Reports and briefings

This report summarises a range of concerns about the rapid advances in AI and robotics - in areas such as lethal autonomous weapons, accidental nuclear war, fake news, online privacy, driverless cars and more...

Andrew Simms with Stuart Parkinson

November 2018

This report updates and summarises the latest scientific and technical information about the risks posed by the continued deployment of the UK's nuclear weapons.

Philip Webber and Stuart Parkinson

2015

This report reviews evidence across a number of issues associated with shale gas extraction by hydraulic fracturing (fracking). These include environmental and public health aspects and socioeconomic considerations.

Gwen Harrison, Stuart Parkinson and Gary McFarlane

2014

In this addendum to the SGR report, Offensive Insecurity (September 2013), we present an estimate of total UK government spending on nuclear weapons R&D, drawing on the data obtained for the report via freedom of information requests, and on further publicly available information about the different R&D spending streams.

Stuart Parkinson

2014

The role of science and technology in UK security strategies

This report reveals new data on the billions spent on continuing to develop Cold War-style weaponry that is not relevant to the UK's current security threats, as well as exposing the failure of government departments to account properly for hundreds of millions of pounds.

Stuart Parkinson, Barnaby Pace and Philip Webber

2013

This short report presents evidence that the detonation of the nuclear warheads carried on just one UK Trident submarine would lead to vast quantities of smoke being generated that would led to a sharp climate cooling, causing a global crop failure which would threaten the lives of some 1 billion people. This would be in addition to the deaths of over 10 million people killed directly by blast, fire and fallout from the nuclear explosions.

Philip Webber

2013

The detrimental effects of commercial influence on science and technology

It is no secret that links between the commercial sectors and science and technology are increasing. Many policy-makers, business leaders and members of the science community argue that this is positive for both science and society. But there is growing evidence that the science commercialisation agenda brings with it a wide range of detrimental effects.

Chris Langley and Stuart Parkinson

2009

Military influence, commercial pressures and the compromised university

This report builds upon the disclosures of, and recommendations provided in Soldiers in the Laboratory and More Soldiers in the Laboratory and focuses on the impact of military sector influence within the research and teaching environment of universities in the UK.

Chris Langley, Stuart Parkinson and Philip Webber

2008

The militarisation of science and technology - an update

This report provides an update to Soldiers in the Laboratory. In addition to SGR's latest findings about the power and influence of the military in science, engineering and technology (SET) in the UK since the early 1990s, the report also highlights some of the problems encountered in obtaining detailed information on military involvement in R&D despite the entry into force of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Chris Langley, Stuart Parkinson and Philip Webber

2007

This briefing discusses the main ethical issues related to industrial chemicals sector, as well as new developments in regulation and technology, and assesses how these affect career choice. It points to areas which have potential to improve the environmental and health performance of the sector.

Anne Chapman

2006