Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Minister for Science and Research, Senator Chris Evans, and Australia’s Chief Scientist, Professor Ian Chubb, today announced a number of reforms to the Council to ensure it remains relevant and able to facilitate the best connection between scientific advice and policy.

The changes follow an examination of the Council’s operations seeking to ensure that it is nimble, relevant and able to facilitate the best connection between scientific advice and policy.

Key features of the new PMSEIC include a smaller membership and more frequent meetings (three times per year), with the capacity to deal with both short term as well as over-the-horizon topics requiring independent scientific advice to Government.  A key objective is to ensure that the PMSEIC agenda is relevant to the needs of Government, by providing scientific advice on issues which require the development of a policy response, either in the short term, or over longer term horizons. 

Commenting on the changes, the Minister advised that the Chief Scientist, Professor Ian Chubb AC, will continue to play a key role as the Executive Officer to PMSEIC.

“As in the past, PMSEIC will continue to offer advice and provide expert scientific opinion on policy challenges across the whole of government, including health, the environment, education, IT communications, agriculture and international relations,” Senator Evans said.

Professor Chubb said in the past, PMSEIC’s focus was primarily on issues facing Australia’s long term future, looking five to 30 years ahead, rather than on issues immediately affecting the country.

“The role of foresighting is still an important part of PMSEIC’s work, but we cannot ignore the fact that the Government also needs scientific advice on immediate issues like nanotechnology, immunisations, industrial waste and stem cell therapies,” Professor Chubb said.

Under the new model, long-term issues requiring a scientific response will be referred to the Australian Council of Learned Academies, representing the four Learned Academies, to undertake in depth, interdisciplinary research and report to the government through the Chief Scientist.     

PMSEIC’s revised membership will include:

• Prime Minister (chair);
• Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Science and Research (alternate chair);
• Minister for Industry and Innovation;
• Other Ministers relevant to the meeting, at invitation of the Prime Minister;
• Australia’s Chief Scientist;
• CEO of the Australian Research Council;
• CEO of the National Health and Medical Research Council and;
• Six individual standing members, chosen for their contributions to science and research:

                         Dr Megan Clark;
                         Dr Cathy Foley;
                         Dr Ben Greene;
                         Professor Robert Saint;
                         Professor Fiona Stanley; and
                         Professor Graeme Turner.

PMSEIC will convene in early 2012. 

Read the media release here.

To coincide with the 22^nd meeting of the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council (PMSEIC), two impact statements for the reports Australia and Food Security in a Changing World and Challenges at Energy-Water-Carbon Intersections, have been released.

The impact statements address the key themes and outline critical goals for each report.   

Both reports will be discussed today (4 February 2011) with the full Council.

A presentation on the reports will also be delivered at a public forum in the Parliament House Lecture Theatre from 2pm – 3.30pm on the same date.

The impact statements can be downloaded here:

Challenges at Energy-Water-Carbon Intersections Impact Statement

Food Security in a Changing World Impact Statement

Copies of the full report can be downloaded here:

Challenges at Energy-Water-Carbon Intersections Report

Food Security in a Changing World Report

Dealing with epidemics can be a complicated and devastating task – the recent cholera outbreaks in Haiti and Papua New Guinea  are just one example of health workers pushed to their limits in an attempt to contain the disease.

Although well known diseases with existing treatments, like cholera, can erupt into epidemics, recent years have also seen global outbreaks of new pathogens including sudden acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the H1N1 influenza (swine flu).

In these instances, the digital age of instantaneous communication played a significant role in the rapid and effective response to these outbreaks.Scientists across the world were able to share results almost instantly, creating a global digital laboratory. The causative pathogens were rapidly identified and the progress of the spread of the diseases was closely monitored and necessary instructions for containment were almost instantly available around the world.

But there is a delicate balance between scientific advancement and our modern lifestyles when it comes to susceptibility to the spread of epidemics.

Last year, a report  tabled at the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council looked at factors affecting the spread of epidemic diseases and how Australia might prepare for future outbreaks.

The report stated that the rate of mass public, local and international travel means a group of individuals can be exposed to a disease and spread to all corners of the globe long before the first symptom is reported to a doctor, let alone before a new disease and its potential ramifications are identified or understood.

Modern high-density living and food production methods are also quite literally a breeding ground for new infectious diseases.

