• Week 4: Net neutrality

    This has been a very busy week for net neutrality on both sides of the Atlantic (and beyond).  Most notably the European Parliament voted down various proposals to retain a strong form of net neutrality, which was almost lost amidst coverage of … Continued

  • Week 3: How will countries implement their INDCs on climate change?

    This week, we are meant to be looking at institutions, so I thought that the national INDCs (shorthand for the unwieldy ‘Intended Nationally Determined Contribution’) for the upcoming COP-21 (short for the 21st conference of the parties to the UN … Continued

  • A new frontier: regulating drones/UAVs

    This week, the website, the Conversation has an article on the need for regulating UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles, also known as drones). Drones came to most people’s attention first through their use in military warfare over the past decade although … Continued

  • Welcome to Technology Policy Week 1: The VW scandal

    Well I tried to think of other ‘simpler’ introductory topics, of which there are many, but the elephant in the room is the current VW scandal.  In the end, we just had to have this as our first blog.  The … Continued

  • GSK and the Ebola vaccine: drug approval, ethics, corporate citizenship and regulatory strategy

    Is the Ebola vaccine taking too long to get to market or is it being rushed too quickly?  In spite of the World Health Organization (WHO) recommending that vaccines jump straight to phase III efficacy tests in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra … Continued

  • Innovation, risk, uncertainty and precaution

    Sir Mark Walport, the UK Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser issued his first annual report this past week, entitled Innovation: Managing Risk, Not Avoiding It.  In this short report, he makes a number of quite useful points regarding risk, hazard, exposure and … Continued