Neutral platform for debate of policy issues, Discussions and workshops on relevant issues, Support service to Learned and Professional Societies, Foundation Future Leaders Programme for mid-career professionals, Podcast exploring links between science & technology and policy

Employees now need to constantly review, adapt and retrain to ensure successful careers. The imperative may become even more apparent as we emerge from the coronavirus lockdown, with some businesses and sectors being fundamentally changed. This event, hosted jointly by the Foundation for Science and Technology and Resilience First, will explore the concept of ‘skills resilience’ which employees will need in order to adopt over the course of their careers to changing working requirements. What should higher and further education being doing to help students gain ‘skills resilience’ before entering the workforce, and what can businesses and government do to support employees once they are in work?

In July, the Government published the R&D Roadmap, setting out ambitious plans for investing in research and securing the benefits for the economy. A key element of this is the promise of an R&D Place Strategy, designed to unlock local growth and societal benefit across the UK. This webinar will discuss the role that R&D can contribute to the “levelling up” agenda, the inequalities in R&D funding across the different nations and regions of the UK, and how the focus on place fits within the overall R&D Roadmap.

In this webinar, we will discuss the vital importance of ensuring that politics is informed by science, to ensure that politicians can make decisions aware of the best available evidence. We will also explore the concern sometimes expressed that the difference between science advice and political decisions might be blurred. This is particularly relevant for issues such as the current Covid-19 pandemic, when the Government is having to take very complex decisions with far-reaching consequences, and where scientific evidence is a crucial element.