinating and fun
job in the scientific world, but I got there by chance, rather than
design.
I was exceptionally lucky that, at exactly the moment I started
looking for a job that coupled research with something else, the
Zoological Society of London advertised for someone to spend half
of his or her time doing research and the other half combining
media and communications work with fundraising for the
organisation's wider scientific programme. I got the job partly
because it happened that my own research interests fit neatly into
the organisation's activities, and partly because I showed that I
had been involved in discussions about science outside the academic
arena. I had a small amount of experience dealing with the media
and writing about science for newspapers and magazines. I had taken
part in radio phone-ins about science and had submitted answers to
the "queries" columns of newspapers when the questions had been
about my field.
The post at the Zoological Society was an almost unique halfway
house between a research vocation and a career in the wider world
of science. The 3 years I spent there reinforced my view that
full-time research was not for me. I also gained all kinds of
experience that stood me in good stead for a job in science
policy.
Applying for the job with SBS was more or less an accident. My
friends and I were sitting reading our copies of the British
Ecological Society's Bulletin over coffee, and out of each copy
fell a yellow piece of paper advertising for a new director of SBS.
About six of my colleagues passed me the advertisement saying they
thought it would be a suitable career move for me.
The tiny amount of policy experience that I already had came
about mostly because of my field of research. For example, when
studying insects in Brazil and wolves in Ethiopia, I had been
involved in discussions with civil servants and other government
representatives, both in the United Kingdom and in host countries,
where my work could be carried out only after detailed discussion
with government experts and once my colleagues and I had the
appropriate licences and permits. Closer to home, when carrying out
ecological surveying in London, I had been required to liaise with
the local authorities--for example, to get permission to trap
rodents (alive) in public parks, in order to assess the size of
their populations. I had helped sort out some of the paperwork for
my institution's submission to the Research Assessment Exercise and
had sat on a couple of lower-level committees.
By far, the most important characteristics that helped me get
the job with SBS were a commitment to communicating about
scientific issues and a wide range of interests in current affairs
outside of the narrow confines of scientific research. I would not
have been employed, and certainly could not do my job, if I were
not the sort of person who reads the newspapers every day,
regularly listens to current-affairs programmes on the radio, and
is actually interested in what is happening in Parliament.
The science policy community with which I now deal on a daily
basis consists of people as diverse as politicians, civil servants,
practising scientists, administrators, journalists, university vice
chancellors, businesspeople, and students. I was hugely lucky that
my job at the Zoological Society had afforded me plenty of
opportunity to practise communicating with an extremely wide range
of audiences, from 2-year-old children to a Cabinet minister.
One of the reasons people now take what I say seriously is that
they can see that I could potentially have had a scientific career.
I have earned a Ph.D., accumulated postdoctoral and lecturing
experience, secured my own grants, and published scientific papers
in peer-reviewed journals. Indeed, I still try not to become too
distant from the world of real scientific discovery, and since
starting at SBS, I have contributed in very minor ways to ongoing
research projects and have written an undergraduate textbook about
ecology. Many of the most successful people in science policy have
some kind of track record in research over and above simply
completing a master's- or doctoral-level degree. And many of the
skills I now use are similar to those employed in a research
career--for example, networking with a wide range of specialists to
ensure that I am on top of all the most recent developments.
But the transition from research to campaigning for science also
meant learning a whole new set of skills. Meetings with politicians
tend to be short and to the point; there's no time for caveats and
explanation. I had to learn quickly that it is not always essential
to cite every precise detail about a subject in order to make one
key point. I also had to learn something about the arcane way that
Parliament operates--appearing before a select committee of members
of Parliament (MPs) was certainly a unique experience. And I had to
find out about how policy is made and how it affects real
scientists on the ground.
My job is obviously a bit of a one-off, but for other people who
are interested in science policy, there is a growing number of
positions in various organisations. The big scientific
institutions, such as the Royal Society, the Royal Academy of
Engineering, and the Institute of Physics all employ teams of
people to deal with their policy making and to interact in the
political arena. MPs and peers with an interest in science tend to
employ researchers who share that interest, and both houses of
Parliament have library staff to help prepare scientific briefings.
There is a small, dedicated team called POST--the Parliamentary Office of
Science and Technology --that occasionally takes people on
short internships, sponsored by individual scientific societies.
Many of those societies, and other organisations with scientific
interests (e.g., environmental charities or lecturers' trades
unions) need people to prepare and enunciate their political aims
and objectives. And, of course, the people who make real
policies--the ones that are actually going to be put into
practice--are those in government; plenty of people get jobs in the
civil service after training as scientists.
If you care about science and you're interested in politics, a
job in science policy will be frustrating, never repetitive, hard
work--and endlessly fascinating.