In the final episode of our season, Science Advice & Government, host Dr Rob Doubleday is joined by Sharon Peacock, Director of the COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium and Professor of Public Health and Microbiology in the Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge, and James Wood, Head of Cambridge Vet School and infectious disease epidemiologist. The episode explores how science advice has been used in the UK's response to the current COVID-19 pandemic and what lessons can be learnt to help prepare for future pandemics.   -- Season 5 is produced in partnership with the research project Expertise Under Pressure, Centre for the Humanities and Social Change at the University of Cambridge. CSaP: The Science & Policy Podcast is hosted by CSaP Executive Director Dr Rob Doubleday, and is edited and produced by CSaP Communications Coordinator Jessica Foster. Research for this series is supported by CSaP Policy Researcher Nick Cosstick. Podcast theme music by Transistor.fm. Learn how to start a podcast here. -- Resources relevant to this episode (click on the below):  COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) consortium. COG-Train. Exercise Cygnus. Sign up to our CSaP newsletter by clicking here.

How have scientists contributed to UK government decision-making during the COVID-19 pandemic? What are the structures and mechanisms that have drawn science into the policy process? In today’s episode we’re exploring what the past two years have been like for the scientists involved in government and SPI-M, the experts providing the advice based on COVID modelling and epidemiology.     In today’s episode, host Dr Rob Doubleday is joined by Julia Gog, Professor of Mathematical Biology at the University of Cambridge, who has been heavily involved throughout the pandemic within SPI-M, the specialist advisory group on modelling pandemics which feeds into the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) process. Plus, Sir John Aston, Harding Professor of Statistics in Public Life, University of Cambridge. He was Chief Scientific Adviser in the Home Office from 2017-2020 and during the COVID pandemic was heavily involved in SAGE and advising the Secretary of State in the Home Office.  As part of our series on science advice and government, we’re looking ahead to the public inquiry into the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic this spring. We hope the episodes will highlight lessons on what worked well, how scientific advice has helped governments make difficult decisions, and how this process can be improved for the future.  Season 5 is produced in partnership with the research project Expertise Under Pressure, Centre for the Humanities and Social Change at the University of Cambridge. CSaP: The Science & Policy Podcast is hosted by CSaP Executive Director Dr Rob Doubleday, and is edited and produced by CSaP Communications Coordinator Jessica Foster. Research for this series is supported by CSaP Policy Researcher Nick Cosstick. Podcast theme music by Transistor.fm. Learn how to start a podcast here. -- Resources relevant to this episode:  Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (SPI-M): https://bit.ly/35G8jgt Chief Scientific Advisors: https://bit.ly/3KzNPEY  Scientific evidence supporting the government response to coronavirus (COVID-19): https://bit.ly/3JhBaq1  Sign up to our CSaP newsletter by clicking here.

In today's uncertain world, the sixth episode of our series on science advice and government, explores how governments can better understand and respond to unforeseeable and challenging extreme risk scenarios, such as cyber hacking, biological hazards, climate change, and future pandemics following the COVID-19 outbreak. Host Dr Rob Doubleday is joined by: -Lord Martin Rees, the UK's Astronomer Royal, a Cosmologist and Member of the House of Lords, which in December 2021 published the report, ‘Preparing for Extreme Risks, Building a Resilient Society’, which tackled some of the questions about how governments learn, react to, and prepare for extreme risks. -Suzanne Raine, an Affiliate Lecturer at the Centre for Geopolitics at the University of Cambridge. She was formerly a civil servant and was Head of the UK's Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre from 2015-2017.  -Dr Kristen MacAskill, an Assistant Professor in Engineering at the University of Cambridge. Her work is on the governance and resilience of infrastructure and she has spent years in industry looking at disaster response.  -- Season 5 is produced in partnership with the research project Expertise Under Pressure, Centre for the Humanities and Social Change at the University of Cambridge. CSaP: The Science & Policy Podcast is hosted by CSaP Executive Director Dr Rob Doubleday, and is edited and produced by CSaP Communications Coordinator Jessica Foster. Research for this series is supported by CSaP Policy Researcher Nick Cosstick. Podcast theme music by Transistor.fm. Learn how to start a podcast here. -- Resources relevant to this episode: - House of Lords Risk Assessment and Risk Planning’s Report: Preparing for Extreme Risks: Building a Resilient Society -Cabinet Office Guidance: Risk Assessment: How the Risk of Emergencies in the UK is Assessed -National Risk Register 2020 -Introduction to the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre - Lord Martin Rees’ book about existential risks: On the Future: Prospects for Humanity Sign up to our CSaP newsletter by clicking here.

