Focusing on food security, sustainable rural livelihoods, nutrition and prosperity for farmers, TIGR2ESS’s latest policy fellow, Mr Anirudh Tewari, met with experts from the programme and beyond to discuss how to make a lasting impact for the Punjab.

As part of the 2021 Christ's College Climate Series, we asked: Can we use digital platforms to allow governments to tap into the collective intelligence of its constituents?

In the first episode of CSaP: The Science and Policy Podcast’s mini-series on genetic technologies, host Dr Rob Doubleday was joined by University of Cambridge crop scientist Professor Giles Oldroyd, Royal Society Senior Policy Advisor Jonny Hazell, and University of Cambridge Lecturer in History of Modern Science and Technology Dr Helen Anne Curry. Throughout the episode, they explored the history of the use of genetic technologies in agriculture and examined how the emergence of a new class of genetic technologies – genome editing via CRISPR – has raised new questions about the regulatory frameworks used to govern the use of genetic technologies in this space.

"Why are we so polarized? Why can't people agree?" We heard from Dr Simone Schnall about her work in social psychology which has explored the unconscious factors influencing our moral compasses. Her work has the potential to shine a light on one of the factors underlying polarization.

Expenditure on social infrastructure may not provide the capital or jobs that show 'value for money' directly, but may head off social problems and economic costs in the future. Can and should we trust local areas to drive their own policy decisions? Or should we have a more 'joined up' national agenda?

Professor Chris Lintott introduces the Zooniverse citizen science platform and its project Planet Hunters, a model which enabled the public to discover new exoplanets whilst showcasing how citizen science might positively steer public policy.

The first Horn Fellows seminar of 2021 looked at how quantum networks of information may bring transformative change to the internet, money and communication.

The case for capital infrastructure investment is that it will provide jobs in the short term and improve livelihoods and business operations in the long term, although the long term benefits are not guaranteed. Should capital infrastructure investment be a space blind approach which allows people to move to more prosperous areas or a place based approach which seeks to correct existing spatial inequalities and improve prosperity of regions?

In the autumn of 2020, members of the CSaP Policy Leaders Fellowship gathered to hear from experts working at the cutting edge of genome editing research, with the goal of understanding the state of these technologies.

Are you interested in bolstering democratic governance in Europe? Professionals from Austria, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia and Turkey who are active in public policy fields in government, NGOs, media and law among other sectors are invited to apply for a Policy Fellowship opportunity offered by the Centre for Science and Policy (CSaP) at the University of Cambridge as part of the POPBACK project.