Royal Society Pairing Scheme 2023 Vlog
I've been lucky enough to swap the corridors of the Plymouth Marine Laboratory (@pmlcomms7358) the corridors of power this week to attend a ‘Week in Westminster’ as part of the Royal Society’s annual pairing scheme (@royalsociety) The initiative is designed to give scientists and policymakers an opportunity to experience each other’s worlds.
It's a pretty prestigious initiative and it's designed to give scientists an insight into how parliament and government functions and how research findings are used to inform policy-making. The idea is that through the scheme, successful applicants “make lasting relationships with parliamentarians and civil servants as well as fellow scientists working across a wide range of scientific disciplines”.
It's been running for over twenty years now and around 250 applications are made for the scheme each year with the 30 successful candidates ‘paired’ with the constituency MP for the institute they represent, a peer or a senior civil servant. Over the week the scientists take part in workshops, hear from several eminent invited speakers, tour Westminster palace, attend a mock select committee hearing, and spend time with their pair.
The MP, Peer or Civil Servant is then invited to visit the scientist’s home institution and learn more about their work in person.
For this year’s scheme, I was paired with Luke Pollard (@LukePollardMP) the MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport and shadow Minister for the Armed Forces.
This has been a tremendous experience, seeing the day to day life within Westminster. In one morning alone, I met Luke's team, followed in on an interview with Greatest Hits Radio on Labour's new homes for heroes campaign, discussed the future of low carbon trains with National Rail and GWR, and attended the house of commons for the Child Q debate. So while these activities don’t sound like they align with my scientific work on #climatechange modelling with @ukearthsystemmodelling9922, seeing the processes and activities of MPs was very insightful for understanding the links between science and policy. Outside my time with Luke, the royal society hosted several excellent seminars from MPs, senior civil servants, and royal society members about the interactions between the science sector and government. I’m very grateful to the Royal Society for this opportunity, to Luke for hosting me and to the MPs, Lords and civil servants who participated. It's truly been an exceptional experience and I highly recommend the programme to other scientists.
Unfortunately, there's a lot of amazing stuff that happens in Westminster that you're not allowed to film, for privacy or historical reasons, so this short vlog barely shows half of the crazy stuff that I saw this week! It's been wild.
#science #policy #PML #UKRI #GOscience #DSIT #vlog #London #Westminster #westminsterbubble #4k