Research is an international endeavour, involving collaboration from the researcher-to-researcher level to the country-to-country level. The international research scene is changing as the research base of countries such as India and China expands. It is thus crucial that the UK adapts its research support mechanism accordingly. This inquiry examined: the strengths and weaknesses of Research Councils and the Office of Science and Innovation in maintaining and promoting international collaboration; the European Union Framework Programme; the effectiveness of collaboration between Research Councils and Government departments; the impact of the Research Councils' policies on the international mobility of scientists and engineers.

On 28 June 2007, the Prime Minister announced changes to the machinery of Government that had an impact upon the select committee system within the House of Commons. As a result, the Science and Technology Select Committee will be dissolved and replaced by a new Innovation, Universities and Skills Select Committee at the beginning of the next session of Parliament. This Report explains the role that the Science and Technology Committee has played within Parliament and the science community. It outlines the Committee's innovations, its impact and concerns regarding future science scrutiny in the House of Commons. It concludes that, in the long term, a separate Science and Technology Committee is the only way to guarantee a permanent focus on science across Government within the select committee system and recommends that the House be given an opportunity to revisit this issue.

The report reviews a draft strategic plan from the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, a program formed in 2002 to coordinate and direct U.S. efforts in climate change and global change research. The U.S. Climate Change Science Program incorporates the decade-old Global Change Research Program and adds a new component -the Climate Change Research Initiative-whose primary goal is to "measurably improve the integration of scientific knowledge, including measures of uncertainty, into effective decision support systems and resources."