About the Policy Studies Institute

Policy Studies Institute (PSI) is one of Britain's leading research institutes, conducting research to promote economic well-being and improve quality of life. PSI enjoys a reputation for the rigorous and impartial evaluation of policy in the UK and Europe, and the publication and dissemination of research findings is central to our ethos.

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Latest news

Understanding social cohesion during
and following recession

A new PSI research project funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and led by Maria Hudson (right) will examine the effects of the current economic downturn on the complex web of relationships - ethnic, faith, gender, generation, class and institutional - that come together in one of Britain's most diverse cities, Bradford.

The research will ask how the recession is bringing the communities together or exacerbating tensions, and what policies can best tackle the long-term consequences for community relationships. The research will be carried out in partnership with the BME third-sector organisation Voice4Change England.

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Lecture on innovation policy and the challenge of climate change

Fred Steward, Professor of Innovation and Sustainability at PSI, will be giving his inaugural lecture at 6pm on Tuesday 9 February 2010. Significant innovation is essential to achieving a successful transition to a low carbon society. Yet there are widely differing concepts of innovation, with a bewildering profusion of retrospective analogies of radical change.

Professor Steward will argue that for innovation policy to make a real difference it needs a narrative which is more reflective on past experience. The lecture draws on new thinking about innovation in relation to delivery of transformative change and its relevance for a wide diversity of policy actors in the political debates of 2010.

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New PSI research projects Single Parents’ Work Aspirations More single parents are being asked to move into paid work. But jobs attained by single parents are often low pay and low status. This Big Lottery-funded project, led by Gingerbread and supported by PSI, will investigate diverse single parents’ career aspirations, and develop the design for an employment programme to help them achieve these goals. Read on...

PSI professor gives evidence to new US committee

On 18 November in Washington DC, Professor Fred Steward gave invited evidence at the US National Academies of Science to the newly formed ‘Committee on Global Science & Technology Strategies and their Effect on US National Security’.

Professor Steward argued that the problem of national security only emphasised the need for greater co-operation between the major greenhouse gas emitters - the US, China and the EU - and noted that the Chinese authorities had shown a greater appetite for action in recent years.

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