Politics & Public Policy

  Davide Donina In recent decades, science studies have increasingly recognized that single academic disciplines are ill equipped to address complex problems that modern societies and science face (Nature 2015). Accordingly, interdisciplinarity has become a hot topic and a buzzword in the policy discourse for science and higher education. Yet, translating policy discourse into policy […]

The great thing about the Christmas period is that pretty much everyone goes on leave, so we can all get some distance from work. That’s been true of the Article 50 process as much as anything else: a flurry of activity to book in some final bits under “work done in 2017”, before mince pies, […]

Christmas and New Year is a time to think about and hope for ‘peace on earth and goodwill to all men’ (and women, of course). Peace is precious, because around the world there are so many conflicts and disasters that make world peace impossible. From conflicts and disasters come death, destruction and displacement. The world […]

An amendment by the Liberal Democrats to enshrine into law a new referendum on the final Brexit deal was defeated in the House of Commons last night. Amendment 120 to the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill would have given ‘the people’ a final say on the deal that Theresa May brings back from Brussels. There was […]

Hello Theresa May, I’m an avid follower of your Facebook page. On Friday you posted, “We will deliver on the will of the British people..” That’s great news. Just last year you advised the British people to vote for Remain, which you said would be in the best interests of the country. Couldn’t agree more. Unfortunately, […]

Grischa Fraumann At any rate, altmetrics, or alternative metrics, are gaining momentum in higher education (Holmberg, 2016). This post is based on my master’s thesis (Fraumann, 2017) that explores the usage of altmetrics with a focus on research funding. Altmetrics track down and count the mentions of scholarly outputs in social media, news sites, policy […]

My editorial today for the Reasons2Remain campaign: The Daily Mail this morning reported: “Eleven Conservative MPs last night voted to give the Commons a ‘meaningful’ vote over any Brexit agreement with the EU, despite government pleas to let ministers retain control.” The Daily Mail accused those 11 Tory MPs of treachery. We say they upheld […]

As we await the verdict of tomorrow’s European Council on the move to Phase 2, it’s perhaps useful to reflect on the decision-making style of Theresa May. Last night provided a vivid illustration of this, with the amendment to the Withdrawal Bill, which provides Parliament with a vote on the final deal. We might discuss on another […]

Prime Minister, Theresa May, suffered a major defeat in the Commons tonight when MPs voted to curb government powers on Brexit – something she definitely didn’t want. It’s the first time that government has been defeated on its main Brexit legislation. MPs voted to back an amendment by the former attorney general, Tory MP backbencher, […]

Petitions to Parliament calling for a second EU referendum have been rejected by both the Conservatives and Labour. The biggest petition, which attracted 137,941 signatures, called for another referendum on the ‘final Brexit deal.’ The petition requested a new poll before March 2019 with three options on the ballot paper: (1) To revoke Article 50, […]