Science and the Parliament returns to Edinburgh to discuss the future of STEM in Scotland
Science and the Parliament returned to Edinburgh as politicians, education chiefs and industry leaders gathered to discuss the future of STEM in Scotland.
Roughly 200 attendees travelled to Our Dynamic Earth, located next to the Scottish Parliament Building at Holyrood, for the 24th edition of the popular annual event.
Richard Lochhead MSP, the Scottish Government’s Minister for Business, gave the keynote speech while RSC President Dr Annette Doherty opened the event with a speech for delegates. Around 20 organisations from the sector also joined in by setting up stalls to promote their activities.
A busy day in the Scottish capital saw speakers discuss a wide range of subjects affecting the STEM sector, including:
- Widening access to STEM
- Improving critical thinking, literacy and digital comprehension
- The threat of misinformation
- Adapting to AI
- Funding provision
- Curriculum and assessment reform.
In her opening comments, Dr Doherty spoke about some of the RSC’s projects relating to the future of STEM, such as the findings of the latest Science Teaching Survey, recent discussions between our Education team and Scottish education officials, and our upcoming Future Workforce and Educational Pathways report, which will be launched in early 2025.
Her speech pressed the need to invest in both individuals and infrastructure to get the most out of STEM and ensure that Scotland continues to make major contributions to global scientific progress.
“Scotland has long been a crucial breeding ground for scientific and technological innovation and some of the work done here in the past has transformed living standards and our understanding of our world,” said Dr Doherty in her introductory remarks.
"Everything from phones, television and radar to penicillin, MRI scanners and mammal cloning are just a few of the things that have come about thanks to Scottish innovation. Scotland has already given us so much – but the question now is this: what’s next?"
Mr Lochhead followed a similar vein, pointing to the growth of the Scottish space sector within his own constituency in Moray and the Scottish Government’s various ongoing initiatives.
Mr Lochhead, who has held the title of Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science during his 25-year career as an MSP, said: “The STEM sector will underpin our future as a country, as a planet, humanity's future, and then across the world, everyone will be having the same conversations that you'll be having here today as well. In Scotland, I think we're in a reasonably good place. We're building on strong foundations.”
He added: "We've all got a duty to work together to inspire the next generation of STEM learners and people to work in science and tech. And as I said at the beginning, I think that Scotland is at an inflexion point.
"We'll get two massive big opportunities economically. In my view, one is energy transition, another is science and tech, and higher than deep tech, and everything goes with that, with AI in the back of it, so STEM is crucially important for us to those opportunities to the economy."
After Mr Lochhead’s keynote speech, guest speakers took to the stage for a series of panel sessions looked at different aspects of the STEM agenda for Scotland.
Dr Doherty chaired the first of the day's panel discussions, which featured presentations from a variety of different organisations during an engaging hour-long session.
Dr Alicia Greated, the Executive Director of the Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE); Dliraj Sokhi-Watson, a Director of Equate Scotland; Dr Hina Khan, Head of Commercial for Craft Prospect Ltd; and Dawn McAra-Hunter, a Programme Manager for the Scottish AI Alliance, were the speakers who joined our President to speak about their areas of expertise.
Members of the audience probed them further during a Q&A session before a break that gave delegates the chance to reflect on a full start to the day.
Two more panel discussions followed, with Dr Stephen Hendry, our Programme Manager for Socio-economic Inclusion; Prof Martin Hendry, who is Professor of Gravitational Astrophysics and Cosmology at the University of Glasgow; and Sean McNamara, a director of CILIPS, the professional body for libraries, next up.
A wide-ranging discussion followed, with views shared on the importance of giving as many people access to STEM opportunities, reaching young people and tackling misinformation and disinformation online, among other topics.
The final discussion saw Rebecca Wright, a lecturer at Robert Gordon University; Dr Stuart Farmer, who is the Learning and Skills Manager for the Institute of Physics; and Dr Sinead Rhodes, who is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, share their perspectives on education and the future of STEM.
Both sessions were followed with similarly robust questions from the audience during a full and frank day of discussion about STEM in Scotland.
Fittingly for an event about the future of STEM, the day was brought to a conclusion with the presentation of awards to high-performing students from schools all across the country.
Representatives from the RSC, the Institute of Physics, the Royal Society of Biology, the Royal Scottish Society of Arts and the Edinburgh Geological Society handed out the prizes while Dr Doherty also congratulated the winners in her closing remarks.
“The topic of today’s event has been the future of STEM in Scotland – the students who have just received awards are exactly that: the future of STEM in Scotland. I see it as the duty and responsibility of everyone here today to help these talented individuals realise their potential," she said.
Science and the Parliament will return to Edinburgh next year for its milestone 25th edition. Similar events in the devolved nations will also take place in 2025, with Science and the Senedd in Wales and Science at Stormont in Northern Ireland.
