Update from Sir Patrick Vallance on the Science & Engineering Profession

Sir Patrick Vallance, Head of the Government Science & Engineering (GSE) Profession, reflects on the first 6 months of 2022.

One of the highlights of 2022 so far was the GSE Conference, which saw over 370 people come together, and many more joining online, to learn about and celebrate government science and engineering. The range of science spanned different disciplines and the quality of work and expertise I saw was impressive. I enjoyed meeting scientists from different departments and PSREs and it was useful to make so many new contacts. The wealth of talent we have across the civil service was abundantly clear - we are sitting on a goldmine of great people who are doing really interesting things.

A second highlight has to be the launch of Science and Engineering 101, a suite of introductory learning collated by the GSE profession, designed to increase science and engineering literacy across government. This comprises the GSE Induction Pack, the Learning Signpost Hub, and online awareness level learning modules. Soon we’ll be launching 2 new learning and development modules, one aimed at early career scientists and generalists on accessing S&E advice, and one on communicating S&E for scientists and engineers at all grades. Find out more about Science & Engineering 101.