The nuclear weapons field is one of the most gendered areas of international security and reputed to be a particularly hostile workplace for women. Think tank reports criticise the absence of women and gendered perspectives from nuclear policy debates while gender initiatives seek to increase the representation of women in the field. These studies and policy initiatives share two conclusions: First, women are underrepresented in the nuclear weapons field. Second, the inclusion of women would bring a qualitative change to this policy area. Currently, academic literature fails to provide empirical support for both conclusions. Systematically collected data is missing on the number of women who are working with nuclear weapons, women's experiences of working in the field have been recorded only anecdotally and the impact of women's increased representation remains unclear. The Women and the Bomb (WoB) project will address these gaps by methodically gathering and analysing the missing quantitative and qualitative data. WoB will conduct a large-scale, systematic data collection exercise and a multi-site ethnographic study of women's contributions to the field in the United States (US) in the post- Cold War era. It will map women's representation in the nuclear weapons field, explore the experiences and ideas of female professionals who work with nuclear weapons and investigate how an increase in gender balance might change policy processes.

The proposed seminar series builds on the experience of the co-investigators in organising the ESRC Research Seminar Series on Right Wing Extremism in Europe (2014-2015). It arises from the recognition of the potential benefit of extending the success of the current seminar series in enhancing cross-disciplinary knowledge and creating a safe space to share research and best policy and intervention practice across substantively and ideologically different radicalisms and extremisms. The proposed new series will draw on the wide international academic and non-academic participant network developed through the existing seminar series (focused on anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant and right wing extremism) but extend its reach to those engaged in research, policy and practice related in particular to religion-based extremism and extreme left and anti-corporativist radicalism. Radical and extremist groups have embodied a broad range of cultural and political forms in Europe since World War II. While some groups have remained on the political fringes, others have become known through spectacular acts of public violence - such as bombings by left-wing and right-wing radical groups in Germany or the killing of a British soldier by Islamists on a London street in May 2013. Youth engagement is one of the most pressing concerns for researchers and policymakers who work on radicalism and violence. Young people are easier to recruit and easier to radicalise than older individuals; they are also disproportionately responsible for violent attacks. In this seminar series, we explore comparative trends in youth engagement in radical and extremist movements and subcultures across national, religious, and ideological contexts. Coming on the heels of significant electoral successes and instances of extraordinary extremist violence, there has been renewed political, media, and scholarly attention to extremist and radical growth in Europe, and in particular to the role of youth in domestic and foreign extremist movements and violence. But there have been few sustained comparative discussions across or between European countries and almost no empirical comparative research on the many dimensions of radicalism and violence. We need more cross-disciplinary conversation as well as more discussion across ideological or substantive areas of focus. Scholars of the far left rarely compare their work to scholars of religious extremism or vice versa; so too historians and political scientists tend to present and publish their findings within their core disciplines rather than in cross-disciplinary venues. The vast majority of research scholars do not find ways to connect their empirical findings with policymakers. We need opportunities to compare and contrast issues such as radicalist engagement, propensity to violence, or the influence of transnational networks and new media platforms on extremist and radical recruitment and radicalisation of youth across these various disciplinary, national, and ideological spheres. We need also structured venues to better connect policymakers with researchers and to share research findings in ways that are accessible to the broader public. To this end in the proposed series, seminars will be co-hosted with non-academic organisations, include dedicated space for presentations by non-academic organisation participants and will feature joint academic/non-academic small group discussions feeding in to the production of co-owned 'evidence briefings' related to each seminar theme. The proposed series focuses on youth engagement in radicalism and extremism across ideological and religious contexts and consists of six thematically focused one-day seminars exploring: paths to radicalism and extremism; global and local horizons of action; social media and corporate responsibilities; terrorism; gender dimensions of radicalism and extremism; and deradicalisation and education.

Over the last decade, the creative industries have been revolutionised by the Internet and the digital economy. The UK, already punching above its weight in the global cultural market, stands at a pivotal moment where it is well placed to build a cultural, business and regulatory infrastructure in which first movers as significant as Google, Facebook, Amazon or iTunes may emerge and flourish, driving new jobs and industry. However, for some creators and rightsholders the transition from analogue to digital has been as problematic as it has been promising. Cultural heritage institutions are also struggling to capitalise upon new revenue streams that digitisation appears to offer, while maintaining their traditional roles. Policymakers are hampered by a lack of consensus across stakeholders and confused by partisan evidence lacking robust foundations. Research in conjunction with industry is needed to address these problems and provide support for legislators. CREATe will tackle this regulatory and business crisis, helping the UK creative industry and arts sectors survive, grow and become global innovation pioneers, with an ambitious programme of research delivered by an interdisciplinary team (law, business, economics, technology, psychology and cultural analysis) across 7 universities. CREATe aims to act as an honest broker, using open and transparent methods throughout to provide robust evidence for policymakers and legislators which can benefit all stakeholders. CREATe will do this by: - focussing on studying and collaborating with SMEs and individual creators as the incubators of innovation; - identifying "good, bad and emergent business models": which business models can survive the transition to the digital?, which cannot?, and which new models can succeed and scale to drive growth and jobs in the creative economy, as well as supporting the public sector in times of recession?; - examining empirically how far copyright in its current form really does incentivise or reward creative work, especially at the SME/micro level, as well as how far innovation may come from "open" business models and the "informal economy"; - monitoring copyright reform initiatives in Europe, at WIPO and other international fora to assess how they impact on the UK and on our work; - using technology as a solution not a problem: by creating pioneering platforms and tools to aid creators and users, using open standards and released under open licences; - examining how to increase and derive revenues from the user contribution to the creative economy in an era of social media, mash-up, data mining and "prosumers"; - assessing the role of online intermediaries such as ISPs, social networks and mobile operators to see if they encourage or discourage the production and distribution of cultural goods, and what role they should play in enforcing copyright. Given the important governing role of these bodies should they be subject to regulation like public bodies, and if so, how?; - consider throughout this work how the public interest and human rights, such as freedom of expression, privacy, and access to knowledge for the socially or physically excluded, may be affected either positively or negatively by new business models and new ways to enforce copyright. To investigate these issues our work will be arranged into seven themes: SMEs and good, bad and emergent business models; Open business models; Regulation and enforcement; Creators and creative practice; Online intermediaries and physical and virtual platforms; User creation, behaviour and norms; and, Human rights and the public interest. Our deliverables across these themes will be drawn together to inform a Research Blueprint for the UK Creative Economy to be launched in October 2016.