Oxford University's Prof Chris Leaver says the recent letter to Tony Blair from '114 eminent scientists' has stopped the anti-GM bandwagon in its tracks. It has certainly led Blair to publicly reaffirm his support for GM.

Here is a profile of the lobby group behind the Blair letter and behind the campaign to paint critics of GM as "violent" and as fixers of the Public Debate. It also has projects aimed at attacking Pusztai yet again and sucking in yet more public money into GM research to fill the void left by the retreating corporations. Its principal collaborators include the Royal Society and the John Innes Centre.
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Sense About Science - A GM WATCH profile
[for all the links http://www.lobbywatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=151]

The UK lobby group Sense About Science says it is 'A Trust to encourage a rational, evidence-based approach to scientific and technological developments'.

Its exact launch date is unknown but the domain name was registered in March 2002.

Within months it had begun to promote its point of view on GM crops to parliamentarians and the media, and had raised  funding from 'corporations and learned societies'.

An item on the Sense About Science website also refers to a  'Sense About Science network of scientists and NGOs'. Clues to the network's constituent members would seem to be provided by the organisation's officers, staff, trustees, advisors, funders and project particpants.

OFFICERS/STAFF:
Chairman: Lord Taverne
Vice Chairman: Dame Bridget Ogilvie
Director: Tracey Brown
Other staff: Ellen Raphael

Both Brown and Raphael worked for the London-based PR  company Regester Larkin till shortly prior to joining Sense About Science. Both are also part of the extreme libertarian network behind LM, Spiked, and the Institute of Ideas, to all of which Brown and Raphael have contributed. The domain name for the Sense About Science website - senseaboutscience.org.uk - was registered by Rob Lyons, who is also web master for Spiked.

Brown and Raphael are also key players in another of the network's front groups, Global Futures. The phone number for  Global Futures is the same as that for Sense About Science.

ADVISORS/TRUSTEES

Most of the members of Sense About Science's advisory council and board of trustees are well known GM proponents. In the list below we have added relevant institutional and/or NGO connections in brackets:

Vivian Moses (CropGen, Scientific Alliance), Michael Wilson (Scientific Alliance, HRI), Michael Fitzpatrick (LM, Spiked, Institute of Ideas), Brian Heap (Royal Society), Peter Marsh (SIRC), Phil Dale (John Innes Centre), Peter Lachmann (Royal Society, Academy of Medical Sciences), Julian Ma (Academy of Medical Sciences ),Matt Ridley (links to IEA, Julian Morris etc.), Chris Leaver, Derek Burke, Alan Malcolm,  Roger Turner, and Janet Bainbridge.

FUNDING

Funding is said to derive from 'corporations and learned societies'. Funders include the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) , the 'life science' company Amersham Biosciences plc, BBSRC, BP plc, GlaxoSmithKline, ISAAA, John Innes Centre, The John Innes Trust, Mr M. Livermore (a biotech PR consultant who formerly worked for DuPont and has links to Scientific Alliance and IPN), the biopharmaceutical company Oxford GlycoSciences plc, Dr M. Ridley (links to IEA, Julian Morris etc.), and the Social Issues Research Centre (SIRC).

PROJECT PARTICIPANTS

Notable among the participants in the half dozen or so Sense About Science projects launched to date are the Royal Society (peer review project) and the John Innes Centre ('public good' plant breeding project). The Royal Society, in particular, appears to have gone to great lengths to support Sense About Science's first project, on peer review. Its former Vice President and its former Biological Secretary are among a number of leading Fellows on its advisory council and board of trustees.

CAMPAIGNS/PROJECTS

Influencing the debate

Sense about Science was created just in time for the UK's official GM Public Debate.

In October 2002 its director, Tracey Brown , attended a meeting about the design of the Public Debate. She was invited as part of a group of eight 'social scientists familiar with the GM debate and public engagement processes'. In fact, although Brown has a masters degree in the social sciences, her area of specialism was the sociology of law.

Interestingly, Brown is not the only LM contributor whose advice was sought during this period. Bill Durodie describes himself as an 'advisor' to the Prime Minister's Cabinet Office Strategy Unit study 'The Costs and Benefits of Genetically Modified (GM) Crops', which formed a parallel strand to the Public Debate in the government's assessment of the issue of GM crop commercialisation.

The GM Public Debate was originally expected to begin in Janaury 2003 although it was, in fact, delayed. Coincidentally, a series of reports which were favourable to GM appeared in the media in January.

These reports seem to have emanated from either the Royal Society, Sense About Science or people closely associated with the two organisations. All were marked by inaccuracy and what appears to have been an attempt to deliberately misinform. (see Strange Bedfellows, The Ecologist, April 2003)

For instance, reports by the BBC's science correspondent Pallab Ghosh at the end of January stated that the British Medical Association (BMA) would be undertaking a new report on GM. The BMA's previous report had been highly critical of the rapid introduction of GM crops and food and had called for a moratorium. Pallab Ghosh implied it was Sense About Science that had now persuaded the BMA to undertake a review of its policy. Sir Peter Lachmann , who is on the advisory panel of Sense About Science was quoted as saying that the research that the BMA's 1999 report had been based on had been 'discredited'.

However, the BMA issued a press release the same day saying its review was entirely routine and that the BBC's account of the reasons for the review were 'wrong'. It also quoted the Head of BMA Science and Ethics as saying, 'The claim that we have been persuaded by the organisation Sense about Science to review our policy is simply wrong.'

In autumn 2003, after the Public Debate had shown an overwhelming level of public opposition to GM crop commercialisation, Sense About Science launched a new media campaign.

On the eve of the publication of the results of the government's GM farmscale evaluation (FSE), which showed a generally discouraging environmental impact from the GM crops trialed, an article, based on the preliminary findings of a survey organised by Sense About Science, of institutes carrying out GM crop trials appeared in The Times under the headline GM vandals force science firms to reduce research. Sense About Science's director, Tracey Brown , was quoted as saying, 'The burden of trying to organise the research community to pre-empt and protect from vandalism is potentially disastrous.'

Articles in the Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) and elsewhere went still further, suggesting the GM Public Debate had been 'hijacked' by 'activists' and that GM plant researchers were being subjected to physical and mental abuse, leading some to take jobs abroad. One THES article, headlined Scientists quit UK amid GM attacks, included claims of intimidation by Chris Leaver (a Sense About Science trustee) and Mike Wilson (a Sense About Science advisory panelist).

In his response Blair emphasised his government's support for biotechnology research and his recognition of its economic value (Blair backs UK biotechnology, THES, 14 November 2003)

Anothe

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