In the fifth episode of our new series on science advice and government, host Dr Rob Doubleday discusses how SAGE and modelling advice were used during the Nepal Earthquake in April 2015. He's joined by James Jackson, an Earthquake Geologist and Professor in Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge, and Professor Emily So, an Artchitectural Engineer and Director of the Cambridge University Centre for Risk in the Built Environment (CURBE). Both James and Emily work on earthquakes, what causes them and what damage they do.  - Season 5 is produced in partnership with the research project Expertise Under Pressure, Centre for the Humanities and Social Change at the University of Cambridge. CSaP: The Science & Policy Podcast is hosted by CSaP Executive Director Dr Rob Doubleday, and is edited and produced by CSaP Communications Coordinator Jessica Foster. Research for this series is supported by CSaP Policy Researcher Nick Cosstick. Podcast theme music by Transistor.fm. Learn how to start a podcast here. -- Resources relevant to this episode: Summary Note of the SAGE (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) meeting on the Nepal Earthquake, 27 April 2015 Scientific background on PAGER (Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response): https://on.doi.gov/359qgn4 NSET (Earthquake Safe Communities in Nepal): https://www.nset.org.np/nset2012/ Final Report of the Earthquakes Without Frontiers project: https://bit.ly/3htYB37 Global Earthquake Model: https://www.globalquakemodel.org/ World Housing Encyclopaedia: http://www.world-housing.net/ Robin Spence and Emily So’s book: Why Do Buildings Collapse in Earthquakes: Building for Safety in Seismic Areas.  Sign up to our CSaP newsletter by clicking here.

In the fourth episode of our series on science advice and government, we look back a few decades at what lessons were learnt following the BSE outbreak (Mad Cow Disease) in the 1980s and 1990s. Plus how it led to the establishment of the Food Standards Agency (FSA). Host Dr Rob Doubleday is joined by Dame Julia Unwin, who was appointed Deputy Chair of the FSA in 2003. Dame Julia's role was to co-lead the agency and develop its relationship with the government and most importantly, the public. In today's episode, Rob is also joined by Erik Millstone, a Professor at the University of Sussex, who's research focuses on the use of science and evidence in the governance of food safety and risk.  -- Season 5 is produced in partnership with the research project Expertise Under Pressure, Centre for the Humanities and Social Change at the University of Cambridge. CSaP: The Science & Policy Podcast is hosted by CSaP Executive Director Dr Rob Doubleday, and is edited and produced by CSaP Communications Coordinator Jessica Foster. Research for this series is supported by CSaP Policy Researcher Nick Cosstick. Podcast theme music by Transistor.fm. Learn how to start a podcast here. -- Resources relevant to this episode: About the Food Standards Agency and their mission: https://bit.ly/FSAmission The Food Standards Agency: A Force for Change (White Paper proposing the Food Standards Agency). BSE: Risk, Science, and Governance by Patrick van Zwanenberg and Erik Millstone -- Sign up to our CSaP newsletter by clicking here.

In the third episode of our new podcast series on science advice and government, host Dr Rob Doubleday discusses the Ebola outbreak of 2014 and how the government used science and evidence in helping to tackle it. He's joined by three people who were closely involved at the time:   -Dame Sally Davies, Master of Trinity College Cambridge, who was Chief Medical Officer for England from 2010-2019 and co-chaired the SAGE process during the outbreak.  -Sir Oliver Letwin, an MP for over 20 years and was a Senior Minister in the Cabinet Office during the time.   -Professor Melissa Leach, Director of the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex. She's also an Anthropologist who has worked in West Africa and played a crucial role in bringing evidence from the social sciences into the government's response to Ebola.  -- Season 5 is produced in partnership with the research project Expertise Under Pressure, Centre for the Humanities and Social Change at the University of Cambridge. CSaP: The Science & Policy Podcast is hosted by CSaP Executive Director Dr Rob Doubleday, and is edited and produced by CSaP Communications Coordinator Jessica Foster. Research for this series is supported by CSaP Policy Researcher Nick Cosstick. Podcast theme music by Transistor.fm. Learn how to start a podcast here. -- Resources relevant to this episode:  Sage website: https://bit.ly/SAGEwebsite Ebola Response Anthropology Platform website: https://bit.ly/Ebolaanthropology Paper - Providing incentives to share data early in health emergencies: the role of journal editors UK Vaccine Network website: https://bit.ly/ukvaccnet Report by the Wellcome Trust and UK DIFD Joint Initiative on Epidemic Preparedness: Towards a People-Centred Epidemic Preparedness and Response: https://bit.ly/3glkZer.  Social Science and Humanitarian Action Platform website: https://www.socialscienceinaction.org/ Oliver Letwin's book: Apocalypse How?: Technology and the Threat of Disaster. -- Sign up to our CSaP newsletter by clicking here.

