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Thursday 17 January 2008 (Updated 5 Feb 08)

RAPID ROUNDUP - Charter To Protect Scientific Debate – Australian Scientists and Science Communicators respond

Senator Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, has announced that the integrity and independence of public research institutions, and the right of their researchers to contribute to public debate on their areas of expertise, will be protected by new charters.

Click here to read the Minister's media release.

The charters will be based on the principles of encouragement of debate on scientific research and support for the independence and integrity of public research institutions for their scientific discovery.

Feel free to use these quotes in your stories. If you wish to speak to one of these or another expert, contact the AusSMC on 08 8207 7415.

Niall Byrne is Director of Science in Public. His expertise is in science communication and public relations and he was the Director of the World Conference of Science Journalists held in Melbourne in April this year.

“Minister Carr's announcement of a charter to protect scientific debate is good news for science and for public policy in Australia. Science is central to many of the issues that Australia faces: climate change, energy security, health and obesity to name a few.

The charter will send a clear message to scientists that we need to hear directly from them about their work and its implications. I hope the charter will extend beyond the Minister's portfolio to cover all science agencies across other portfolios such as the Antarctic Division, the Bureau of Meteorology and the NHMRC.”

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Adjunct Professor Julian Cribb is Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and Adjunct Professor, University of Technology Sydney. Julian is the Editor of the website ScienceAlert.

“Senator Carr’s statement that he and the government are going to encourage scientists to speak out about their science is a tremendously important statement for Australia. We do an enormous amount of very good science in Australia but the public, which pays for it, does not often get to hear about it. It is very important that they do so - so that we, Australians, get to be the first people to benefit from that science. As things stand a lot of our science goes off shore and is adopted by other countries before Australians ever get to hear about it. This is because science communication has been discouraged by government and by many institutions in this country. Senator Carr’s statement is a really important step forward for Australian science.”

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Professor Ken Baldwin, is President of the Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies (FASTS)which is the peak representative body for 60,000 Australian scientists and technologists.

"The relations between Government, politics, public opinion, science and research are increasingly complex and important. It is inconceivable that there can be sensible policy on climate change, water use, bio-security, obesity or ageing without the input and open discussion of good science."

"While Governments must have final responsibility for policy on issues such as climate change, it is dangerous for democracy if researchers and institutions like universities, CSIRO and the Australian Research Council (ARC) are constrained by overt or implied political threats to the effective communication of the science."

"A critical element of Senator Carr's proposal is the idea that scientists and researchers not only have rights but also obligations to participate in policy debate".

"This expectation that science and research operate more effectively in the public domain comes at a time when there are growing expectations around the world that the results of publicly funded science and research should be freely available".

"On the 26th of December, 2007, President Bush signed legislation that mandates that all research funded by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) must be made publicly accessible by lodging all publications with an open access (free) on-line journal. This is the first time such a requirement has been legislated anywhere in the world."

"The idea that publicly funded scientists and researchers have rights and obligations to participate in public debates also has profound implications for science education and research training".

"It says graduates need a wide range of skills and capabilities that will enable them to fully participate in public debate. Such expectations inevitably raise really important issues about the quality and funding of education and universities”.