9th December 2025
Why We Need Data, Courage, and Community
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy
2nd December 2025
In cybersecurity, there are no limits – only new voices ready to lead
14th October 2025
Lost and Found (but mostly lost)
29th September 2013 Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Climate again
On Friday the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (the IPCC) published the first part of their fifth Assessment Report on climate change. The Assessment Reports are a summary of the best available scientific knowledge, and are each divided into three parts: on the physical science basis; on impacts of climate change, vulnerabilities, and means of […]
28th September 2013 Ottawa, Canada
Dementia: A Global Challenge
September 2013 marks the second World Alzheimer’s Month, reflecting the growing urgency and concern over the health, social and economic burden of the disease. Alzheimer’s disease is a common form of dementia. Today, it is estimated that over 35 million people worldwide currently live with the condition, and this number is expected to double by […]
27th September 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Being Connected: The Holy See and Communications
I suspect that until quite recently, not many people would have mentioned the Vatican in the same breath as the giants of global communications. Innovators like the BBC, global news operations like CNN, or social media like Facebook or Twitter. The Holy See speaks to us about tradition, the faith, the power of the pulpit. […]
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27th September 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Aiming for longer term growth: the UK’s Industrial Strategy
When our Business Minister, Vince Cable, was here this week, he talked a lot about the UK’s Industrial Strategy. As he noted, to some ears this sounds rather old-fashioned. In fact it’s the opposite, it’s an attempt to create long term plans to tackle some of the sources of recent economic weakness and instability in […]
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26th September 2013 London, UK
Thunderclap: Now is the #TimeToAct
Sexual violence is used in conflict as a way to humiliate and destroy communities. A culture of impunity means that millions of women, children and men who have survived sexual attacks in war rarely see any form of justice, and perpetrators are able to commit these horrific crimes without fear of any consequences. To address […]
26th September 2013 Toronto, Canada
Congratulations to the 2013 UK-Canada CDA awardees!
We had such excellent outcomes from our UK-Canada Collaboration Development Awards (CDAs) in 2012 that we decided to run them again this year (here’s the announcement). We got 86 applications, and were able to fund 11 based on their ability to deliver mutually beneficial outcomes for Canada and the UK. It was a very strong […]
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26th September 2013 New Delhi, India
Exploring innovations in public private partnerships
Last week I was at a dinner with one of the professors from the University of Cambridge. Over dessert, he said something to me that changed the way I looked at the role of ‘Universities’ in the Innovation ecosystem. He told me about how he and some of his colleagues not only teach their students […]
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26th September 2013 Singapore
Kick starting collaboration with Indonesia
Eating tempeh, a fermented soybean cake, could reduce the risk of developing dementia. I learnt this and other interesting facts at the UK-Indonesia Science and Innovation Conference in Jakarta last week. In addition to changing my own diet, this event provided a valuable guide to future directions for UK-Indonesia research collaboration, served to clarify the […]
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25th September 2013 Sana’a, Yemen
أصدقاء اليمن على المستوى الدولي
هناك حدثان مهمان لليمن هذا الأسبوع خارج حدود هذا البلد. كلاهما يجري في نيويورك. الأول هو مؤتمر أصدقاء اليمن يوم الأربعاء 25 سبتمبر، والثاني مداولة بشأن اليمن في مجلس الأمن التابع للأمم المتحدة (مجلس الأمن الدولي) يوم الجمعة 27 سبتمبر. كلاهما فرصة ممتازة لليمن ليُظهر للعالم مما هو مصنوع. إنها فرصة للسياسيين في اليمن ليثبتوا […]
25th September 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
UK Life Science Goes On Tour
For the fifth consecutive year the UKTI team in Sweden organised a R&D Drug Development tour which brought together 16 UK research companies with players from the Swedish life science sector. This year, the tour moved away from Stockholm and emphasised other life science clusters such as the newly formed Medicon Village in Lund and […]