Which scientific voices are heard in government? How one voice or many shapes information that is informing decision making? What structures and institutions have evolved over recent decades to try and make that process more open, more diverse and more robust? In the second episode in our series on science advice and government, host Dr Rob Doubleday is joined by Dr Claire Craig, Provost at The Queen's College, Oxford and Jon Agar, Professor of Science and Technology Studies at UCL. -- Season 5 is produced in partnership with the research project Expertise Under Pressure, Centre for the Humanities and Social Change at the University of Cambridge. CSaP: The Science & Policy Podcast is hosted by CSaP Executive Director Dr Rob Doubleday, and is edited and produced by CSaP Communications Coordinator Jessica Foster. Research for this series is supported by CSaP Policy Researcher Nick Cosstick. Podcast theme music by Transistor.fm. Learn how to start a podcast here. -- Resources mentioned in this episode:  Foresight programme website: https://bit.ly/349MO6t Foresight programme’s Future Flooding report: https://bit.ly/3umWhCH Foresight programme’s Cognitive Systems report: https://bit.ly/3u7Cu9W Foresight programme’s Exploiting the Electromagnetic Spectrum: Tales from the Future report: https://bit.ly/35xq3dp Books: Jon: 'Science Policy Under Thatcher'.  Claire: 'How does Government Listen to Scientists?' and 'Storylistening: Narrative, Evidence and Public Reasoning'. Sign up to our CSaP newsletter by clicking here.

In the first episode of our new series, we’re exploring how science advice, data and evidence are used by decision makers in government. Throughout today’s episode, host Dr Rob Doubleday is joined by Sir Patrick Vallance, UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser, and Sheila Jasanoff, Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies, Harvard Kennedy School. Season 5 is produced in partnership with the research project Expertise Under Pressure, Centre for the Humanities and Social Change at the University of Cambridge.  -- CSaP: The Science & Policy Podcast is hosted by CSaP Executive Director Dr Rob Doubleday, and is edited and produced by CSaP Communications Coordinator Jessica Foster. Research for this series is also supported by CSaP Policy Researcher Nick Cosstick.  Podcast theme music by Transistor.fm. Learn how to start a podcast here.

In the final episode of our series on science and policy for Antarctica, space, and the deep ocean, Dr Rob Doubleday and expert guests explore the role these places play in geopolitics. Throughout this episode, we hear from Alice Millington, a policy intern here at CSaP; Royal Holloway Professor of Geopolitics Klaus Dodds; King's College London space policy expert Dr Mark Hilborne; and University of Toronto environmental sociologist Professor John Hannigan.  -- CSaP: The Science & Policy Podcast is hosted by CSaP Executive Director Dr Rob Doubleday, and is edited and produced by CSaP Communications Coordinator Kate McNeil. Research for this series is also supported by CSaP Policy Interns Alice Millington and Anthony Lindley. Music and sound effects used in this season of CSaP: The Science & Policy Podcast are courtesy of FreeSound.org. This episode features sound effects from PannChie and smacks999.

In the fifth episode of our series on Science and Policy for Antarctica, Space, and the Deep Ocean, we're discussing human experiences of space and Antarctica. Throughout today's episode, host Dr Rob Doubleday is joined by CSaP Policy Intern Alice Millington; astronomer and Associate Professor at Nottingham Trent University Dr Daniel Brown; Dr Rebecca Priestley, who is an interdisciplinary scholar at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington and author of Fifteen Million Years in Antarctica; and the University of Tasmania's Dr Hanne Nielsen and Professor Elizabeth Leane. -- CSaP: The Science & Policy Podcast is hosted by CSaP Executive Director Dr Rob Doubleday, and is edited and produced by CSaP Communications Coordinator Kate McNeil. Research for this series is also supported by CSaP Policy Interns Alice Millington and Anthony Lindley. Music and sound effects used in this season of CSaP: The Science & Policy Podcast are courtesy of FreeSound.org. This episode features sound effects from PannChie and smacks999.