Rustat Conference

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Jesus College, Cambridge, 17 January 2012

The sixth Rustat Conference discussed the future of research-intensive universities and was jointly hosted by the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, and Professor Ian White, Master of Jesus College.

Agenda

08.15 – 09.30: Registration and refreshments.

09.30 – 09.45: Welcome and Introduction.
Professor Ian White
Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz

09.45 – 10.45: Session One: Roles and Models of Research-Intensive Universities.
What structures should universities have to 1. Provide balanced teaching, research and thought-leadership, 2. Combine depth of expertise with breadth of understanding, and 3. Promote excellence and equip those for leadership?
Chair: Professor Ian White
Speaker: Lord Rees.

10.45 – 11.05: Coffee

11.05 - 11.55: Session Two: The European Dimension.
How UK research-intensive universities might relate to their European Counterparts and vice versa; European heritage and traditions of higher learning --- from the Middle Ages to Humboldt and beyond; Potential collaborations with UK universities; Student and research exchange; Prospects of European rankings.
Chair: Sir Leszek Borysiewicz
Speakers: Professor Hans Jochen Schiewer (Freiburg, Germany), Prof Dr Kurt Deketelaere (Leuven).

11.55 – 12.55: Session Three: The Relationship between the Arts, Humanities and STEM disciplines.
The mutual benefits of the relationship between the Humanities and the STEM disciplines at undergraduate and research level. Altering perspectives on the Idea of “a” University, or “the” University form Newman to the present. The importance of research in the Humanities for undergraduate teaching.
Chair: Lord Renfrew;
Speakers: Professor Christopher Higgins (Durham), Professor Stefan Collini.

13.00 – 14.00: Lunch

14.00 – 14.50: Session Four: Knowledge Exchange and Exploitation in Research-led Universities.
Partnerships with Industry; Supporting the growth agenda; Facilitating exploitation.
Chair: Dr Herman Hauser
Speaker: David Cleevely.

14.50 – 15.40: Session Five: Teaching and Learning in Research–led Universities
The role of undergraduate, graduate and post-experience education; Models for teaching; The need for full-time education; Matching national need with personal aspiration; Funding of Teaching; Response to Government White Paper.
Chair: Sir Keith O’Nions
Speaker: TBC.

15.40 – 15.55: Tea

15.55 – 16.45: Session Six: Relationships between Research Led Universities and Society and the Economy.
The principle of “Impact”; Engagement in the community; Media impact; Contributions to policy.
Chair: Professor Louise Richardson (St Andrews)
Speakers: Sir Adrian Smith (BIS), Dame Nancy Rothwell.

16.45 – 17.15: Conclusions and Future Initiatives.
Closing Remarks from Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz.

This conference was by invitation only. For more information please contact us. _________________________________________________________________________

Rustat Conference

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Jesus College, Cambridge, 24 November, 2011

The fifth Rustat Conference discussed the role of Manufacturing in the UK and aimed to answer the following questions:

What contribution does manufacturing make to the UK economy? To what extent is it in decline, and does it matter? What is the UK government’s policy on the need to stimulate the manufacturing sector? Is intervention required, or should the market dictate the size of the sector? To what extent do levels of investment and provision of skills affect the manufacturing base? How does the proportion of manufacturing in the UK economy compare with that of other leading industrial nations?

The conference was chaired by Professor Ian White and featured contributions from leading figures from industry, government, the media and academia. A report will be published soon on this website.

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Rustat Conference

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BIS Conference Centre, 1 Victoria St, London SW1, 29 September, 2011
For more information on this conference visit the dedicated Cyber Security Forum 2011 website.

The Cyber Security Forum 2011 was organised by an industry-government-academic grouping in association with the Rustat Conferences. It had the official support of the Cabinet Office - Office for Cyber Security and Information Assurance OCSIA, and the Department for Business Innovation & Skills BIS, the Information Assurance Advisory Council IAAC, and the ICT KTN.PA Consulting was the lead partner and sponsors were i2 Ltd, Cisco, McAfee and Finmeccanica.

