On being a DCSA A critical friend to Government

1. On being a DCSAA critical friend to Government Professor Brian Collins CB, FREng Professor of Engineering Policy Head of Department of Science, Techonology Engineering and Public Policy, UCL

2. Success factors for a DCSA • Evidence • Advice • Scrutiny • Research • Professionalism • Multidisciplinarity • Networking • Ambassador

3. Being on the inside • The network of Departmental CSAs • Big policy issues are multi department • STEM is in most of them • Infrastructure, Environment. Energy, Transport, Cities • Growth, Resilience, Compliance, Innovation • RCUK, Academies and Institutes are doing a very good job in providing assistance for evidence and assurance – Whitehall can use them more

4. The Club of CSAs

5. Case study 1 • Bio-mass • Evidence that cultivated and natural biomass can be used for fuel - Brazil • Negative impact on food supply in developing countries • Scientific analysis suggests biomass is better used for energy and heat in communities • Waste can be used as ‘biomass’ • Targets for bio-fuel use already set in international agreements – EU wide • Pan departmental scientific and policy coordination to generate evidence – meanwhile - change policy • Measures to generate national and international trust

6. Case Study 2 • Information Security • Clear need to value information as an asset • Protective marking fine for paper based world – inadequate for ICT based working – no binding between marking and text • Controlled sharing now the paradigm for influencing others • Control technologies inadequate – practices ill formed – breaches unacceptable • Lack of trust in systems and processes – inadequate awareness of issues • Awareness campaigns – knowledge transfer networks – research into new technologies • Government procedures – training – but where is policy for the commercial world? Left to the market….!

7. Case Study 3 • Modernisation of Thameslink • Increased passenger throughput crucial to business case • Behaviour of people exiting and entering trains critical to revenue generation • Model of behaviour based on thirty year old design of rolling stock – and simplistic • New experimental rig used to develop new models – transformed whole carriage/platform/furniture/timetable design • Trust in model without examination of assumptions in the model • Observational evidence had impact outside expected context – Crossrail - Olympics

8. Issues of national importance

9. Influencing policy implementation • Agencies and private industry actually carry out policy implementation • Role of the CSAs is in impacting the policy ecosystem as much as policy generation departments • RCs, TSB, RGOs, NDPBs, PSRLs, Industry • Evidence of policy effectiveness is hard to gather

10. Attributes of a DCSA • Polymath existence (for an ex-physicist) • biofuels, traffic flow management, volcanic ash and jet engines, cybersecurity, nuclear waste, weather, land use planning, • Coping with multiple ‘reporting’ lines • Managing a huge network of senior level contacts • Maintaining sanity and objectivity

11. Random observations

16. Success factors • Have an excellent team to work with you and support you. • Use the privileged position sparingly but decisively • Learn the techniques of the elevator pitch • Concise, accurate, have impact • Be • A Critical Friend, • Open to Learning, • Strong in your opinions, • Humble when necessary • Dogmatic when necessary • Have fun!! CSAU at BIS CSAU at DfT Beth Hogben

17. Thank you