Autumn MIST will be held virtually this year on Thursday 19 and Friday 20 November 2019. The meeting will commence at 10:00 and run until 15:00 with breaks on both days, and will include poster and oral sessions.
Contributions are welcome from all areas of MIST science. We will not have a theme this year, and we would like to instead celebrate the broad variety of science in the MIST community. Abstracts should be submitted by completing the submission google form by the end of Friday 23 October.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. We look forward to seeing everyone at Autumn MIST!
This year has proved the critical importance of science having a voice within Parliament. But how does scientific evidence come to the attention of policy makers? If you are a STFC-funded PhD student, you can experience this first-hand through our Policy Internship Scheme, which has just opened for applications for 2020/21. During these three-month placements, students are hosted either at the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) or the Government Office for Science (GO Science).
POST is an independent office of the Houses of Parliament which provides impartial evidence reviews on topical scientific issues to MPs and Peers. Interns at POST will research, draft, edit and publish a briefing paper summarising the evidence base on an important or emerging scientific issue. GO Science works to ensure that Government policies and decisions are informed by the best scientific evidence and strategic long-term thinking. Placements at GO Science are likely to involve undertaking research, drafting briefing notes and background papers, and organising workshops and meetings.
The scheme offers a unique opportunity to experience the heart of UK policy making and to explore careers within the science-policy interface. The placements are fully funded and successful applicants will receive a three-month extension to their final PhD deadline.
For full information and to see case studies of previous interns, please see our website. The closing date is 10 September 2020 at 16.00.
The RAS have announced that NAM will be held at the University of Bath in July 2021, and a blog post on the University of Bath website goes into details on this.
MIST will be present at NAM at University of Bath to help celebrate the Royal Astronomical Society's bicentennial, which will still be celebrated at Bath.
No plans to replace the 2020 NAM with a virtual presence have yet been announced, beyond the following excerpt from the blog post above.
There is no doubt that physical meetings will always play a part in the way scientists network and collaborate, but we are also eager to explore digital conference platforms, as we believe remote conferencing will be an important step forward in giving our participants dependable access to talks and meetings. Such virtual meetings hold great promise in making meetings both more inclusive and more environmentally sustainable. Inclusivity and reducing our carbon footprint are priorities for both the RAS and for the University of Bath.