UK turns to science to reduce poverty

Brussels, 09 Dec 2004

The UK's governmental Department for International Development (DFID) is, for the first time, to appoint a Chief Scientific Advisor with the aim of identifying where science and novel technologies can contribute to poverty reduction.

Professor Gordon Conway is an agricultural ecologist who has been president of the Rockefeller Foundation, a knowledge-based global foundation that seeks to enrich and sustain the lives and livelihoods of poor and excluded people worldwide. He will move to his new post in January.

Professor Conway's role will include advising the department on how to strengthen the system through which DFID staff access information on science and technology and seek to understand how it may be used to promote poverty reduction.

Intersectoral collaboration between the social sciences, natural sciences and engineers have been highlighted as a priority by Professor Conway: 'I know from experience that we are only going to make significant progress reducing poverty, hunger and disease if natural and social scientists work closely together.'

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