SSAC Minutes - 6 June 2023

Minutes of SSAC Meeting, 6 June 2023

Edinburgh Climate Change Institute, Conference Room G04, Ground Floor, High School Yards, Edinburgh EH1 1LZ

Attendees:

1.       Welcome and actions from last meeting 

Apologies:

• Professor Julie Fitzpatrick
• Professor Mat Williams
• Professor Dame Anna Dominiczak
• Professor Robert Bowman
• Professor Bruce Whitelaw

1.1      The Chair welcomed all to the meeting. The minutes from the previous meeting had been approved and were published online.

1.2      Actions were noted as completed with the exception of the science policy interface working group which will be taken forward and the Chair thanked all who volunteered to join the working group. The social media action (28/5) will be updated by the next meeting.

2.       Introduction to Dermot Rhatigan, Deputy Director, Industrial Transformation and Office of the Chief Scientific Adviser (IT&OCSA), Directorate for Economic Development

2.1      Mr Rhatigan outlined the structure of his division and the various teams involved: Construction, Making Scotland’s Future, New Market Clusters, Supply Chain Development Programme and now also including the Office of the CSA, which joined the division in December 2022. 

2.2      He provided a brief overview of the work of the teams and their current focus and possible areas of interest for the SSAC going forward. 

2.3      Mr Rhatigan welcomed comments from SSAC members and discussion followed on a variety of topics including the National Manufacturing Institute for Scotland (NMIS), IT&OCSA relationship with Scottish Enterprise, procurement and engineering biology.    

3.       Update from ex-officio members

3.1      Professor Bauld discussed some of her work with the pandemic preparedness groups and Public Health Scotland and outlined some of the work around the Early Years Coalition on child poverty prevention.

3.2      Written updates from Professors Dominiczak and Williams were circulated with meeting papers. 

3.3      Jo Ward provided a brief update on behalf of Professor Fitzpatrick outlining her recent meetings and visits.

4.       Members’ Updates

4.1      Members provided brief updates on the work they were involved in since the last SSAC meeting covering a broad range of areas including offshore wind engagement between the US/Scotland/Ireland, environmental data available in Norway, AI, and the regulatory and ethical use of data. 

Action – 29/1 – Secretariat to share link to Christina Boswell report RSE: Rethinking Policy Impact Project’s Report (Rethinking Policy Impact project publishes its recommendations - Royal Society of Edinburgh (rse.org.uk))

5.       Graeme Cook, Head of Research and Sustainable Development Scrutiny – Overview of Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe)

5.1      Mr Cook and his colleague Anna Brand provided a presentation on the work of SPIC(e) and the role of impartial researchers in providing information to MSPs as well as policy, subject advice and analysis to committees. 

5.2      They highlighted some of the SPICe briefings that have been published and discussed the Bill process using a live example to illustrate the art of storytelling to get the science message across.

5.3      SSAC members discussed some of the points raised in the presentation around parliamentary scrutiny.  Mr Cook offered an open access visit to Parliament for SSAC members if that would be helpful. 

5.4      The Chair thanked both for their presentation and noted that there were some similarities in their approach. She hoped that the SSAC reports would be of use to them going forward.

6.       Future Projects – Maggie Gill and members

6.1      The Chair invited suggestions for future projects for SSAC to take forward.  She announced that SG colleagues in New Market Clusters, who form part of ITOCSA, had already approached SSAC Secretariat about taking forward a project on the Space Sector. 

Action – 29/2 – SSAC Chair and Secretariat to discuss further a possible Space Sector project and then arrange meeting with the policy team involved

6.2      On behalf of CSA Professor Julie Fitzpatrick, Jo Ward suggested looking at the UK Government Office for Science’s (GO Science) work on emerging technologies through a Scottish lens to highlight Scotland-specific risks/opportunities linked – for example – to our demographics, geography, infrastructure, research and industry as a possible subject for future consideration.

6.3      It was agreed that offshore wind from a marine environment perspective would be the third area to take forward.

6.4      The Chair invited volunteers for each working group highlighting that it has been best practice to have two SSAC members in each group. The following working groups were agreed and SSAC Secretariat and Chair will discuss the proposed projects further and update in due course.

          Emerging Technologies – Melanie Simms and Marian Scott 

          Offshore Wind – Murray Roberts and Nick Owens

          Space Sector – Graham Kerr and Louise Horsfall

7.       Standing Agenda Item – Climate Change – Maggie Gill and David Mallon, Climate Change Division, Scottish Government

7.1      Professor Jones advised that arrangements for the Early Career Researchers roundtable event were in hand for 13 June, and there had been a good response to the invitation with, over 50 participants confirmed.

8.       Update on past/current/future projects (SSAC Note 23/8)

8.1      Professor Scott provided some feedback on the recent Food Systems roundtable and some of the issues raised from these discussions. The draft report is underway and will be circulated to SSAC for comment before final issue.

8.2      The Chair thanked SSAC for agreement to co-opt Professor Tahseen Jafry onto the SSAC for six months to assist with the Adaptation work. The Chair also thanked Professor Boden for joining the working group and agreeing to draft the SSAC report following the Adaptation roundtable on 8 June. The intern’s report will be used as an annex to the main SSAC report which is expected to be completed later in the summer.

8.3      The Chair advised that since the SSAC Aquaculture report was published SEPA had also launched their sea lice risk management framework. 

8,4      Professor Jones advised that he had updated the Climate Change Co-ordination Paper following the recent Aquaculture publication 

Action 29/3 – Secretariat to circulate final Climate Change Co-ordination paper.

8.5      The Chair showed a presentation on her thoughts for inclusion in the SSAC letter to the new FM and sought comments from SSAC members.  Following discussion it was agreed to take forward the suggestions and the Chair will circulate a draft for comment.

Ongoing Action 28/3 –  letter to FM to be drafted and circulated to SSAC for comment/sign off.

8.6      Feedback on past reports was provided with the meeting papers (Note 23/10)

9.       AOB

9.1      No items raised

10.      Next meeting – 19 September, 09:00-13:00 in person – venue tbc