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.

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.

Public servant Richard Banks says he hopes to gain “connections and understanding” from researchers and experts in public and private roles, during his first visit to Cambridge as a CSaP Fellow.

With weeks to go until COP26, CSaP's Executive Director Rob Doubleday talks to two of Cambridge's leading economists Dr Matthew Agarwala and Dr Cristina Peñasco, about what leaders need to know and do, to delivery a clean, green recovery. The event was hosted as part of the University of Cambridge's Alumni Festival 2021.

The University of Cambridge will offer six days of free climate-themed online panel sessions, pre-recorded talks, stories and games for all ages at its Climate Change Festival in the final days before the start of COP26.

Healthcare is one of the largest contributors to the UK’s total carbon footprint. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic the NHS experienced a rapid change in the delivery of healthcare: can this sense of critical urgency be harnessed and applied to the decarbonisation of the National Health Service?