Furthermore, increased desire for meat based diets means that humans are in closer contact with species such as pigs and birds which can be a source of potential pathogens. Higher density animal husbandry also means that multiple species can be in close contact in large numbers facilitating the transmission of diseases, in turn providing greater opportunity for mutation and the emergence of new and potentially more infectious strains.

All these factors mean that there is increased likelihood of serious epidemics to occur. The cause, geographic origin, severity, impact and other factors cannot be predicted.

Epidemics are not a modern phenomenon and have the potential to escalate. The Spanish Influenza pandemic which began in 1918 quickly swept the globe and resulted in more deaths in a shorter time than the World War which preceded it. It was a devastating pandemic at a time when viruses and how best to treat them were not yet well understood scientifically or medically.

Spanish Influenza is just one example of the many deadly outbreaks of infectious disease to hit the human race in recent centuries. In fact, even diseases that we now vaccinate against were once huge killers world wide like measles, polio and smallpox.

Small pox was a devastating illness that not only caused significant numbers of deaths, but also left many survivors with serious complications including disfiguring scarring and blindness.

It also represents a serious battle and one of the first major triumphs of science over an ancient disease which decimated populations and changed the course of human history.

Early observations showed that those who survived the disease were not susceptible to further infection. As a result, initial preventative treatment methods included inoculation – applying material from the sores of people with active illness under the skin of healthy individuals. This method usually resulted in a mild case of smallpox but one that still proved fatal in a number of cases, albeit it far less frequently than natural infection.

After a noticing a link between milkmaids who had been exposed to cowpox and immunity to smallpox, English scientist and country doctor, Edward Jenner, experimented with the use of cowpox as a vaccine. This was demonstrated, in what were arguably the world’s first clinical trial, to provide immunity without the risk of serious smallpox infection.

Even with vaccines, diseases with epidemic potential can be hard to eradicate Despite the fact that the breakthroughs in smallpox vaccination occurred in the 1700-1800s, it was not until 1980, after a global vaccination campaign, that the World Health Organisation was able to declare the world free of smallpox. This announcement was made by Australian scientist Professor Frank Fenner, who was chairman of the Global Commission for the Certification of Smallpox Eradication and played a key role in the investigations that proved the disease was gone.

To learn more about epidemics, or how Australia can prepare, you can download the report ‘Epidemics in a Changing World’ here.

Two Expert Working Group reports were released today on topics key to the sustainable future of Australia and its people: Australia and Food Security in a Changing World and Challenges at Energy-Water-Carbon Intersections.

The reports were developed at the behest of the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council which provides independent advice on major national issues in science, engineering and technology and their contribution to the economic and social development of Australia.

While developed independently of each other, the two reports do overlap on a number of issues, including the impact of climate change, the importance of water, and the need to build a resilient Australia.

“We charged the cross-disciplinary, expert groups that authored these reports to take a holistic approach, to look at the big picture, and not just a single piece of the science-society interface.

“The independent, scientific reports they produced are ground-breaking and vital to the future of the nation.  I am delighted that they have been released today so that they can inform not only government decision-making, but also public discourse,” Australia’s former Chief Scientist and Executive Officer of PMSEIC, Professor Penny Sackett said

Challenges at Energy-Water-Carbon Intersections

The interplay between energy, water and carbon in human activities has been made more complex and more pressing by the need to mitigate climate change risk through reducing carbon emissions, whilst continuing to supply energy, water and nutritious and affordable food to a growing population.

“Our energy systems use water; water systems use energy; current energy generation is greenhouse gas (GHG)-intensive; and land uses for food, fibre and energy production all require water.

“Solutions in any one area must take into account implications for the others.  Ideally solutions, whether on the scale of national governments, cities, or rural areas, would be developed integrally. 

“For example, traditional desalination to increase urban water supplies may significantly add to GHG emissions, which can exacerbate climate change, “Professor Sackett said.

A key recommendation of the PMSEIC energy-water-carbon report is to implement consistent principles for the accounting and pricing such as water, energy and carbon emissions into the atmosphere.  

“Consistent accounting and pricing principles are required to ensure our finite resources are used effectively, efficiently, and in ways that are consistent with long-term sustainability and resilience. 

“The implementation of integrated smart networks for energy and water, which is also recommended in the report, will go a long way in enabling the application of these principles,” Professor Sackett remarked.

Another set of recommendations put forward in the report describes positive steps to achieve enhanced resilience and sustainability of our built environments and landscapes. 

