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Our evidence briefings highlight research findings and their relevance in key policy areas. The views expressed in the evidence briefings are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the ESRC.
There are currently no policies that provide genuinely integrated management of water, energy, food and land. Progress towards more integrated policymaking is too slow to match the rate of the ongoing environmental and demographic changes.
The timeliness and degree of detail for flood information need to improve, and flood management responsibilities need to be more clearly defined, according to research on how communities and businesses cope with flooding.
Research findings suggest a migration policy ‘balloon effect’, where squeezing it at one end (restricting the number of non-EEA high-skilled workers) lead to an increased size at the other (inflating the number of EEA high-skilled workers).
Framing the migration ‘crisis’ as a recent phenomenon ignores the longer-standing history of precarious migration to the EU across the Mediterranean. To be effective, policy interventions need to be co-ordinated regionally, and global in their outlook.
The uptake of engineering and science in school is low, raising concerns for these sectors. The ASPIRES 2 study is tracking the science and career aspirations of young people aged 10-19, the impact of ‘Triple Science’ and the underrepresentation of girls in Physics and Engineering.
The single biggest impact on economic growth is the widening gap between the lower middle class and poor households compared to the rest of society. Research from the LLAKES Centre indicates that England’s post-16 education and training system is failing to reduce skills inequality in literacy and numeracy.
The UK’s infrastructure is amongst the most interconnected in the world and has a pressing need to adopt a broad and integrated approach to infrastructure planning. The iBUILD report Are you being served? has set out five priority action areas and recommendations to improve infrastructure business models.
Current performance indicators do not appear to either tell the whole story of infrastructure performance, or adequately support UK infrastructure development. A new report concludes that a new assessment approach is required, using a broader and more sophisticated set of indicators.
The ongoing Unity out of Diversity research project is exploring how immigrant integration is perceived and understood in different sectors of society. A comparison of integration outcomes shows that ethnic majority and minority groups in the UK share a wide range of common values, aspirations, attitudes and sense of responsibilities.
Research has examined whether public information campaigns in 2013 focusing on immigration were effective in achieving their objective. Publicity campaigns with 'tough' messages on immigration increased anxiety and anger for a significant minority of people
