As part of the CSaP Policy Fellow seminar series on government’s use of data, science and evidence, Mark Enzer, Chief Technical Officer for Mott MacDonald and Director of the Centre for Digital Built Britain, led a discussion on how data science can be used to inform infrastructure policy.

A CSaP Policy Fellow from Number 10, says he wants to engage with researchers and give academia “a chance again” during a visit to the University of Cambridge. Ben Henshall, Head of Analysis at 10 Downing Street, met with several academics in November 2011 as part of the CSaP Policy Fellowship scheme.

As part of the CSaP Policy Fellow seminar series on government’s use of data, science and evidence, Ed Humpherson, Director General at UK Statistics Authority, discussed the Office for Statistics Regulation report: Improving health and social care statistics: lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. (Oct 2021).

As part of CSaP’s seminar series on government’s use of data, science and evidence, Bill Sutherland, Miriam Rothschild Professor in Conservation Biology, Department of Zoology, Cambridge, shared his perspective on the use of evidence and experts’ advice in decision making, drawing on his research which looked at weaknesses in conventional models of expert elicitation.

The Centre for Science and Policy (CSaP) held a workshop on social infrastructure at the British Academy. It was organised in partnership with the British Academy, the Bennett Institute of Public Policy, and Power to Change. The attendees were academics, advocates, policymakers, and researchers with expertise in social infrastructure policy.

In CSaP’s first Policy Fellow seminar on the government's use of data, science and evidence we welcomed Suzanne Raine, Affiliate Lecturer at the Centre for Geopolitics, University of Cambridge. Suzanne asked the question: “What is the role of evidence in risk management, anticipation and warning?” and drew on her experience leading the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre, looking at wider lessons for governments.

Ahead of COP26 - the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow - the Cambridge Zero Policy Forum hosted a panel discussion on the role of local authorities in tackling climate change. The online event was part of the second annual Cambridge Zero Climate Change Festival.

Levelling up was an amorphous policy pledge in the Conservative Party’s 2019 manifesto. Since then, numerous academics and policy organisations have focused on what ‘levelling up’ means, and how it should be achieved. The upcoming Levelling Up White Paper is expected to specify a precise policy programme for this agenda.

The final panel session of the Centre for Science and Policy’s (CSaP) annual reception 2021 discussed net zero ambitions. It was chaired by Dr Rob Doubleday, the Centre’s Executive Director with panellists; Dr Christina Peñasco, Lecturer in Public Policy, Cambridge and Dr Matthew Agarwala, Economist at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy, Cambridge.

A panel discussion on child development, learning and mental health was chaired by Paul Kett, Director-General for Higher Education and Further Education at the Department of Education, with invited panellists from the University of Cambridge – Sarah Jayne Blackmore, Professor of Psychology and Tamsin Ford, Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.