“Essentially what this means is that Australia, as a nation composed of individual communities linked by common challenges of water, energy and climate, should develop the ability to recover from shocks such as droughts, floods, and heatwaves, while adapting through learning and innovation, and undergoing transformation as required,” Professor Sackett explained.

Australia and Food Security in a Changing World

Australia is currently a net exporter of food, with considerable expertise in food production under resource constraints and in the face of climate variability. However the PMSEIC report suggests increased challenges to this important Australian industry including: land degradation, population growth, long-term climate change, competition for arable land, scarcity of water, and nutrient and energy availability.

“Food security does not just mean having enough food in a typical year.  It means having reliable and sustainable access to acceptable, nutritious, and affordable food at all times.     

“Australians expect this security, and about 40 million non-Australians internationally rely on our country to secure their food as well.”

“The food security report recommends a visionary approach that brings together regulatory and funding agencies, research organisations and industry, to achieve strong outcomes in economic growth and population health centred on food.

“These steps include urgent new investment in food science and technology that will spur future transformational change in healthy and efficient food production; increasing our human capacity to provide a suitably skilled workforce for the food sector; and translating community awareness of food into better food choices,” Professor Sackett said.

Both expert reports address long-term, transformational issues for Australia that affect the whole nation and thus will require a whole-of-government response.  They will be discussed further with the Prime Minister and other Council members at the next PMSEIC meeting, scheduled for 4 February 2011.

Read Australia and Food Security in a Changing World

Read Challenges at Energy-Water-Carbon Intersections

The report focuses on the fundamental questions that influence our ability to learn and highlights the opportunity for Australia to transform its practices related to learning, with the aim of enhancing life-long learning outcomes for all Australians.

It also uses science to challenge a number of commonly held beliefs about how the brain functions, learns and ages. 

The central recommendation of the report is the establishment of a Science of Learning Program, to be delivered through a number of interdisciplinary and inter-professional Science of Learning Centres.

Further detail on the Science of Learning Program can be found in the short  impact statement.  Click here to download the statement.

In describing the Science of Learning Centres, Australia’s Former Chief Scientist, Professor Penny D Sackett said “the Centres would have a transformational impact on learning by advancing the scientific understanding of effective learning techniques; generating knowledge to inform education policy and practice; and by testing innovative approaches in real world environments to maximise learning outcomes.

“It is expected that the research findings from these Centres could lead to improvements in equity, educational practice and practitioner development.  All of which, should narrow the achievement gap and maximise Australia’s economic productivity.

“By adopting the recommendation from the report to establish Science of Learning Centres, we can deliver a society of effective life-long learners who have the ability to engage in the rapidly developing knowledge society that is the global future.”

The Centres, if established, would cover Australia geographically and socio-economically; and would build on the work already being conducted across Australia by Departments of Education, researchers and other educational groups. 

It is also expected that input into the Centres would be harnessed from parents, carers, learners, community leaders, formal and informal educators, and researchers from different disciplines.

Click here to download a copy of the full report.

The Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council (PMSEIC) was established under the former Government in 1997 as the Government’s principal source of independent advice on issues in science, engineering and innovation and relevant aspects of education and training.  The precursor to PMSEIC was the Prime Minister’s Science Council established by the Hawke Labor Government in 1989.  This was then followed in 1992 by the Prime Minister’s Science and Engineering Council.

Given the appointment of a new Chief Scientist in 2011, the Government took the opportunity to consider the arrangements for the future conduct of PMSEIC.  The revised arrangements, announced on 20 January 2012, aim to ensure that PMSEIC remains relevant and able to maintain the best connection between scientific advice and policy. 

New membership structure

The new structure will:

• Make membership more streamlined.
• Meetings will be more regular at three times a year.
• The work program will include short term and long-term projects requiring disinterested scientific advice to government.

The new arrangements will ensure that the work program is more relevant to the needs of government, especially when considering longer-term policy outcomes.

Short-term projects

The Chief Scientist will draw on expert advice to provide further scientific advice to government on an immediate or short-term policy response. The relevant Minister will assist in an advisory role. The Chief Scientist would normally report back to PMSEIC within the next meeting cycle.

Long-term projects

The Chief Scientist will commission the Australian Council of Learned Academies (ACoLA) to undertake in-depth, interdisciplinary research and produce a report on long-term issues requiring further research and advice. The relevant Minister will provide advice and the Chief Scientist will report back within 12 months.

Please visit the PMSEIC website to find further information including who the current members are, as well as reports and presentations that have been produced by the Council.