Innovation: Managing risk not avoiding it

A challenge for society is to channel evidence about innovative technologies and their risks to improve decision making in the area of regulation and policy making. This is the theme of the first ever Annual Report by the Government Chief Scientific Adviser, Sir Mark Walport. The report considers the different perspectives through which risk is viewed by the public, business and policy-makers in order to:

• Stimulate broader discussion on risk, hazard, uncertainty and vulnerability (within the UK, Europe and the wider international community); and
• Promote a regulatory culture surrounding risk in which robust scientific evidence is openly considered alongside political and other non-scientific issues in shaping policy.

Key themes identified include communication and engagement with the public, capability and direction of investment in research and innovation, and need for intelligent regulation.

Sir Mark Walport launches the report at this event. Sir Mark is Government Chief Scientific Adviser (GCSA) and Head of the Government Office for Science, and is co-chair of the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology (CST).

This is followed by a discussion with two of the contributors to the report and questions and answers from the audience. The panellists are:

Lisa Jardine CBE is Professor of Renaissance Studies at UCL, and Director of the UCL Centre for Editing Lives and Letters. She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and an Honorary Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge and Jesus College, Cambridge. She is a non-executive Director of The National Archives, President of the Antiquarian Horology Society and an Honorary Fellow of the British Science Association. She chaired the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority HFEA 2008-14.

Tim O’Riordan OBE is Emeritus Professor of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia. He was a member of the UK Sustainable Development Commission and now serves as Special Advisor to the House of Commons Environment Audit Committee.

The Institute for Government and Government Office for Science are grateful to the Royal Society for Chemistry for supporting this event.