Wider Civil Service Events

Join us at this online Civil Service Network for Nature event – 12.30pm to 1.30pm on Thursday 28 May - as we explore the wonderful world of garden birds with ornithologist, John Kirkman. A month into the 2026 nesting season, our gardens will be hives of activity as birds find materials for nest building and food to keep them and their soon to be expanding families fed. This talk will look at the state of garden birds in the UK and how they are faring, how we can become citizen scientists to help monitor population numbers and distribution, and what we can do to help them thrive. Once we’ve heard from John Kirkman there will be plenty of time to ask questions.

You can sign up for the event here.  

If you’re interested in joining the Civil Service Network for Nature you can sign up here.

In the next ‘Science and Society’ webinar, Dr Helen Pallett, Associate Professor of Human Geography at the University of East Anglia, will be speaking to Dr Izzy Webb, Deputy Director for Technology Strategy and Security (DSIT) about how members of the public relate to novel technologies and what this means for innovation policy. Helen will present insights from a new briefing paper on ‘What drives public adoption of new technology?’ which sets out social science research on ‘what works’ to ensure that new technologies respond to genuine societal need and how government can rethink the role of the public for technology policy. There will also be an opportunity to ask questions in the Q&A at the end.

Key questions discussed in the webinar will include:

• Why do new technologies get adopted by members of the public, while others aren’t?

• How useful is it for government to focus on public…

Join us at this online Civil Service Network for Nature event – 12.30pm to 1.30pm on Thursday 26 March - as we explore “nature recovery: how partnerships and communities are delivering a positive future for wildlife.”

Panel members include:

Zoe Davies, West of England Nature Partnership Manager

Jody Ferguson, Partnership Manager at Cumbria Local Nature Partnership

Dr Adrian Howkins from the University of Bristol

Hi everyone, on Weds the 11th of Feb I’m hosting a teach-in about climate adaptation with two leading academics from the University of Southampton. It will be a great opportunity to learn about climate adaption as it becomes increasingly more important in our everyday lives. The link to register is here https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/f24ac837-2841-421e-801f-826b1499605a@cbac7005-02c1-43eb-b497-e6492d1b2dd8 Feel free to also send this to people in the civil service who you think might be interested - It would be great to maximise numbers!