A consultation on the establishment of Academy for the Mathematical Sciences was held by the proto-Academy for the Mathematical Sciences in the Summer of 2023. This was an opportunity to provide feedback on the work completed by the proto-Academy to date and input into the thinking of the planned work. All LMS members were invited to participate directly.
The proto-Academy has now published its feedback to the consultation exercise. The responses can be found on their website. The documents published include an Executive Summary of the responses and a detailed 45-page report that presents the responses to the consultation, anonymised and ordered by theme. The responses and the proto-Academy summary suggest there is strong support from the mathematical sciences community for the creation of the Academy for the Mathematical Sciences. Stakeholders across academia, industry, government, education, and research sectors expressed enthusiasm for the initiative, highlighting in particular the current fragmented landscape of the mathematical sciences in the UK and of the Academy’s potential to redress that.
In the Autumn statement 2023, the Government outlined support for a National Academy for the Mathematical Sciences and has ringfenced £6m over 3 years to support the set-up of an Academy, subject to tendering and bidding requirements. The Government committed to funding an Academy for the Mathematical Sciences in recognition of the support expressed by the Council for Mathematical Sciences and its member learned societies.
The LMS will continue to engage with the proto-Academy through the Council for the Mathematical Sciences, our Council working group, and directly with members of the proto-Academy’s Executive Committee, to support the various workstreams developing the Fellowship model, the final governance structure and the relationship between the Academy and the Societies.
Updated 11th December 2023