November 2nd, 19:30-21:00 – Emmanuel College, Queens Lecture Theatre

Scientist, Councillor, Politician: Meet Julian Huppert

For anyone who’s been in Cambridge long enough, Julian was the lynchpin of the Liberal Democrat stronghold in Cambridge from 2010 to 2015. To others, he is a distinguished biologist and ex-fellow of Clare College.

Recognised as the ‘top backbencher’ in The Telegraph’s list of ‘Most Influential Lib Dems’, Julian was has been seen by some as a voice for rationality in the emotion-driven Commons.

Effective Altruism Cambridge, 80,000 Hours Cambridge, Cambridge University Liberal Association and Cambridge University Science and Policy Exchange are excited to co-host this event about scientific approaches to policy-making.

As always, the event is open to all, including those not affiliated with the university.

Facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1606624999395436/

October 30, 18:30-20:00 followed by reception

Cripps Court Auditorium (Chesterton Road, near Magdalene College main court)

Sign up here.

Big Data, Psychometrics, targeted advertising: Data Science is changing how politicians and other influencers interact with the public.

“Dark Ads” on Facebook are only shown to people with specific views, tailored to their interests and fears. Do they prevent the public debates that are so fundamental to democracy? Do psychometrics and the merging of methods from Data Science and psychology allow manipulation of public opinion on an unprecedented scale? Or is this all just exaggerated by the media and nothing has fundamentally changed? On the contrary, does data journalism provide a great opportunity for a well informed public debate?

Join us on to discuss these recent developments with the following speakers:

Dr. Mark Pack, co-author of 101 Ways To Win An Election and former Head of Innovations at the Liberal Democrats where he ran the party’s 2001 and 2005 internet general election campaigns (www.markpack.org.uk)

Megan Lucero, Director of the “data crunching hub” The Bureau Local at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Formerly the Data Journalism Editor at The Times and Sunday Times (www.thebureauinvestigates.com/profile/meganlucero)

Dr. David Stillwell, Deputy Director of The Psychometrics Centre at the University of Cambridge and Lecturer in Big Data Analytics and Quantitative Social Science at the Cambridge Judge Business School (www.davidstillwell.co.uk)

 

Image by “gdsteam” publicly available on flickr under the creative commons licence (CC BY 2.0)

October 23, 18:00-20:00

Junior Parlour, Trinity College

Sign up here.

Trinity’s Post-Doctoral Society and Cambridge University Science and Policy Exchange introduce Cambridge-based science-policy organisations.

Location

juniorparlour

Directions: https://www.srcf.ucam.org/curiding/juniorparlour

Trinity’s Post-Doctoral Society aims that Postdoctoral researchers can meet others from different disciplines, share ideas, and enhance their Cambridge experience. Based on this premise we joint efforts.

Cambridge Science and Policy Exchange (CUSPE)

CUSPE is an organisation run by and for early-career researchers. Founded in 2012, the society strives to support young researchers who wish either to influence policy from within the research environment of the University or to pursue directly a career with the governments of the UK or European Union. CUSPE aims to:

  1. Raise awareness of the role of science and evidence in government decision- and policy-making amongst early-career researchers at Cambridge.
  2. Provide professional development opportunities for such researchers who might be interested in a career in policy.
  3. Create and strengthen links between early-career researchers and policy makers for the mutual exchange of knowledge and understanding.

Joint Event

Why is the science-policy interaction important? What is the role of this interaction in the ‘post-truth’ era? Did scientists loose part of their credibility and can we restore this?

Our special guest, Rob Doubleday, Executive Director of the Centre for Science and Policy (CSaP), will give his views on the importance of science-policy interaction in the opening word. His general perspective will be followed by the introduction of several Cambridge-based policy initiatives.

CUSPE, Polygeia and Food Security Forum will introduce their goals and upcoming events, these initiatives all fit into the Science for Policy landscape. The policy fraction of PdOC on the other hand, focuses on Policy for Science and will be introduced by the PdOC president.

Utopia

by Karen Stroobants

Are we still able to think big, to imagine a better world than the one we currently live in? Rutger Bregman, a young Dutch historian, certainly thinks so. I have been following his activities for a while now, as he strongly believes in the concept of ‘a basic income for everyone’, and so do I. Although the idea is appealing, it is hard to establish firm arguments that cannot in any way be refuted by critics, and maybe even by realists. So when Bregman announced that he was about to publish a book, ‘Utopia for realists’, I knew it would be my next read.

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“In these cases, what seems to be crucial is the connection between efforts to reduce inequality and to adopt technologies in sectors such as water and waste management, which are absolutely crucial for Climate Change policies. In terms of policy, it appears that ‘socially just’ is very close to ‘environmentally sustainable.’”

By Nicolás Valenzuela-Levi

Public interest on income inequality increased during the last decade. Among scholars, one of the aspects that has been researched is how does income distribution affect innovation and technology adoption. On the one side, hopes for long term economic development highlight the need to understand what drives innovation. On the other side, inequalities are fuelling social unrest and public debate on what is the fair distribution of opportunities and benefits in our societies. Consequently, the question about the link between income inequality and innovation is becoming more and more attractive.

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