David Willetts, Minister for Universities and Science, on transparency and public dialogue

On Friday 9 July at the Royal Institution, David Willetts, Minister of State for Universities and Science, gave his first speech on the Government’s vision for science in the UK. One of the key themes of the speech was around the need to retain public trust in science, and “understand that fellow citizens have their worries and concerns which cannot be dismissed”. He praised the efforts of the Research Councils in holding a public dialogue, supported by Sciencewise-ERC, on synthetic biology saying, “The UK Research Councils had the foresight to hold a public dialogue about ramifications of synthetic biology ahead of Craig Venter developing the first cell controlled by synthetic DNA.”

He called for science to remain “an ever stronger voice in the national conversation” and advised that Government would step up transparency, with a new right of citizens to request Government-held datasets.

A full transcript of the speech is available here.