MP-Scientist Pairing Scheme
a knowledge exchange case study
Paul Williams, a NERC Fellow in climate modelling at the University of Reading, describes a scheme designed to bring science and parliament closer together.
No reader will be surprised to learn that scientists and parliamentarians use fundamentally different modi operandi. On the one hand, scientists faced with a tricky research question might write a grant application to fund a three-year study. The findings might be published five years after the question was first asked. More often than not, they will spawn new, more detailed questions that warrant further grant applications. An initial research question is often answered to the satisfaction of the questioner only after many iterations of the question-grant-publication cycle, if ever.
(l-r) Prof Stephen Belcher (Head of School), Dr Paul Williams (NERC Fellow) and Rob Wilson MP, discussing a computer climate simulation during Mr Wilson's visit to the University of Reading
In contrast, parliamentarians must make instant decisions about scientific issues, often well before the level of scientific understanding is high and when uncertainty abounds. Add to the mix the fact that most MPs have had very little formal scientific training, and that they are often fiercely lobbied by stakeholders, and the prospects of the right decision being reached may appear bleak. With science, and especially environmental science, having an increasingly prominent impact upon politics, there is a clear and urgent need for parliamentarians and NERC scientists to better understand each other's worlds.
Enter the Royal Society's MP-Scientist Pairing Scheme, which was launched in 2001 to fill the gap. The Scheme runs annually and pairs practising research scientists, who are normally holders of Fellowships from the Royal Society or the Research Councils, with their local MP. The Scheme aims "to help scientists recognise the potential methods and structures through which they can feed their scientific knowledge to parliamentarians and Government; to help practising research scientists understand the pressures under which MPs operate; to give MPs the opportunity to forge direct links with a network of practising research scientists; and to give MPs the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the process of scientific understanding and topical research and ultimately to be able to bring this new knowledge into better informed discussions and decision making".
I took part in the Scheme in the most recent cycle. I was paired with Rob Wilson, the Conservative Member of Parliament for Reading East. I spent a week shadowing Mr Wilson at Westminster, to see behind the scenes at the House of Commons and learn about the working life of an MP. I was struck from the start by how demanding an MP's job is: the phone rings every few minutes and hundreds of e-mails build up during each hour away from the computer. During the week, we attended a Parliamentary and Scientific Committee meeting entitled 'How can science help to prevent natural disasters becoming economic and human catastrophes', an Environment, Food & Rural Affairs Select Committee meeting on flooding, and a drinks reception with Professor Sir David King, the Government's Chief Scientific Adviser until 2007.
A few weeks later, Mr Wilson spent an afternoon in my Department on a reciprocal visit, to learn about the daily life of a climate modeller. I think he was pleasantly surprised to find, not test tubes and white coats, but just computers on desks! He appeared keen to find out more about the climate research being carried out here. It was a rare privilege to have access to a decision-maker for a few hours; to answer his questions about the evidence for climate change and the basic ingredients of a climate model; and to tell him about my research into better representing small-scale processes in the models.
Certainly, I finished the Scheme with heightened respect for the very difficult job done by MPs. I understand much more clearly now the intricacies of the political decision-making processes, and I am more aware of how to influence them, if I should ever wish to. I am sure that Mr Wilson valued the opportunity to develop improved links with his local university, and I believe he would feel comfortable about contacting me in future if he needs information about climate change. Overall, the MP-Scientist Pairing Scheme has been very beneficial to both the MP and the scientist, at least in my pairing, and I would not hesitate to recommend it to other eligible NERC scientists.