news 2020

UofG-led new housing study says design quality of new homes across the UK remains "stubbornly low" The design quality of new homes and neighbourhoods across the UK remains stubbornly low, according to an in-depth study on the issue published today by a team led by the University of Glasgow. The report - Delivering design value: The housing design quality conundrum - which looked at all four UK nations, says new homes and neighbourhoods fail to meet the aspirations of the national planning policy statements in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Referendums on the future of the island of Ireland should only be held with a clear plan for what follows, according to an interim report from the Working Group on Unification Referendums on the Island of Ireland, set up by the UCL Constitution Unit. The report examines the legal rules for referendums north and south of the border, and assesses different ways of designing them based on criteria of procedural legitimacy, stability, simplicity, informed choice and inclusivity.

Referendums on the future of the island of Ireland should only be held with a clear plan for what follows, according to an interim report from the Working Group on Unification Referendums on the Island of Ireland, set up by the UCL Constitution Unit. The report examines the legal rules for referendums north and south of the border, and assesses different ways of designing them based on criteria of procedural legitimacy, stability, simplicity, informed choice and inclusivity.

Behavioural science should undergo rigorous testing and review before it informs public policy such as government responses to COVID-19, according to a paper in Nature Human Behaviour :  Use caution when applying behavioural science to policy . Professor  Andrew K. Przybyls ki, director of research at  Oxford's Internet Institute , is joint lead author of the paper, which recommends NASA's Technology Readiness levels be used to ensure new ideas are adequately tested before being adopted by governments and politicians.

Our ground breaking research has never been so critical during the Covid-19 pandemic. Amongst other things, we're helping to detect the virus, support people suffering from the effects of lockdown and understand how we could be better prepared if there was another pandemic. Here are five things our researchers have done to help prevent the spread of Covid-19.

National governments have a much greater responsibility for shipping emissions than previously estimated, finds new UCL-led research. Published today, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO)'s fourth Green House Gas (GHG) study found that, on average, GHG emissions of global shipping are increasing and are expected to continue to increase under current policy, with emissions hitting an all-time high in 2017.

Two thirds of pavements in London are not wide enough for people to observe the government's advice to stay two metres apart, according to new UCL analysis. Looking at data for every street in Greater London, the researchers found that only 36% had pavements that were at least three metres wide - judged to be the minimum required for people to be able to keep their distance.

Public support for increased police powers relies heavily on trust and legitimacy, according to a new study by UCL and the London School of Economics (LSE). In the new paper, published in the British Journal of Criminology , the authors assessed the factors that matter most to the public when deciding if they support the police's use of Live Facial Recognition (LFR) technology.

The Lighthouse Laboratory in Glasgow - a major new COVID-19 testing facility based in Scotland - is now operational. The Lighthouse Lab, which officially started testing samples for COVID-19 this week, is part of what will be the biggest network of diagnostic testing facilities in British history, alongside other Lighthouse Lab sites in Milton Keynes and Alderley Park, which were opened in recent days.

Three Oxford-based COVID-19 projects are among the first to benefit from a share of £20 million in government investment. The three projects include work on an effective vaccine, enabling pre-clinical and clinical vaccine trials, as well as supporting researchers to develop manufacturing processes to produce a vaccine at a million-dose scale. Another project will examine how existing treatments could be repurposed to treat coronavirus.