Seán Sherlock
Question:298. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Business; Enterprise and Innovation if the Cabinet has requested advice from the chief scientific adviser since her appointment. [6999/18]
View answerTuesday, 13 February 2018
Questions (298)
Written answers
The Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) meets with relevant Government Ministers on a regular basis and meets with new Ministers when they take responsibility for their portfolio. I have met with Professor Mark Ferguson on a number of occasions since my appointment as Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation in late November 2017. I am not aware of any formal requests for advice from the Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government by Cabinet members since my appointment as Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation. I understand that the CSA provided advice on at least two occasions earlier in 2017 to the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and the Environment. I am aware also that the CSA presented evidence to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine (October 2017) and the Seanad Special Select Committee on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (June 2017). The CSA also regularly meets with relevant European Commissioners and members of their Cabinets.
The Chief Scientific Adviser participates in the following national and international committees/groups:
- Chair of the Horizon 2020 Strategic Research Proposals Group
- Innovation 2020 Implementation Group
- Member of the Board of Governors European Commission Joint Research Council (JRC)
- European Science Advisers Forum (ESAF)
- Global Research Council (GRC)
- Small Advanced Economies Initiatives (SAEI)
- Foreign Ministry Science and Technology Advisors network (FMSTAN)
- International Network for Government Science Advice (INGSA)
- International Council for Scientific Unions (ICSU) Committee
- Chaired eHealth Ireland Committee 2015-2017
Other national departmental / industrial / academic and international engagements in capacity of CSA:
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Expert Panel on Peer Review, Ottawa, Canada (2017)
- Participation in various EU high level committees, e.g. EU High Level Group on maximising the impact of EU research and innovation programmes (Lamy Group) 2017
- Participation in various Brexit stakeholder briefings (ongoing)
- Panel member in National Risk Assessment open debate at the Department of the Taoiseach
- Regular speaker at international conferences such as the AAAS (American Association for Advancement of Science) Annual Meetings, EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF) and World Science Forum.