The Royal Society MP-Researcher Pairing Scheme

Glasgow North MP, Ann McKechin was shadowed by an academic from Glasgow Uni for a week at Westminster as part of the Royal Society's MP-Researcher pairing scheme. 

Glasgow University's Dr Christian Korff from the Maths department was chosen to take part in the initiative, which is designed to pair parliamentarians with some of the UK’s leading researchers.

The local MP and Dr Korff, a Royal Society Research Fellow at Glasgow, worked closely together over the week, helping build up the beneficial relationship between the 559-year-old West End institution and politicians at Westminster.

The scheme is designed to increase dialogue between active researchers in Higher Education Institutions and policy-makers.

The Royal Society is the national academy for science in the UK and the research fellows who are funded are expected to be future leaders in their field.

Dr Korff outlined the aims of the scheme:

"The Royal Society believes that it’s important that the public understands how science policy is made and want to establish discussion between us researchers and MPs who, for example, sit on the science and technology committees in Westminster.

"Getting in contact with politicians is very useful for us as a university because it allows us to influence policy issues which directly affect us.”

On a recent visit to the Maths department, Ann McKechin MP met with academics who were discussing current proposals for the Research Excellence Framework and how they might affect research funding in the mathematical sciences.

During Ms McKechin’s visit, Dr Korff, alongside colleagues Dr Christina Cobbold and Dr Alastair Craw, gave a short overview of some of the research carried out at the Mathematics Department.

Ann said:

"It was excellent to see the work of the Maths department here at Glasgow University and I'm delighted to take part in the pairing scheme.  Glasgow University is at the heart of our community and at the front of cutting edge research.  Research and development done here often generates amazing advances in technology and medicine. 

"The Maths department's work produces practical results which end up affecting all our lives.

"The team gave an excellent demonstration of the close link between pure and applied mathematics and the subject’s role in developing the technologies of tomorrow, such as quantum computers, face recognition and measuring bio-diversity.

"The University and the Royal Society are working to communicate the importance of this work to the local community and the wider public. Giving researchers access to the policy makers helps scientists demonstrate and legislators understand the priorities for science policy."

The presentations also included information about outreach activities such as the department’s Ambassador Scheme, which is being led by Dr Craw.

The Ambassador Scheme sends fourth year undergraduates into local schools to endorse maths as a subject. The Ambassador Scheme hopes to increase the profile of maths in schools by introducing pupils to parts of the subject that they would not otherwise encounter. Dr Korff and Ann McKechin believe that engaging more people with maths at a grass roots level is imperative when trying to influence educational policy.

Dr Korff added:

"If there’s one thing I’ve learnt from this project it’s that the most effective way of doing that is through getting involved at a local level

"If people start getting interested in the way maths is taught in schools and at universities, they start writing letters to their local MPs which can cause political pressure."

The United Nations meeting at Copenhagen is underway. Ann McKechin MP is supporting the UK Government's call for tough binding reductions in carbon emissions for the developed world, and real help for the developing world which will otherwise struggle to cope with the costs of adapting to climate change. 

So what is so important about the meeting at Copenhagen? 

More than 180 countries will join a United Nations meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, to thrash out a new international deal to tackle climate change. The stakes could not be higher. We will all be affected by climate change:

• Extreme Weather: Summer temperatures experienced in 2003 – a record breaking heat-wave in Europe which killed 35,000 people – could become the norm.
• Sea Level Rise: Steep increases in global sea levels will cause severe flooding in many countries. In Asia, 94 million people could be left homeless, leading to large-scale migration.
• Water shortages: Glaciers could shrink by up to 60%, and the rivers they feed could start to dry up. This would affect drinking water supplies for around a sixth of the world’s population.
• Food Shortages: Drought in parts of Africa could reduce harvests by 50% by 2020.
• Extinctions: Up to a third of known plant and animal species will be at risk of extinction. Entire natural environments – like coral reefs and rainforests – would be under threat.

The two-week negotiations open on Monday 7 December in Copenhagen.  Ed Miliband there from the 12th – PM and 100 other leaders there from the 17th.

What does the UK Government want?

The Government has constantly reiterated that the UK's focus is on ensuring the most ambitious, comprehensive agreement we can at Copenhagen that should cover four key areas:

1. Numbers on emissions reduction targets from developed countries;
2. Action from developing countries to limit their emissions;
3. Agreements on finance, technology, forestry and MRV (monitoring, reporting and verification); and
4. A clear path from an agreement to a legally binding treaty within a matter of months

Ed Miliband, our Energy and Climate Change secretary, has said:

“The question is not just deal or no deal – it was what kind of deal we get.”

“I think we need to push for the highest ambition deal that we can get. So we want to try in the next two weeks to create a positive momentum towards that high ambition deal. It is about getting an agreement that is ambitious and consistent with the science and we think that’s that within reach.”

We believe Copenhagen needs to send a decisive signal that we’re was moving toward a low carbon world. We have taken decisions that will safeguard the world that future generations will inherit.  The stakes are incredibly high and the longer we leave it and the more the costs will rise then the more danger we will store up for future generations.

What is the best possible outcome?

The UK Government's position is that the best outcome from Copenhagen would be a set of commitments from countries that added up to a peak in emissions around 2020.

Ed Miliband said:

‘That will be a profound success as that has never been done before because emissions have just carried on rising after Kyoto and every other agreement.'

 
If we get a deal at Copenhagen it will be good for our economy, it will help green jobs, it will help jobs in the wind industry, and in a whole range of new industries including in the UK.  

Labour believes that morally, environmentally, economically, we both have to come forward with the cuts in our emissions and the rich world has to come forward with the finance as well. Time is very pressing and we have to make sure we do it at Copenhagen.

We have come a long way but there is still a distance to travel to get the agreement we need, consistent with the demands of the science.

Are we making progress?  

The last few weeks have seen major countries put numbers on mitigation on the table:

• The US will reduce emissions by 17% below 2005 levels by 2020 - and cut emissions significantly by 2025 and 2030;
• China's first ever commitment to put a number on the table to reduce the carbon intensity of its economy by 40-45%;
• India's announcement of a reduction of its emission intensity by 20-25% by 2020 from the 2005 level; and
• Brazil announced 38-42% and Indonesia 26%.

These moves indivcate that there is a recognition from around the world that practical reductions in emissions must follow. There’s a real sense that we need to get a deal done at Copenhagen.

Ann recently spoke on the need for a diverse energy mix during a Westminster Hall debate on Electricity use in Scotland. 

I welcome today’s debate, which was initiated by my hon. Friend the Member for Ochil and South Perthshire (Gordon Banks). I also welcome the contributions of other hon. Members this morning. Although we have been around the track with the issue in the past, I think that we all believe it is essential to consider the matter—for the UK but, particularly, for Scotland.

"It was great to take some time out from Parliamentary business to meet up with the the team from Glasgow.  The back room work of ordinary researchers like Dave and Robert is vital to ensuring that we are at the cutting edge of Science, Engineering and Technology here in the UK.
  
"Glasgow researchers are often in national and international headlines for ground breaking, even life saving, research work.  I'm very proud of the work carried out at Glasgow University. I, along with the UK Government, recognise the importance of supporting the 'Knowledge Economy' and take this opportunity to pay tribute to our scientists."