Do we need a new generation of public institutions for ST&I?

Do we need a new generation of public institutions for ST&I?

Public institutions for science and technology have hardly changed over half a century; even the UK’s most recent creation, ARIA, is consciously modelled on a US institution founded in the 1960s. But there is much to learn from other sectors that have innovated far more, including business. The deep institutional conservatism of public science may be one factor behind the continuous decline of R&D productivity.

This talk from Sir Geoff Mulgan, Professor of Collective Intelligence, Public Policy and Social Innovation, UCL STEaPP & Co-founder, The Institutional Architecture Lab (TIAL), will provide a diagnosis, share alternative ways of thinking being used by some governments around the world, and point to a potentially very different institutional landscape for science and technology in the 2030s.

This event will be chaired by James Wilsdon, Professor of Research Policy, UCL & Executive Director, Research on Research Institute.

Anjana Ahuja, Science Commentator at the Financial Times, William Cullerne Bown, Journalist at The Independent and New Scientist, and Ine Steenmans, Associate Professor in Futures, Analysis and Policy at UCL, will join as discussants.

Flashpoints & faultlines in science, technology, engineering & public policy: a STEaPP seminar series

Science, technology and engineering policy has never been more important, nor more contested. Over the next year, UCL’s Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy (STEaPP) will be holding a series of seminars under the umbrella theme of ‘Flashpoints & faultlines in science, technology, engineering and public policy’. These are designed to provoke and stimulate fresh lines of thought, debate and research within the department, across UCL and beyond.

All staff and students in STEaPP are warmly invited to participate, as are colleagues from across UCL with an interest in these topics. The series is being convened by Geoff Mulgan and James Wilsdon, and is being organised with the support of the Research on Research Institute (RoRI), based within STEaPP.