The conference explored a broad range of Cyber Security themes with a strong focus on business and private sector including: the contributions made by the private sector to ensuring national and economic security; R&D and Innovation in Cyber Security; private sector partnerships with academia and government; the economics of Cyber Security; Cyber Security leadership and corporate strategy; insider threats; data exfiltration, leaks and the prevention of corporate data loss.

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Science and Human Dimension Project

11 May 2011
Jesus College, Cambridge

Background and Overview

Not so long ago Lord Drayson, UK science minister, commissioned a report, Science and the Media – Securing the Future written by a group chaired by Fiona Fox, director of the Science Media Centre. The report drew on research conducted by Cardiff University journalism department. While being relatively optimistic, the findings warned of serious threats to the quality and independence of science reporting due to wider crises in the media. Major economic and institutional changes in the traditional print and broadcast media, not least circulation falls and the pressures of ratings, have added to the constraints under which journalists work at the best of times.

The results are heavier workloads, and shorter deadlines, leading to less scope to investigate and check facts; greater reliance on limited pools of news sources, a tendency to sensationalize and trivialize. Staff cuts, reductions in editorial space, a squeeze on editorial budgets have meant less opportunities for free-lancers and staff appointments. The new media appears to offer unprecedented scope for aspiring science journalists to be published, but does this make for reliable journalism or constitute a real potential for making a living?

Nevertheless, the impact of the science media (including medicine, technology) on society, the economy, and the environment, grows apace. High quality, responsible science reporting is crucial both to public understanding of a range of issues as well as the decisions of government.

Over the past two decades the Science and Human Dimension Project at Jesus College, Cambridge, has convened conferences as a contribution to public understanding of science. Our aim has been to enhance the quality of the science media and to encourage scientists to participate in outreach to the public.

This one-day meeting on Wednesday May 11, 2011 (in association with City University Journalism School and BlueSci) brought together a group of young scientists to discuss the problems and constraints, the scope and potential, of careers in science journalism at a time of rapid media change and challenge. We took advice from Lord Martin Rees, Professor John Naughton, Roger Highfield, Peter Tallack, Lou Woodley, Philip Ball, and Clive Cookson. The structure of the meeting was designed to promote an exchange of viewpoints and a sharing of experiences. Each segment was be introduced briefly by two seasoned practitioners: followed by open-floor discussion. The proceedings will be available for dissemination to schools of journalism and the wider public.

Agenda

Registration: 9.00-9.45am Prioress’s Room, Cloister Court, Jesus College

Introduction: 9.45am Upper Hall, Jesus College

Session 1: 10.00-10.50am: Prof John Naughton (OU and The Observer) and Lou Woodley (Nature)
Science Journalism in an Era of New Media: Opportunities and Challenges

Coffee

Session 2: 11.30-12.30am: David Adam (Nature)
Popular Interest in Science: the Next “Big Stories”

Lunch

Session 3: 1.45-2.45pm: Andrew Brown (The Guardian), Dennis Alexander (Faraday Institute)
Impact of Science Journalism on Culture and Society

Session 4: 2.45-3.45pm: Simon Singh (author), Adam Wishart (author and film maker)
Ethics and Science Media: Constraints and Dilemmas, Accuracy and Honesty

Break

Session 5: 4.15-5.15pm: Peter Tallack (The Science Factory), Christopher Potter (author and publisher)
Prospects For Science Books: Markets, E-publishing, Academic versus Non-Academic


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Rustat Conference

3 February 2011
Jesus College, Cambridge

The revolution brought about by computer technology and the internet has delivered huge benefits and opportunities to society, but it also poses a threat as it may expose us – government, organisations and individuals – to digital attack. How real is this and how clear and present this danger? This conference set out to provide an informed judgement on the extent and nature of this threat to governments, commerce, national infrastructure and individuals.

The meeting brought together a group of leading academic experts with decision makers from government,intelligence, finance, defence, technology, the law, the media, and the security services. Follow the link for more information on the agenda, participants. The Rustat Conference on Cyber Security report is available to read here.

