First sight for Foresight

The Office of Science and Technology this week declared the first batch of reports from the Government's Pounds 1.6 million Foresight exercise on research needs and market opportunities for the United Kingdom over the next ten to 15 years, writes Kam Patel.

The reports out this week cover the findings of five of the 15 industry sector panels set up by the OST as part of the initiative and cover transport, construction, health and life sciences, financial services and chemicals. The remaining studies will be published next month.

But David Hunt, minister for science, warned that Foresight "is not about massive injections of money". He said that the initiative should be seen as a means of "setting priorities". Many officials in the research councils, already concerned by the increasing volume of earmarked funds for science - about 9 per cent next year - fear that Foresight may mean further erosion of councils' internal flexibility in funding research.

The OST has, however, announced that it would be earmarking nearly Pounds 21 million in the 1996/97 budget to help provide "flexibility to target funding to emerging high priority initiatives". This will include support for Foresight initiatives.