Author: Katie Weeks, Sciencewise Programme Director
Last month the Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE) published the results of their first formal tracking survey on public attitudes towards research and development.
There’s a lot of exciting work going on right now in this area, as the science sector also eagerly awaits the launch of UKRI’s national Public Attitudes to Science survey early 2026.
And there are bound to be some common themes emerging from these reports that have relevance for Sciencewise and provide food for thought on how we operate in a society that is very different to the one when Sciencewise was created back in 2004.
Still relevant
There is compelling evidence in CaSE’s report of the need for organisations such as Sciencewise still, with two-thirds (66%) of the public wanting to be more involved in the decisions about what type of R&D is funded at a UK level. Encouragingly a quarter of respondents were interested in actively taking part – 26% said they would be interested in “contributing to decisions about R&D funding or policies, e.g. public dialogues or joining advisory committees”.
All very reassuring news to an organisation that encourages policy makers to use deliberative dialogue to embed public voices into science policymaking.
Interestingly, and somewhat counter to many of the other areas reported on, the answers to these questions, and the desire to be involved in the decision-making, remained the same regardless of geographic location, vote intention or socioeconomic group. In today’s often polarised society, people just want to be heard and involved.
Storytellers
So the question is then, what more can we do to hear and involve them? Although people want to be involved, less than a third (29%) feel a connection or personal interest to R&D. One of the report’s recommendations is to “demonstrate R&D’s relevance to priority issues by showing that our sector is helping to tackle the issues that matter most to the public now”.
To us at Sciencewise that means doing more to highlight and share the thoughtful and nuanced conversations people are having all over the country on complex topics such as Solar Radiation Management, and demonstrating the impact those conversations are having months, sometimes even years later. This summer, for example, eight babies were born in the UK free of hereditary mitochondrial disease. This was possible in part due to a dialogue run over a decade ago in 2012 around the ethical and moral concerns people had around the technique, which uses genetic material from three parents and had at times been criticised as ‘designer’ babies. These discussions enabled policy makers to listen to diverse views and develop regulations that incorporate them.
Location, location, location
Another interesting finding is how much stronger people feel about R&D in relation to their local area rather than nationally. Whilst awareness of local R&D is low, 70% of people said they wanted to hear more from researchers about it in their area, and the qualitative research accompanying the survey consistently showed high levels of pride and interest in local examples.
This poses somewhat of a challenge for a national programme like Sciencewise. Whilst we hold dialogues locally all over the country, the topics that we cover are usually related to national-scale policies. Moving forwards into 2026 we are therefore reflecting on this finding and reviewing how we can build on people’s increased affinity for local research.
If you’d like to talk to us further about these topics please email [email protected]
