Catalogue description Foreign Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Scientific Relations Department and Science and Technology Department: Registered Files (SR and SM Series)

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Details of FCO 55
Reference: FCO 55
Title: Foreign Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Scientific Relations Department and Science and Technology Department: Registered Files (SR and SM Series)
Description:

This series consists of registered files of the Scientific Relations Department of the Foreign Office, and later the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (from December 1968 the Science and Technology Department) relating to general matters of international science.

Subjects covered include general scientific relations between the UK, international organisations and other states; the use of the sea bed; research and activity in outer space including satellite communications; civil uses of atomic energy; the civil aviation industry; and international environmental questions.

Date: 1967-1977
Arrangement:

By former file reference within annual file cycles.

Related material:

For further files relating to atomic energy see FCO 22

Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Former reference in its original department: SM and SR file series
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Language: English
Creator:

Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Science and Technology Department, 1968-1977

Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Scientific Relations Department, 1968-1968

Foreign Office, Scientific Relations Department, 1965-1968

Physical description: 1473 file(s)
Access conditions: Open unless otherwise stated
Immediate source of acquisition:

From 1999 Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Accruals: Series is accruing
Administrative / biographical background:

The Scientific Relations Department dealt with general matters of international science in which the Foreign Office and later the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) were interested, including the use of outer space for research purposes, the peaceful uses of atomic energy, and desalination of sea water. The department continued for a short period after the formation of the FCO in 1968, but was replaced in December 1968 by the Science and Technology Department, which was also interested in developments in civil aviation.

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