Chief Scientific Advisor to the Scottish Executive

The Chief Scientific Advisor to the Scottish Executive is a new post created in the Scottish Executive in May 2006.

Professor Ann Glover a scientist from Aberdeen University, and past winner of the Sir Ian Wood award for innovation, was seconded to the Scottish Executive 'to provide independent advice to Ministers, take the lead on co-ordinating science policy across the Executive and work closely with the science community' ^[1].

Glover takes over from 'Professor Wilson Sibbett, the Chair of the Scottish Science Advisory Committee (SSAC), and the Executive's external Chief Adviser on Science [who] will continue in that role until the end of December 2006'.^[2]

It has to be doubted just how 'independent' Professor Glover is. She is an open believer in research being a business opportunity and in the commercialisation of science. She also recommends patenting and retaining Intellectual Property rights for financial gain ^[3]. What also was not mentioned in that release was how she is an advocate of Biotechnology and GM foods, indeed her company won the award of best new Biotech Company for 2000 ^[4]. Her close links to other supporters of GM in Scotland today is shown through her delivering of a lecture on 13th February this year at the Edinburgh Consortium for Rural Research titled 'Does Science Matter?' which is 'organised jointly with the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Institute of Biology Scotland'. ^[5] The Edinburgh Consortium for Rural Research is a partnership made up of known champions of GM foods.

References

1. ^ Scottish Executive 'New Science Champion for Scotland News Release, 25/05/2006
2. ^ Scottish Executive 'New Science Champion for Scotland News Release, 25/05/2006
3. ^ Professor Ann Glover Presentation 2006
4. ^ibid
5. ^ Edinburgh Consortium for Rural Research Briefings and Headlines page, accessed January 2007.