SPRU is a world-leading department where research and high-level policy advice are combined with postgraduate teaching in science, technology, and innovation policy and management. We welcome students, researchers and policymakers in business, government, and civil society organisations to find out more about us and our activities by using the links on this page.
SPRU - Science and Technology Policy Research is the centre of a worldwide network of interdisciplinary researchers addressing the analysis of the rate and direction of scientific change and innovation, the promotion and management of innovation, the regulation of technological risks, the search for effective energy policies and paths to a more sustainable society.
SPRU researchers are prominent participants in global academic and policy debates concerning weapons of mass destruction, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, nuclear power, climate change, information technology, food safety, technology in development and the roles of public and private research organisations.
In SPRU we have created a unique international research culture founded on collegiality and mutual support that spans the divisions between the pursuit of competitiveness and wealth creation, social inclusion, sustainability and development. We maintain close and high-level contacts to the worlds of commercial innovation management, public policy making on science and technology, and civil society.
Public debate: Fuel poverty, climate change and social justice, 20 May 2013
At a time of rising unemployment, energy and food costs, many families are struggling to heat their homes. But can fuel poverty be tackled without tackling climate change? And will tackling climate change – and other planetary boundaries such as water and land use – and keep the planet safe but make the poor poorer?
Chaired by Alice Bell (SPRU Research Fellow) and featuring panelists Kirsty Alexander (Head of Communications, Nuclear Industry Association), Thurstan Crocket (Head of Sustainability, Brighton and Hove City Council), Doug Parr (Chief Scientist, Greenpeace) and Jim Watson (Research Director, UK ERC and SPRU Professor of Energy Policy), this debate - jointly hosted by SPRU and the STEPS Centre Summer School - used local issues such as fuel poverty and fracking to look at the global issues of environmental sustainability, poverty and social justice.
All images: Lance Bellers
SPRU DPhil Day/DIG-IT roundtable discussion: 'Inclusive growth and innovation: contradictions vs. opportunities', 1 May 2013
On 1 May, SPRU’s DPhil Day and DIG-IT Workshop events jointly hosted a roundtable discussion titled 'Inclusive growth and innovation: contradictions vs. opportunities' in the Jubilee lecture theatre, introduced by Prof Dick Nelson and featuring Prof Mariana Mazzucato, Dr Matthias Kollatz, Prof Luc Soete, Prof Frances Stewart and Prof Andy Stirling.