Rustat Conference

10 June, 2010
Jesus College, Cambridge

The growth in global and urban populations, the increasing demand for housing, products, services, travel, food and water in both the developed and the developing worlds, will place huge demands on the infrastructure of energy, water and cities. Delivering this infrastructure presents a major challenge in terms of investment and financing, and will carry associated socio-economic costs, as well as opportunities for business. All this at a time when there is an onus on governments to achieve tough carbon reduction targets and replace fossil fuels with renewable sources of energy.

A team of Cambridge academics and practitioner experts joined decision makers from the fields of engineering, finance, energy, water, politics, sustainable development and the media for round-table discussions and debate on the most vital issues at stake in these important themes.

The proceedings of this conference are available here.

Science and Human Dimension Project

Science & Human Dimension Project - Prospect Magazine Lecture

On 3 June 2010 Professor Alasdair MacIntyre, author of After Virtue and some thirty books on ethics, gave a lecture sponsored by the Science & Human Dimension Project and Prospect magazine. The text of the article John Cornwell wrote for Prospect magazine’s October 2010 issue on the lecture and its background is available here.

Coleridge Society Lecture

2010
Jesus College, Cambridge

Science and Human Dimension Project

23 February 2010
Jesus College, Cambridge

The Science & Human Dimension Project held a round-table workshop for an exchange of views on media coverage of ethical and religious issues, and to discuss the launch of a forum for ethics in the public space called Ethicscope. A constituency of leading journalists, ethicists and representatives of different faiths discussed the access, fairness, balance and quality of ethical perspectives in print, radio, TV, photojournalism and online media.

Our aim ultimately was to explore ways in which media practitioners at every level can develop and enhance their ethical insights and presentation of issues. This meeting occured at a time when the domains of politics, medical science, business, economics, the environment, social and human rights, face increasingly complex and unprecedented choices and judgments. At the same time, the world’s leading faiths are experiencing mounting challenges and scrutiny from secular and pluralist standpoints.

The proceedings of this meeting are available here.

Rustat Conference

13 October 2009
Jesus College, Cambridge

This Rustat Conference brought together some of the world's leading political theorists, historians and leaders from the worlds of politics, the media, industry and public sector to tackle the key issues at stake in the debate over the Future of Democracy.

The proceedings of this conference are published as a pdf here
Videos of the conference sessions are available in the Media Resources section
The proceedings are also available as an ebook by clicking on the title page below:

Future of Democracy - Proceedings of the second Rustat Conference

Rustat Conference

9 May 2009
Jesus College, Cambridge
Leading academics from the fields of economics, politics, business and history discussed the key issues of the Economic Crisis with leaders from the worlds of politics, finance, industry, the public sector and the media.

Read the Economic Crisis conference brochure.

To read the conference report click on the link below.

Coleridge Society Lecture

2009

Science and Human Dimension Project

Conference 2008
Public interest in religious debate has recently been fed by a series of books of popular polemic against theism, religion and the discipline of theology itself. A small industry has grown up around these works - by authors such as Dawkins, Dennett and Hitchens. Philosophers, theologians convened to debate and reflect on their attitudes to religion and the status and sources of their various religious and spiritual sympathies, their secularism or agnosticism. Speakers included Sir Anthony Kenny, Michael McGhee, and Nicholas Lash.

Coleridge Society Lecture

2008

Science and Human Dimension Project

Conference 2007
Following the EU’s granting of funding for human embryonic stem cell research in July 2006, some declared the arguments and debate against it, over whilst others thought it had barely begun. The aim of this conference was to explore the meaning of the term soul within the Judaic-Christian tradition to test the strength of the Cartesian idea which is often taken for granted in the ethical debate: as in a human being is “ensouled” at the moment of conception.

Science and Human Dimension Project

Conference 2006
This conference explored the media coverage of development and aid in Africa. Senior Kenyan development workers discussed poverty, development and the media with specialists from NGOs, the Department for International Development, charities, development academics, and journalists.

Science and Human Dimension Project

Symposium 2005
There has long been a notion that creativity and imagination are associated with forms of depression and even psychosis. This conference explored a wide-ranging approach to the topic, including literary, historical, and psychiatric perspectives.

The discussion focused particularly on the way in which depression is reported in the media as well biographically and autobiographically.

