The PM's advisers for science

A consummate politician he may be, but John Howard is no scientist.

So who has he selected for the Prime Minister's Science XI, who can be depended on for sound advice on how to play a straight bat to the stem cell googly?

The Prime Minister and Cabinet won't publicly reveal who their sources of scientific counsel are.

Drawing on government, academic and private sector sources, however, it is possible to compile a short list of the players whose opinions are most likely to be canvassed by the PM.

They include government insiders such as:

• Robin Batterham:
• The government's Chief Scientist, a vital part of his job is to provide the PM with advice on science, technology and innovations issues. His term ends in May and his field is not biotechnology (he was formerly head of CSIRO's division of mineral and process engineering). But if he's not a top-order batsman on the PM's XI, his overview and broad range of contacts in the science community equip him to be chairman of selectors.

• Donald Metcalf:
• Emeritus professor at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Metcalf won the $300,000 Prime Minister's Prize for Science for his work in white blood cell research. He sits on a key inner sanctum body, the Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council. This 26-member group includes the PM, six cabinet ministers (plus the Treasurer if he wants to sit in) and 14 ex-officio members who represent leading scientific and academic organisations.

Few PMSEIC members have expertise in their own right. For example, Australian Academy of Sciences president Prof Brian Anderson is an electrical engineer, Tim Besley, head of the Australian Academy of Technology Sciences and Engineering, is a civil engineer and Australian Research Council chief executive Geoff Garrett is a metallurgist. But they act as gatekeepers who can give the PM quick access to the right talent.

One whose background bears more directly on the cloning issue is:

• Nicholas Saunders:
• Chairman of the NHMRC, Saunders is also dean of the faculty of medicine at Monash University, the Australian hotbed of stem cell research.

Top-order batsmen on the PM's XI are likely to be the leading workers in the field, including:

• Alan Trounson:
• One of Australia's leading reproductive biologists, he is the head of the Monash Institute of Reproduction and Development. In conjunction with Monash IVF, the institute was responsible for seven of the first 10 IVF babies in the world and the first IVF baby born from frozen embryos.

• Martin Pera:
• At the cutting edge of stem cell research in Australia, he is a senior scientist with MIRD, which is part of Monash University's Faculty of Medicine.

• Peter Rathjen:
• Head of the department of molecular bioscience at Adelaide University, his interests focus on the differentiation of embryonic stem (ES) cells, and the use of genetic and ES cell technologies for human therapy.

• Peter Mountford:
• chief scientist at Melbourne-based Stem Cell Sciences Pty Ltd, which along with ESI and Adelaide's BresaGen are commonly viewed as Australia's most advanced private sector companies with stem cell interests.

Open letter

The process of informing the political decision-making process with a range of scientific views is not a one-way street. Many individuals, institutes and associations whose interests are bound up with stem cell work haven't waited for the PM to contact them to make their thoughts known.

The Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies (FASTS), which has a seat on PMSEIC, sent an open letter to Science Minister Brendan Nelson expressing its pro-research view, and the Australian Society for Medical Research made submissions to the all-parties parliamentary committee which last year gave a green light to embryonic stem cell research.

As crunch time nears, a host of other interested parties, both scientific and commercial, are making their views known whether the PM wants to hear them or not.

Among those recently signing open letters on the issue are Prince of Wales Hospital Diabetes Transplant Unit director Bernie Tuch, Children's Medicine Research Institute director Peter Rowe and Westmead Institute for Cancer Research director Rick Kefford.

Others to have added their signatures are Hunter Research Institute executive director John Rostas, Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical research director Susan Pond and Australian Museum director Mike Archer.