Dr Caroline Taylor, Senior Research Fellow at Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, delivered CSaP’s first Future Leaders Seminar of 2022. As a nutritionist and dietitian, she presented her work on the lifestyle and environmental factors that cause exposure to toxic metals in pregnancy and childhood. Dr Taylor’s project aims to evaluate NHS guidance on foods to limit or avoid during pregnancy and to provide an evidence-base for the guidance.

CSaP’s Horn Fellows hosted an evening event for academics and policy makers, in conjunction with Cambridge Zero. Howard Covington, Chair of the Alan Turing Institute, discussed the history of the Anthropocene, an unofficial term for the geological period we are currently living in, and his projections for the future.

While it is true that our food security and our food system are vulnerable to conditions created by climate change, the agricultural industry is also a major contributor to the problem. How can the competitive tension between food security, consumer demand, and our goal of net zero emissions be resolved in a sustainable way to solve the earth’s most pressing problems?

The Centre for Science and Policy organised a seminar hosted by Professor Dennis Grube, Co-Director of the Bennett Institute for Public Policy and Professor of Politics and Public Policy at POLIS. His talk concerned the characterisation, and supposed decline, of ‘institutional memory’.

Dr Molly Anderson led the final session of CSaP’s seminar series on government’s use of data, science, and evidence. Using her perspective of working in the Environment Agency’s Chief Scientist’s Group, she discussed the concept of reflexivity and the crucial role it could play in tackling current environmental challenges.

The Centre for Science and Policy hosted a seminar on how ALBs were used in the COVID-19 response, as part of its Policy Fellow series on the government’s use of data, science, and evidence. Speakers Matthew Gill and Grant Dalton, from the Institute for Government, outlined their research on the interface between health focused ALBs and central government during the pandemic.

CSaP’s Horn Fellows gathered at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, for a series of meetings with academics and industry professionals, on the topic of geoengineering. Geoengineering can be described as large-scale interventions to the Earth’s climate system, designed to counteract climate change.

As part of CSaP’s seminar series on government data, science, and evidence, Dr Amy Donovan from the University of Cambridge led a discussion on how science is used to generate effective warning systems in the face of impending natural disasters or environmental risks.

CSaP is delighted to announce the names of the successful applicants to our Policy Fellowship Programme for Lent Term 2022. We look forward to welcoming the newly elected Fellows to Cambridge next year.

A supply chain expert and leading researcher from the University of Cambridge hosted a seminar for CSaP’s Policy Leaders Fellows (PLFs), the most senior policymakers in Whitehall, Brussels or devolved administrations, who provide access to research and academic expertise.