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Sandy Oliver

@profsandyoliver

Combining different ways of knowing – practical, emotional, cultural, scientific – for better academic knowledge and a better world https://www.ucl-ioe-press.com/research-for-all

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07.11.2024
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Latest posts by Sandy Oliver @profsandyoliver

This taster session includes our MSc Social Policy (Evidence Synthesis), a masters course that spans the interpersonal and tech/ AI aspects of research for changing the world www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-...

27.02.2026 12:38 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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❗If you’re interested in navigating the huge evidence base on the performance of generative AI-based tools in health and social care, our living map of this research has been newly updated.

This Version 9 contains 923 fully-coded articles, of which 34 are new
👉 eppi.ioe.ac.uk/cms/Default....

27.02.2026 12:00 👍 4 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 2
Preview
Ancient stepwells brought back to life as India begins to run out of water Centuries-old wells restored to provide drinking water as parts of the country head towards “day zero” when no water will be available

Ingenious historical approaches to access clean water now being revived to tackle chronic water shortages

26.02.2026 06:49 👍 20 🔁 8 💬 0 📌 0
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New book out in Open Access with UCL Press, co-edited with Elmira Muratova, with chapters on case studies ranging from Ukraine, Turkey-Afghanistan, diasporic West Africa, Thailand, Kyrgyzstan-Kuwait, and Indigenous Canada. Free download from the link in the thread.

23.02.2026 22:14 👍 2 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 0

It covers how to judge the relevance and quality of you find, and how policy makers, researchers and communities can work together to make those judgements. You can study in London or online

23.02.2026 08:10 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
LinkedIn This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn

Would you like to know more about how to tackle policy problems with research already available? If so, this masters course could be the one for you.
lnkd.in/dRMcbpmt

23.02.2026 08:09 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0

Since I can’t sleep, here’s another hot take: The world would be a better place if everyone‘s science literacy was much better. There should be more emphasis on teaching basic science at all levels in school. Science isn’t just something nerds do, it’s the foundation of the modern world.

22.02.2026 02:56 👍 1182 🔁 181 💬 40 📌 17

Powerful video from @nikki-s.bsky.social on 6 years of #LongCovid.
Tens of thousands of others are approaching same anniversary in UK alone - millions worldwide.
A very long tail from the pandemic.

#CountLongCovid
#CareForLongCovid
#ResearchLongCovid

17.02.2026 11:18 👍 4 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 0
Have your say! Complete the UCL Open Environment Survey.

Have your say! Complete the UCL Open Environment Survey.

UCL Press publishes UCL Open Environment, a diamond open access journal for environment research 🌍

Help us better understand what researchers value when choosing where to publish, and awareness of the journal.

⏱️ < 10 minutes
🎁 Prize draw

👉 Take the survey: bit.ly/4anusxc

#ScholarlyCommunications

09.02.2026 15:57 👍 2 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0

Co-creating a play with a Kenyan community theatre group framed vaccine research findings in ways that are relatable to community members. journals.uclpress.co.uk/r4a/article/...

08.02.2026 16:04 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

When people talk about the idea that some universities must go under, there’s a certain tendency to behave as if these smaller local campuses are negligible- regrettable casualties perhaps but not ‘real’ universities. This report does a great job of illustrating why that’s wrong.

04.02.2026 09:07 👍 234 🔁 113 💬 6 📌 4

Come to our masters programme Open Days, today and tomorrow, and hear about how to change the world by:
• Rethinking global societies
• Developing new policies
• Mastering cutting edge methods

04.02.2026 10:23 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

The big questions.

29.01.2026 19:07 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Here's your invitation to our masters programmes Open Days

28.01.2026 15:52 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 1
Social Policy (Evidence Synthesis) MSc UCL's Social Policy (Evidence Synthesis) MSc has a specialist focus on advanced methods for the systematic review of research, also known as evidence syntheses, and explores how research is combined with professional and community knowledge to support policy decision-making by governments and other national and international organisations around the world. The course offers

Such a variety of personal journeys lead to our MSc Social Policy (Evidence Synthesis). It’s a pleasure to read applications and learn what has sparked a deep interest in bridging the gap between research and making important decisions www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-...

