On being a DCSA
A critical friend to Government
Professor Brian Collins CB,
FREng
Professor of Engineering Policy
Head of Department of Science,
Techonology Engineering and
Public Policy, UCL
Success factors for a DCSA
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Evidence
Advice
Scrutiny
Research
Professionalism
Multidisciplinarity
Networking
Ambassador
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
The Club of CSAs
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
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….!
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
Issues of national importance
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
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
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
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A Critical Friend,
Open to Learning,
Strong in your opinions,
Humble when necessary
Dogmatic when necessary
• Have fun!!
Thank you