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CSaP's Policy Fellowships Programme enters its third year of operation in September 2012 with the arrival of the next cohort of Fellows - senior policy makers from government departments and businesses covering the whole spectrum of the Centre's themes, with particular emphasis on cyber security, health and wellbeing, and the environment.
First to arrive will be Sandie Dunne, Head of Programmes for Community Wellbeing, Environment and Housing, Local Government Group, who will visit in mid-September and then again in mid-November, and Halima Khan, Director of the Public Services Lab at Nesta. Sandie will be exploring issues raised by the newly emerging public health system in England, while Halima will be focussing on questions relating to healthy ageing. Colin Church, Defra's Director for Climate, Waste and Atmosphere, will arrive in early October, investigating how to mitigate the impact of waste and its disposal on health and the environment.
He will be followed by three Fellows in the stream related to the cyber security of infrastructure, James Quinault (Director of the Office of Cyber Security and Information Assurance in the Cabinet Office), Paul Swarbrick (Head of Cyber Security at NATS, the UK's national air traffic service), and Bill Hodson (Business Director at Frazer Nash Consultancy). Also visiting this term will be the latest in our series of Fellows from the Department for Communities and Local Government, Paul Chamberlain (Head of Analysis for the Neighbourhoods Group).
Specific invitations to meet these Fellows will be issued in the coming weeks, but researchers who would like to meet any of them are welcome to email and ask to be included in the schedule.
Later in the term we are expecting to confirm further visitors from organisations including European Commission (including the Head of Science Advice to Policy in the Joint Research Centre), the Cabinet Office, and GO-Science. We continue to welcome new applications from government and industry, particularly for 2013.
Meanwhile, the Centre has published its report on the Fellowship in academic year 2011-12 (click here to view online or to download). It includes six case studies of current Fellows and details of feedback and evaluation of the programme in the last twelve months. Introducing the report, UK Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood calls the Fellowship an "excellent initiative, bringing together senior policy makers and academics to help generate new policy responses to complex social and economic challenges." He continues: "Good policy making requires access to the best evidence base. Policy Fellows act as a bridge between the public sector and cutting edge research, helping to translate scientific insights into the heart of the policy making process."
(Banner image from James Stringer via Flickr)