Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs

A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy

14th March 2018 Gaborone, Botswana

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by Katharine Ransome

British High Commissioner to Botswana and UK Representative to the Southern Africa Development Community

Celebrating Phenomenal Batswana Women

#PressforProgress A message from Her Excellency The British High Commissioner to Botswana, Katy Ransome on International Women’s Day 2018 We must strive to ensure that women have access to equal opportunities in the workplace, politics and most importantly girls access to education. This International Women’s Day is an opportunity to take action to press forward […]

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9th March 2018 Science and Innovation NetworkUSA

Hannah Davelman

Hannah Davelman

Science & Innovation Officer, San Francisco

British UAS Research Visits The Bay Area

In February 2018, the UK Science & Innovation Network brought researchers from the Universities of Southampton, Bristol, and Cranfield to the Bay Area, where they represented the UK’s newly-formed CASCADE research consortium at the NSF-funded Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems’ Industry Advisory Board (C-UAS IAB) meeting at Facebook Headquarters. C-UAS brings together five leading American universities […]

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9th March 2018

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by Shilpi Mehta Nanda

Senior Intellectual Property Adviser, UK Intellectual Property Office (UK IPO)

Committed to Copyright Awareness

The UK Intellectual Property Office partnered with the Publishers Association and Cambridge University Press to conduct a Copyright Awareness Programme on February 12, 2018. The Programme was attended by the UK Publishers and supported by the Indian Government. Mr. Rajiv Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, DIPP and other Government Officials from a varieties of government sector including […]

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8th March 2018 Canberra, Australia

Ingrid Southworth

Ingrid Southworth

Deputy High Commissioner

Women in Security

The security world has a diversity problem. The number of women in senior security roles, within government (and beyond) while improving remains stubbornly low. The higher you go the worse it tends to get.   By background I am more of a securocrat than a diplomat and have spent most of my career working on national […]

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7th March 2018 Science and Innovation NetworkBerlin, Germany

Chris Bradley

Chris Bradley

Science and Innovation Network, Regional Director for Europe, Russia and Turkey

Women in Science: fostering UK-German innovation

Today, 8 March, marks International Women’s Day and tomorrow, 9 March, marks the beginning of British Science week. According to UNESCO, less than 30% of the world’s researchers are women. So today we’re pleased to introduce two female scientists who have agreed to share a little about their careers and experiences as women working at […]

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5th March 2018 Vilnius, Lithuania

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by Claire Lawrence

Former British Ambassador to Lithuania

Lithuanian Centenary – the people who built our friendship – Writers

Not long after first arriving in Vilnius I hosted the book launch for Kristina Sabaliauskaitė’s new book ‘Vilnius, Wilno, Vilna’. I didn’t know much about the author, although many people in the Embassy had read, and loved, her bestselling Silva Rerum books. I very much enjoyed her Vilnius book, though. So much so that I […]

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1st March 2018 Canberra, Australia

Craig O’Kane

Craig O’Kane

Director, FDI & Capital Investment (Aus & NZ), Department for International Trade

He’s not Sadiq Khan, nor Boris, so who exactly is London’s 690th Lord Mayor?

Alderman Charles Bowman was elected and sworn in as the Lord Mayor of London on 10th November 2017 for the term of one-year. During his tenure the Lord Mayor will represent the City of London, often referred to as the ‘Square Mile’. This is the engine room of the UK economy, a small area but […]

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26th February 2018 Science and Innovation Network

Nicola Willey

Nicola Willey

Regional Director Southeast Asia Science and Innovation

The Newton Fund in Southeast Asia: Looking back, and looking forward

With celebrations of the New Year in the West and Chinese New Year fading, I took a moment to look back at the Newton Fund last year, and where the year ahead is likely to take us. We closed out 2017 by celebrating the Newton Prize. This Prize is given to recognise the very best […]

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23rd February 2018 Stockholm, Sweden

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by Mikael Allan Mikaelsson

PhD, Science and Innovation Policy Advisor, Europe Lead on Net-Zero Innovation & Climate Change

The Importance of Energy Storage for the Low Carbon Transition

In recent years, the UK Government has set out progressive energy policies to meet its ambitious legally binding decarbonisation target of an 80% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050, in accordance with the UK Climate Change Act of 2008.  Accordingly, the UK energy system is currently undergoing a period of significant transformation that will bring […]

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