Over the past few weeks I have thought a lot about leadership – particularly how we can best develop the next generation of leaders across science and what is needed to encourage and support this development. […]
Awareness of the importance and benefits that derive from equality, diversity and inclusion have increased in recent years – and this is very welcome. However, I was alarmed to read that the World Economic Forum predicted in their 2015 Global Gender Gap Report that at current rates of progress it will take another 169 years to close the gender gap – which is far, far too long. In response, the 2017 International Women’s Day campaign theme is #BeBoldforChange. This campaign is calling on each of us, irrespective of gender, to take bold action to accelerate progress towards gender parity and a better working world. […]
Food has been hitting the headlines in the past week or so warning us of shortages in various vegetables – particularly courgettes, iceberg lettuce and peppers – with subsequent jumps in the price of such produce and even rationing by some supermarkets. This example, albeit modest in my book, highlights the fragility of our food supply chains by providing yet another demonstration of how extreme weather events – in this case snow in southern Spain – can impact the supply of food stuffs we take for granted. […]
At BBSRC we understand how important our relationships with academics, policy makers, end-users and civil society are.
To deliver our vision of leading world-class bioscience, promoting innovation and realising benefits for society in the UK and beyond we need to work constructively with a huge range of different people and organisations. Some of those interactions are at the highest levels in Government, while many of them, no less important, are at the day-to-day level of delivering investments in bioscience.
At the time of writing I am heading back from the Science and Technology in Society (STS) forum meeting, held in Kyoto, Japan. The STS forum was established 13 years ago and attracts leaders from academia, industry, funding agencies and governments from around the world. The forum is very much focused on discussion and I was delighted to present as part of the plenary session on ‘Delivering healthcare to the world’. The focus of my talk was the potential of microbiome research and I was pleased at the level of interest and positive feedback I received – a Canadian delegate commented with surprise on the 2kg of microorganisms in his gut! […]