13.12.2025 09:11 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Abstract of the report of the Lancet Commission on improving population health post-COVID-19

Abstract of the report of the Lancet Commission on improving population health post-COVID-19

🗣️ Privileged to have played a small part in this Lancet Commission on improving population health, published today: www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

It focused on three interconnected threats:
⚠️ Non-communicable diseases;
⚠️ Outbreaks of infectious diseases; and
⚠️ Environmental degradation

(1/2)

12.12.2025 09:49 👍 6 🔁 4 💬 1 📌 0

This deep-dive course in evidence synthesis looks great

26.11.2025 11:42 👍 0 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Social Policy (Evidence Synthesis) MSc UCL's Social Policy (Evidence Synthesis) MSc has a specialist focus on advanced methods for the systematic review of research, also known as evidence syntheses, and explores how research is combined with professional and community knowledge to support policy decision-making by governments and other national and international organisations around the world. The course offers

Looking forward to October 2026, we've started offering places to applicants to our MSc Social Policy (Evidence Synthesis) www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-...

26.11.2025 09:30 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 1

‘Many things are true which only the commonest minds observe’
‘Then I think the commonest minds must be rather useful’ “
That’s how I opened a book chapter.

22.11.2025 20:34 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

My favourite: “ ‘Celia,’ said Dorothea, with emphatic gravity, ‘pray don’t make any observations of that kind’.
‘Why not? They are quite true,’ returned Cecilia, who had her own reasons for persevering, though she was beginning to be a little afraid.

22.11.2025 20:33 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Why science for policy?

It helps define the policy problem and find underlying causes.

It helps reach trade-offs and compromises by understanding impacts.

It helps find out what works through evaluation.

Most of all, it helps earn trust in democracy by grounding it in facts and reality.

11.11.2025 12:06 👍 6 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 1

This really is a shame.

In times like these we really should be commissioning more engaging, informative evidence-based shows, not fewer.

30.10.2025 21:08 👍 204 🔁 59 💬 11 📌 3
Preview
The value of public R&D

Government has published one of those quiet but important documents that might get overlooked as it is not 'newsy'. The headline finding is that £1 of public R&D investment generates £8 in net economic benefits for the UK over the long term
www.gov.uk/government/p...

30.10.2025 13:28 👍 629 🔁 353 💬 8 📌 18
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Thank you to everyone who joined #Stage4 of #ThePeoplesReview. Now, our team working backstage are taking a closer look at the 699 possibly relevant studies to find the ones that answer the People's favourite question.

Stay tuned for #Stage5 coming soon...

28.10.2025 13:23 👍 0 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0

I’ll be there - looking forward to it.

21.10.2025 09:32 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Oh dear - we desperately need better public understanding of science.

16.10.2025 06:19 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
In this lecture, Catherine Clarke will re-visit the question of what makes history radical, asking what kind of radical history we need in our public life and contemporary context today. In particular, she’ll explore ways in which popular history – trade publishing for a wide public audience – has the capacity to be radical, drawing on experiences and examples from her own new book A History of England in 25 Poems (Penguin Allen Lane, September 2025). Catherine’s lecture will move towards a manifesto for how research-led, scholarship-driven popular history can and does make necessary, vital public interventions – from opening inclusive conversations and confronting the rise of AI, to modelling radical empathy and imagination.

In this lecture, Catherine Clarke will re-visit the question of what makes history radical, asking what kind of radical history we need in our public life and contemporary context today. In particular, she’ll explore ways in which popular history – trade publishing for a wide public audience – has the capacity to be radical, drawing on experiences and examples from her own new book A History of England in 25 Poems (Penguin Allen Lane, September 2025). Catherine’s lecture will move towards a manifesto for how research-led, scholarship-driven popular history can and does make necessary, vital public interventions – from opening inclusive conversations and confronting the rise of AI, to modelling radical empathy and imagination.

I'm hugely honoured and very excited to be giving this year's Historical Research #Lecture at @ihr.bsky.social, on 'Can popular #history be radical? Historical research and writing for the #public'. Tuesday 4 November, all welcome. More info in AltText. Book here: www.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...

01.10.2025 09:14 👍 108 🔁 45 💬 6 📌 1

when autistic people talk about research that will actually help to improve autistic people's quality of life, this is the kind of thing we mean. this is a neat study.

25.09.2025 13:29 👍 12 🔁 7 💬 0 📌 0

Have a lovely time.

18.08.2025 12:42 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Unsolicited writing advice, no.976:
Read. Read for pleasure. Read out of curiosity. Read both in and outside your comfort zone. Read in order to a get a thorough understanding of the industry you’re getting into. No time? Find time. Writing without reading is like cooking without food.

11.08.2025 15:28 👍 199 🔁 32 💬 3 📌 8