The Plastic Problem: moving from a linear to a circular economy.
Plastics have enabled society to progress at an unprecedented pace and have facilitated momentous advances in technology. However, it is the inherent durability of plastic which largely accounts for...
View ArticleLocation, location, location: finding sites for nuclear power plants
Expanding nuclear power should be a key priority as the government aims to cut its carbon emissions. However, finding suitable sites to accommodate the proposed plants raises new questions. In this...
View ArticleGraphene as a regional-global innovation model
A new national policy report has identified the graphene innovation ecosystem at Manchester as a regional hub for international partnership and investment. In this article, James Baker explores how...
View ArticleLong in the tooth: is water fluoridation out of date?
One ongoing intervention to tackle tooth decay in parts of the UK is the provision of fluoride in drinking water. But such moves aren’t always popular with the communities involved. There is also a...
View ArticleTrashing the future: failures of UK plastic recycling policies and next steps
We are all familiar with the problem of plastic waste – which has a devastating effect on marine life and oceans. Plastic recycling seems complex and difficult and we are right to be concerned about...
View ArticleHow can “Great British Nuclear” make a great difference?
The announcement of Great British Nuclear (GBN) is a long awaited positive step. GBN clearly now faces a monumental workload and a range of challenges as it sets the ground for new nuclear build in the...
View ArticleNot immaterial: Why the UK must play to its strengths in quantum technology
The UK Science and Technology Framework has recently been announced by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, with Quantum Technologies (QTs) identified as one of five critical technologies. But what is needed to...
View ArticleRazing the neighbourhood: consequences and alternatives to council estate...
Post-war council estates suffer a barrage of stigmatising representations. Central and local governments, think tanks, and property companies call them ‘sink estates’ and ‘concrete monstrosities’. In...
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Levelling up or widening the gap?
There are deep-rooted regional inequalities in health and wealth across England. ‘Levelling Up’ is the UK Government’s flagship policy to redress these inequalities through additional investment, with...
View ArticleTargeting the ‘(professional) enablers’ of economic crime
The UK government has published its second Economic Crime Plan (ECP2), which aims to reinforce the government’s priorities in relation to economic crime in (or affecting) the UK. ECP2 arrives at a...
View ArticleConnecteDNA – the implications of technology on donor conception anonymity
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has recently sought views about reforming the law on fertility treatment regulation and embryo research. They identified a number of issues with...
View ArticleStarting a new chapter – childhood literacy education
In 2022, the government announced a commitment to improve literacy education as part of its levelling up agenda. The ambition to eradicate issues by 2030 has seen a tight focus on literacy skills and...
View ArticleWe all age differently: approaches to understand the diverse lives of older...
There’s no one kind of ‘older person’, and often, describing them as such overlooks the enormous diversity of this group. Policymakers and service providers have typically relied on one-size-fits-all...
View ArticleWhy do teachers need to think about student experiences of loneliness?
Globally, many governments have set an objective to reduce loneliness, including among adolescents. So far, however, the focus has been on individuals, and is most often out of school time. In this...
View ArticleInequalities, Covid-19 and the older population: developing a community-based...
Older people were disproportionately affected by the emergence and spread of COVID-19, whether in hospital, the community or in care homes. Just taking the period from January to December 2020, 72,178...
View ArticleSpreading like wildfire: the need for a UK Fire Danger Rating System (FDRS)
In a rapidly changing world under pressure from climate change we are seeing alterations in the pattern of fires, especially in places where wildfires have not been viewed as a major threat such as the...
View ArticleDelivering on climate commitments: restricting global warming to 1.5C
In 2015, world leaders committed to holding global warming to well below 2C whilst pursuing efforts to limit warming to 1.5C as part of The Paris Agreement at COP21. It is now expected that the world...
View ArticleData and Decision Making: how AI and data tools can help influence...
It is crucial that policymakers have access to the increasing collection of datasets across our natural environment and other sectors such as health and economics. Currently, much of this data is...
View ArticleCalculating the benefits – maths to 18
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak recently announced a proposal to ensure that all students continue to study maths to 18, a plan aiming to ‘boost low numeracy rates’, and to leave future school-leavers...
View ArticleThe challenges of regulating online speech
Hate speech or harmful speech is any expression (speech, text, images) that demeans, threatens, or harms members of groups with protected characteristics. It includes slurs, name-calling,...
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