Catalogue description Nature Conservancy Council: Advisory Committee on Science: Registered Files

The chief function of the Advisory Committee on Science was to manage and direct a programme of commissioned research to support nature conservation and to provide scientific basis for future policy.

The Advisory Committee on Science was established by the Nature Conservancy Council in January 1974. It liaised with the Chief Scientist to develop the scientific elements of policy and to reinforce relationships with the Natural Environment Research Council, the Universities and other Scientific Institutions. Unlike the other Advisory Committees, there was no statutory foundation under the 1973 Nature Conservancy Council Act for this move, but the Council considered that a small committee, originally from its own number, would provide continuity of expertise. Working Groups and Parties were set up by the Committee to work on specific conservation issues.

The Research and Experimental Stations of the former Nature Conservancy had remained part of the Natural Environment Research Council when the Nature Conservancy Council was created in 1973. In many respects the Advisory Committee on Science continued the work of the Scientific Policy Committee of the Nature Conservancy.