On 28 April, the Centre for Science and Policy and the Government Office for Science co-delivered a seminar in London on the role of science in policy.

This one-day workshop brought together 40 prominent researchers and policy professionals to deliberate on the most important questions on the relationship between science and policy.

A lecture by Professor Jeremy Watson, Chief Scientific Adviser in the Department for Communities and Local Government, and Global Research Director of Arup.

A workshop on innovation in life sciences, clean energy and ICT for researchers, policy makers and business people in Cambridge and Massachusetts, as part of the Innovation Economy Mission to the UK.

Andrew Miller MP, Chair of the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, on Science in Emergencies.

On 25 January 2011, CSaP and Cambridge Assessment jointly delivered a seminar for Parliamentarians on the subject of "how children learn". The discussion that followed ranged widely across a number of important topics.

We marked the success of the Centre so far, the New Year, and the launch of our Annual Report with a Reception in the Old Schools in Cambridge on 11 January.

As cuts to public expenditure are ramping up, demand for public services and economic growth remains as high as ever. Pressure to deliver more for less is resulting in an increased focus on innovation – in the way that public services and the economy are provided, supported and managed.

To discuss science in Parliament, we invited Dr Evan Harris and Dr Julian Huppert to deliver our fourth Distinguished Lecture.

A number of key posts in Government are held by people who spent most of their careers as academics. These advisers and policy makers are brought into the civil service because of the knowledge that they bring to policy issues, even if they do not have a practical knowledge of policy. Consequently, the transition from university academic to government civil servant can be quite a challenge.