Record-breaking attendance for IEEE Symposium on Fusion Engineering (SOFE). The UK and Oxford will become the epicentre of the global fusion community this week as hundreds of scientists and engineers gather to progress fusion energy powerplant development.
A new funding scheme has been launched offering up to £20 million in grants to support local authorities, universities and arm's-length external organisations decarbonise their buildings. Scotland’s Public Sector Heat Decarbonisation Fund will replace the existing Scottish Energy Efficiency Loan Scheme, which has been running since 2006 and offered zero interest loans for energy efficiency improvement projects.
The Insolvency Service has today launched a new online information hub to support company directors. The hub hosts guidance and information on a range of business themes commonly faced by companies and aims to help company directors to push their business forward by being more aware of potential pitfalls.
Solace and Senior Managers of Solace Scotland, in collaboration with the Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers (ALACHO) and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA), have published a report ‘Housing in Scotland. Current Context and Preparing for the Future' which details their assessment of the housing emergency in Scotland and the steps needed to address it.
The destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in June 2023 has caused significant economic and environmental damage. Approximately 100,000 people were evacuated or displaced over a large area, equivalent to the size of Switzerland, affecting regions from Kryvyi Rih in the north to Melitopol in the east and the Crimean Peninsula in the south.
Bees' Needs Week launches for 2023, encouraging everyone to protect pollinators. Bees' Needs Week (10 - 17 July) is back with a call for the public to take five simple steps to help boost bee numbers and monitor pollinators in their local green spaces.
The UK picked a bad year to have a political crisis in 2022. The markets were already jittery because the global economy was struggling to recover from COVID.
Jonathan Portes, Professor of Economics and Public Policy King's College London writing for The Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) looks at the evidence for the damage to the UK economy caused by BREXT. Two-thirds of the British public think Brexit has damaged the economy, while even among Leave voters only one in five think the impact has been positive.
Early experimental data and analysis on economic activity and social change in the UK. These real-time indicators are created using rapid response surveys, novel data sources and experimental methods.
The Office for National Statistics looks at how people spend their time. After sleep and rest, adults in the UK spent an average of 3 hours and 44 minutes each day on entertainment, socialising, and other free time activities in March 2023 (including 2 hours and 16 minutes watching television); this was less than the average of 4 hours and 30 minutes in March 2020.
Annual estimates of the number of foreign-owned businesses, turnover and approximate gross value added (aGVA) in the UK non-financial business economy for 2021 and revised estimates for 2020, from the Annual Business Survey (ABS). There were 2.5 million businesses operating in the UK non-financial business economy in 2021, of which 1.4% (36,724) were foreign-owned.
Finding new drugs - called "drug discovery" - is an expensive and time-consuming task. But a type of artificial intelligence called machine learning can massively accelerate the process and do the job for a fraction of the price.
Peace not Pollution edited by Christian Gollier Dominic Rohner is a big read for anyone interested in the economics and climate and the green transition required to save the planet. 237 Page and it can be downloaded free of charge at the link at the bottom of this page.
Insect populations are declining worldwide at a rate of almost 1% per year. This decline is alarming.
Millions of UK mortgage borrowers could experience significant payment shocks this year. This is happening due to a steep rise in the Bank of England's base rate over the past year to the highest level since 2008.
Maximum on-the-spot fines for litter, graffiti and fly-tipping to increase under PM's Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan. On-the spot fines for litter, graffiti and fly-tipping are set to rise as part of a crackdown on anti-social behaviour, Environment Minister Rebecca Pow announced today (Friday 7 July), delivering on the Prime Minister's Action Plan to clamp down on these crimes and build stronger communities.
The cost of living crisis has seen the prices of many goods and services rise sharply in the past 18 months, but food and drink prices have been particularly hard hit. Some food producers have responded by reducing the size of their products, while keeping prices the same - a phenomenon known as "shrinkflation".
The Resolution Foundation is currently publishing a series of essays under its Economy 2030 series. The latest written by Vidit Doshi, Huw Spencer, and Dani Rodrik reviews where we are on creating good jobs.
The UK is providing 15 Rapid Intervention Vehicles and two Major Foam Vehicles to bolster Ukraine's firefighting capability. The UK will provide 17 specialist firefighting vehicles to Ukraine's fire and rescue services, primarily sourced from the Royal Air Force and Defence Fire and Rescue, with one provided by the Welsh Government.
Industrial action suspended with a record 12.4% pay increase for junior doctors and doctors in training for 2023/24 has been agreed with the British Medical Association. Following discussions with Health Secretary Michael Matheson this afternoon, BMA Scotland have agreed to suspend strike action while they consult their members on this deal.