Deliberate Thinking projects
Royal Institution – primary research with internal audiences and desk research, to inform the development of a theory of change
RSA – a deliberative project based on the citizen’s jury model, exploring the role of citizens in developing ethical artificial intelligence (AI). Supported by Deep Mind, the project will include creating space for citizens to consider trade-offs in the use of AI and to guide companies, organisations and institutions in how it is harnessed. Diane Beddoes designed the engagement process and was lead facilitator for the events.
RSA Citizens’ Economic Council – in partnership with Ursus Consulting, Deliberate Thinking designed the process for the RSA Citizens’ Economic Council, and provided advice and input on the stimulus materials, tools and games used during the process. We also led the facilitation of the Council’s nine one-day deliberative workshops.
Academy of Medical Sciences Evaluation of public dialogue ‘How can we all best use evidence to judge the potential benefits and harms of medicine’.
Sciencewise stakeholder workshop on robotics and autonomous systems: facilitation of Transport and Cities group.
Sciencewise / Nuffield Council on Bioethics stakeholder workshop on genomic editing: facilitation.
Current and recent associate projects
Involve
Sciencewise
- Public dialogue expertise: Deliberate Thinking is working with Involve, in the role of senior dialogue and engagement specialist, and lead evaluator, on the Sciencewise programme
Canal and River Trust
- Deliberate Thinking is leading a three-stage project for the Canal and River Trust, on behalf of Involve, to engage boat owners and organisations in future boat licensing.
Teesside Reform Prisons
Previous associate projects
Babraham Institute / University of Cambridge.
- Leading a project on behalf of Dialogue by Design to explore stakeholders’ views on the scope and content of possible public engagement on single cell genomics.
Arcadis / Highways England.
- Advice and support on stakeholder engagement to the teams conducting the Trans-Pennine Tunnel feasibility study. This major transport study is being carried out by Mouchel Consulting, part of the Kier Group, in partnership with Arcadis and Arup, on behalf of Highways England.
Projects led by Diane Beddoes, pre-Deliberate Thinking
As Chief Executive of Dialogue by Design, Diane led a number of dialogue and consultation projects for both Dialogue by Design and its sister company, OPM.
Global Food Security public panel, Food Futures. This online panel used an innovative approach to engaging 600 members of the public over the course of a year. During this period, online and face-to-face projects looked at food systems and trade-offs, urban agriculture, eating insects, and understanding consumer priorities for food innovation.
Defra – public and stakeholder dialogue to understand public perceptions of nanotechnologies. This dialogue project and report met a long-standing request by Ministers to understand more about the public’s views on nanotechnology in general and will enable decision makers in Defra and BIS to react to any likely policy decisions on nanotechnology that they are likely to face over the next few years.
Defra – stakeholder and public dialogue. This complex and highly political dialogue was co-funded by Sciencewise, and designed to support Defra’s formal consultation on the future strategic direction of bovine TB policy. It comprised ten workshops with institutional stakeholders, interest groups, farmers and vets, three sets of reconvened public workshops and digital public engagement, with partners Vizzata.
Energy Research Partnership: Diane designed and ran a stakeholder workshop to explore how to take forward the ERP recommendation to engage the public in developing a strategic narrative for the transformation of the energy system. The objectives were to explore participants’ views on the value of using strategic narratives and public engagement in the context of energy system transformation. Participants included academics, energy policy advisers and representatives from energy companies and NGOs.
Innovate UK – public and stakeholder dialogue on stratified medicine: Innovate UK and Sciencewise were clients for this project which explored the social and ethical issues raised by stratified medicine. Stakeholders were involved in the process design and delivery. The project included reconvened public workshops, workshops with patients, medical students, young people and young patients and workshops self-facilitated by local patient and community groups. It concluded with a stakeholder summit involving policy makers, industry leaders and health professionals.
NHS England Consultation on draft standards and service specifications for the congenital heart disease service
Rothamsted Research – public and stakeholder dialogue: working with industry: Rothamsted Research is a predominantly public-funded agricultural research station seeking to build closer ties with industry. The project Diane ran was designed to engage the public in a dialogue with stakeholders and scientists to develop principles to inform partnering and fundraising decisions. The final report informed the development of Rothamsted’s strategy for working with industry and Rothamsted Research will incorporate the outcomes of the dialogue into its Knowledge Exchange and Commercialisation strategy. The project was co-funded by Sciencewise.
Developed Affinity Water engagement strategy for PR14. This project included running stakeholder mapping workshop with board members and integration of engagement activities with Affinity’s business plan and long-term strategic objectives.
Environment Agency Water Quality and Sustainability: Commissioned by the Environment Agency and co-funded by Sciencewise, this project was designed to provide engagement support to thirteen pilot catchment areas across England and to capture and analyse learning from all pilots on the role that public dialogue can play in catchment management planning and local planning processes in general.
Nesta – advisory workshop for the 2014 Longitude Prize: Diane designed and ran a stakeholder advisory workshop, to help the Nesta team to develop the criteria for judging the 2014 Longitude Challenge Prize. The challenge posed is: ‘How can we prevent the rise of resistance to antibiotics?’ Diane worked with Nesta and their lead research partners, Science Practice, on the workshop design. Participants were drawn from a range of specialisms including microbiology, health psychology, epidemiology, diagnostics, infection prevention and public health.
Deliberate Thinking 