News about the Uk Foresight Programme
Issue 17 - July 2007
Foresight on the Move
As a result of the changes in the organisation of Government Departments that have just taken place, Foresight, along with the rest of the Government Office for Science, has joined the Office of the Chief Scientific Adviser in the new Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS), see www.dius.gov.uk. We do not expect this to affect our operations in the short-term, and existing contacts - address, e-mail, telephone and website will remain the same for the time being. We will ensure that everybody is kept up to date when changes to any of these occur.
Change of Place
As part of the follow-on to the Foresight project on Intelligent Infrastructure Systems (IIS), we commissioned an innovative tool to communicate some of the project findings to students in secondary education. The 'Change of Place' materials are designed to appeal to students in years 9, 10 and 11 and will help them explore how we use transport now, and how we might develop it in the future to improve our cities. For access to the package, please click here. The one-year post project review of the IIS project has also been published - please click here to read it in Adobe PDF . A similar review of the project on Brain Science, Addiction and Drugs will be published soon
Project News
Obesities: Launch Approaches
We will be launching the findings of our project on Tackling Obesities: Future Choices on 17 October, but for now, you may be interested in a review which draws together existing data on obesity to provide an international overview. For access, please click here. Also, on 6 June, the Cheltenham Science Festival played host to four experts from the Obesity project. They discussed when the obesity epidemic started and why. The debate was chaired by broadcaster and project science writer Vivienne Parry. The audience put forward some interesting suggestions commenting on blame culture and questioning political correctness. You can read a full report on the event in Adobe PDF by clicking here.
Our two other projects, on Sustainable Energy Management & the Built Environment, Mental Capital & Wellbeing are continuing. For the latest news and information on all three projects, and our Horizon Scanning Centre, please visit their web pages at: