FASTS Annual Council Meeting
Canberra , November 19, 2001
reported by Anna Robinson
FASTS, the Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Associations, represents 59 societies and 60,000 Australian scientists. WISENET is affiliated.
Website http:/ / www.fasts.org
Future Strategy
A discussion was led by Don Scott-Kemmis, Director of the
Innovations Management and Policy program of the National Graduate
School of Management, ANU and Ann Campbell, Manager of the CRC Association
Inc. Major
points made were:
being represented in the ‘inner circle’ of government decision-making bodies, and having the support of influential people, for example Robin Batterham, leads to results
despite a plethora of reviews, reports and studies, there is still a problem with communicating the relevance of science (as compared to innovation) and its translation to electoral political clout
research is still attracting the ‘so what’ response from government agencies and is believed not to be delivering adequately; the knives appear to be sharpening for more cuts!
The Fell perspective on the science scene
The new President of FASTS, Professor Chris Fell, former Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of New South Wales and founding Chair of the Cooperative Research Centre for Waste Management and Pollution Control, addressed the Council.
Briefly, he discussed:
Where we are: As a result of work over the past two years, Science is on the National political agenda and has gained some Government funding, but (a) the Commonwealth Government is likely to feel that it has done its bit for innovation and might now wait and see, and (b) may think it has little to spend in view of recent world events.
The Losers in the scientific/ government dialogue: (a) Universities, who have not received any increase in per capita student funding; (b) industry, as the tax incentive for industry R&D has remained substantially at 50%; (c) students studying science or training to be science teachers, who still accrue high HECS debts. (WISENET note: this one definitely deserves a cost/ benefit analysis)
The future of FASTS: should we link to the private sector, to State governments? Do we need better communication pathways? FASTS needs to take a deeper look at what its member societies want and examine models from elsewhere. The aim must be to make Science matter in the national debate even in adverse economic times.
In later discussion there were many suggestions of ways to improve things.
The Top Ten Issues for 2002, as released on January 14, 2002 is displayed on the FASTS website.
Emerging issues were discussed by a round-table of member societies.
On behalf of WISENET I suggested that
FASTS remain a co-ordinating body of influence
FASTS be maintained as a centre from which information is disseminated
We all work to improve the status and image of scientists
Other suggestions included:
use students to market science
get rid of old economies
forge industry links
index operating grants
investigate relationships with social sciences to improve communication with the community develop media skills, get onto TV to raise the science profile
Policy Document
In a discussion of the next Policy Document and Committee, I asked whether FASTS policy could include consideration of gender inequity. While there is gender equity in numbers of students and post-docs, there remains a HUGE gender discrepancy in upper echelons. Past President Peter Cullen suggested we need an analysis to determine statistics from which policy could be developed. WISENET?
Workshops for societies
FASTS Executive Director Toss Gascoigne outlined a proposal that FASTS run workshops on topics to assist member societies.
The following issues were identified as priority items:
delivering benefits to members
finding, motivating and coordinating a volunteer workforce
finding and working with professional help and the role of the executive officer
communicating with members
influencing policy and raising the profile
effective
use of databases and accounting packages
Other issues
Science Meets Parliament 2002 : development of a Communication Plan, devising an opportunity for Occasional Papers (please offer- AR)
WAIS 2002 Conference will be advertised by FASTS circular.
The Minchin/Evans pre-election debate in Adelaide was discussed and it was suggested that FASTS encourage and organise more such debates in the future.