Science and Human Dimension Project

Debate 2007
Physicist and theologian John Polkinghorne and Astronomer Royal, Sir Martin Rees, tackled the notion of the anthropic principle - the existence of numerical accidents in the Universe that were essential for the development of life.

Coleridge Society Lecture

2002

Science and Human Dimension Project

Conference 2002
The conference explored the ethics of science, using as a focus Michael Frayn’s play Copenhagen which was staged at the conference with Michael Frayn fielding questions. Mark Walker and Paul Lawrence Rose spoke directly to the German historical and biographical background of Heisenberg and Niels Bohr. Other speakers included Walter Gratzer, Lewis Wolpert, Henning Grunwald and John Naughton.

Science and Human Dimension Project

Conference 2001
The growth in the use of the internet and related technologies for teaching and learning brought together a variety of distance and e-learning specialists from Europe, and the United States, working mainly in the fields of publishing and tertiary level education

Coleridge Society Lecture

2000

Science and Human Dimension Project

Conference 2000
This meeting brought together philosophers, scientists, mathematicians, and anthropologists to discuss why explanations work, why they vary between disciplines, periods, and cultures, and to discover whether they have any necessary boundaries. The issues engaged the keen interest of the participants from the media, for it is in journalism that the notion of an explanation is often misused or misunderstood. Speakers included Peter Atkins, Sir Martin Rees, Peter Lipton, Colin McGinn and Juliet Mitchell.

Coleridge Society Lecture

1999

Coleridge Society Lecture

1998

Science and Human Dimension Project

Conference 1997
Consciousness has puzzled philosophers, naturalists, and theologians down the ages. Now it has caught the interest of contemporary scientists, some of whom believe they are on the brink of discovering its basis in neurobiological processes. This meeting of neuroscientists, psychologists, philosophers, theologians and novelists, discussed the prospects and consequences for finding a scientific explanation of consciousness. Speakers included Margaret Boden, John Searle, Steven Rose, Mary Midgely, Jeremy Butterfield, Peter Lipton and David Lodge.

Coleridge Society Lecture

1996

Science and Human Dimension Project

Conference 1996
The Science and Human Dimension Project brought twenty four young scientists together to discuss the future of their disciplines: physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, computer science, and medicine.This meeting was supported by Wellcome Trust, Chiroscience Ltd, and the New Scientist.

Coleridge Society Lecture

1995

Science and Human Dimension Project

Conference 1995
This specialist forum for participants from the science media was convened to discuss current issues of interest and concern. Speakers included Nigel Hawkes of The Times, John Maddox of Nature, Ravi Mirchandani of Penguin¸ Alun Anderson of the New Scientist and Duncan Dallas of Café Scientifique. The meeting was sponsored by Nature.

Coleridge Society Lecture

1994

Science and Human Dimension Project

Symposium 1994
Logicians and philosophers of mathematics discussed the mathematical Platonism with Penelope Maddy, Michael Redhead, Tim Smiley, Jeremy Butterfield, and Peter Smith. Is mathematics created by the mind or does it have an extra-mental existence, and what are the implications for philosophy?

Science and Human Dimension Project

Lecture 1994
Nobel Prize winner Sir Francis Crick discussed his book The Astonishing Hypothesis in which he argues that explanations for human higher order consciousness are best studied from the “bottom up”.

Coleridge Society Lecture

1993

Science and Human Dimension Project

Symposium 1993
A group of world-class mathematicians, scientists, and professors of mathematical education explored the role of mathematics in different academic disciplines.

Coleridge Society Lecture

1992

Coleridge Society Lecture

1990

Science and Human Dimension Project

Conference 1992
This conference brought together world class neuroscientists, mathematicians, physicists, philosophers, psychiatrists, biologists, engineers, publishers and journalists to discuss to what extent reductionist method is shaping, and “reducing”, psychology, social studies, and even the humanities? Speakers included Nobel Prize Winner Gerald Edelman, Oliver Sacks, Freeman Dyson, Roger Penrose, John D Barrow, Paul M. Churchland, Patricia Churchland, Mary Midgely, and Peter Atkins.