Course summary

Data is absolutely everywhere - it is all around us and continually growing. Huge data sources are increasing exponentially, but there are too few people with the specific skills and understanding to process the abundance of information available to inform the best ways forward in tackling pressing global challenges. This programme will train students in the use of data-driven approaches to inform practice, decision-making and policy relating to planetary health and sustainable futures. Planetary health is defined as the health of human civilisation and the state of the natural systems on which it depends. Science is often used to support decisions that have profound economic, social and environmental impacts. Good decision-making is fundamental to achieving policy aims, and science should be used as an instrument to evaluate proposed ways of reaching those aims; this is policy-led decision-making. This programme puts science under a planetary health and sustainable futures lens. An emphasis on translating policy aims into manageable scientific questions is a particularly distinctive, and possibly unique, feature among the University's courses on science and policy.