SSAC Quarterly Update – December 2023
The SSAC provides independent advice, through its Chair, to the Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) for Scotland, to inform policy development and delivery across all areas of the Scottish Government’s (SG) work. It typically develops advice on a medium to long term basis, advising on developments in science and technology and their implications for policy and identifying potential future opportunities and threats.
Chaired by Professor Julian Jones from 1 December 2023, the SSAC has 13 other members, including a co-opted member and in addition to the Scottish Government’s Chief Scientific Advisers, all of whom are ex-officio members: Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) for Scotland Professor Julie Fitzpatrick, Chief Scientist (Health) Professor Dame Anna Dominiczak, CSA Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Professor Mat Williams and Chief Social Policy Adviser Professor Linda Bauld.
The SSAC issues a short report following each quarterly meeting to provide an update on its latest work streams and areas of interest. The next SSAC meeting will be virtual on 7 March 2024.
1. SSAC CURRENT WORKSTREAMS
The Space Sector project is progressing with three research packages underway and invitations for the virtual roundtable to be issued in January 2024.
2. SSAC FUTURE WORKSTREAMS
A summary record of all climate change recommendations should be produced from past reports to assist with future projects – this is to be updated to include relevant climate change recommendations from the recently published Food and Adaptation reports.
The work on SSAC’s use of social media platforms is an on-going action and an update is expected in due course.
Discussions continued on other potential projects to take forward including Offshore Wind and Emerging Technologies/AI.
3. SSAC MEMBERSHIP NEWS
The previous Chair of the SSAC and two other members stepped down at the end of their extended terms on 30 November 2023.
The new SSAC Chair was announced as Professor Julian Jones, existing member of SSAC, and he chaired the SSAC meeting on 12 December.
The co-opted member term was extended a further 6 months to 31 May 2024.
For further information, please contact the SSAC Secretariat team at: Scottishscience@gov.scot