...The first area I want to touch on is the quality of humanities and social sciences research and the first thing I want to say is to recognise the world class quality of the research being conducted in the UK and funded by the Research Councils. It is in my view of huge importance that this research not only continues but its outputs, where relevant, are communicated effectively to the policy community....
...Too often the words 'commission some research' translate as 'kick it into the long grass'. It can be a way of deferring uncomfortable issues until the day after tomorrow, or until someone else's watch. Research projects of that sort are not only pointless. They're a waste of money, too...
The taxpayer has a right to object to that sort of thing. But so does anyone who believes that Government policies ought to be based on proper evidence and that the nostrums around which so much public policy revolve ought to exist in some mappable relationship to empirical fact.
The biggest challenges that we have to face as a society:
Such as Climate and energy security. Combating global terrorism.
Poverty, especially child poverty, its causes and its cures.
Social mobility, not only opportunities or lack of them, but attitudes and aspirations.
Public health, where again attitudes and lifestyles can be as important and more insidious killers than any virus.
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