A public panel discussion, organised in collaboration with the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication in Cambridge last week, approached the theme of communicating risk from the perspective of the distinguished panellists. A major focus in each of their talks was the relationship between the communication of uncertainty and the general public's trust of experts.

Recent years have seen a shift in the distribution of poverty and wealth, including a growing share of the world’s poor in middle income countries. In addition, the UK government has been under pressure by certain sections of the media to move official development assistance aid away from emerging powers, such as India and China.

A new major study suggests that the UK has one of the best digital economies of any country in the world, which is highly evolved and quickly advancing. Given this context, Matthew Hancock MP, gave his vision of harnessing the creativity and innovation in the UK to create new entrepreneurs.

A CSaP Policy Workshop looked at future possibilities for more effective engagement between civil society and government.

CSaP's 2017 annual reception saw Deborah Bronnert from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and Professor Jaideep Prabhu from Cambridge Judge Business School, speak about the impact their CSaP connections had had on their work.

Cambridge's new Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stephen Toope, gave his inaugural speech on 2 October.

According to the final report of the 1996 World Food Summit – food security "exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life". A multitude of complex problems stand in the way of achieving food security; can an disciplinary approach bring about their solution?

Chaired by Julia Unwin, former Chief Executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, panel members included Tom Hook, London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, Professor Dominic Abrams, University of Kent, and Dr Sander van der Linden, University of Cambridge.

Why does it matter that we should have devolution in England? What has happened to English devolution over the past year? These are just two of the questions discussed by Jo Casebourne in this session on 'Devolution in England'.

CSaP announces the names of the successful Policy Fellows who will start their programmes in autumn 2017.