News3rd September 2025
The Nuffield Council on Bioethics’ (NCOB) 2024-2028 ‘Making ethics matter’ strategy announced an ambition to enhance our capability to anticipate scientific developments and health trends that pose fundamental ethical questions to society.
To deliver on this, we recruited and embedded an in-house horizon scanning (HS), futures and foresight team. Over the past two-years we have worked to evolve how we compile, analyse and present our HS insights, publishing our first timeframed HS last year. We have also embarked upon a project to develop foresight tools that can support policymakers in their efforts to bring ethical exploration into their anticipatory work, presenting an early prototype of one of these tools at the Dubai Futures Forum in 2024.
Throughout this work, we have drawn on guidance from the NCOB’s Horizon Scanning Advisory Group (HSAG), which exists to provide governance to our HS and foresight programme, ensuring the work is of strategic benefit to the NCOB and our wider stakeholders.
The HSAG has historically been comprised solely of Council members. However, given the expansion of the NCOB’s HS and foresight programme, a decision was made to bring specialist futures expertise into the group. A particular focus was placed on seeking HS, foresight and futures experts with experience in quant-based HS techniques or in foresight-informed work planning.
After an open and competitive recruitment process, we are pleased to announce that four experts have joined our HSAG. They will begin their roles in September 2025.
Dr Douglas Robinson is a Policy Advisor at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Science and Technology Policy division, where he is spearheading work on future-oriented and strategic intelligence for science and technology policy and anticipatory governance of new and emerging technologies. Douglas is also a research scientist (on secondment) from the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and is an honorary research associate of the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose at UCL, UK.
Getting ahead of rapid developments in biomedicine and health by steering them towards desirable impacts is a major challenge – evidence is not readily available but decisions still must be made on what to prioritise and how best to govern. Sense-making of early signals and anticipating on potential developments and their ramifications is key, and it is excellent that the Nuffield Council on Bioethics is investing in increasing and tailoring its anticipatory capacity. I am honoured and excited to join the NCOB in tackling this challenge through participation in the HSAG.”
Dr Douglas Robinson
Ruth Marshall, MBE, has more than two decades of experience working in the UK Government. For the past four years she has headed up Futures Capability at the Government Office for Science, focusing on the building of cross-Whitehall skills in futures and foresight.
I am delighted to join the Advisory Board, having engaged with the Nuffield Council as they developed this new venture. I look forward to exploring how they can use this work to help identify priorities for future focus and engagement with partner organisations.”
Ruth Marshall MBE
Dr Sophie Gilbert is a Programme Lead at GESDA – the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator – where she leads the development of the GESDA Science Breakthrough Radar®, a tool that anticipates advances in science and technology over the next 5, 10 and 25 years. Sophie has a PhD in developmental biology and previously managed a multi-million pound research portfolio as a member of Wellcome’s clinical and discovery sciences team.
I am delighted to join the Nuffield Council on Bioethics’ horizon scanning advisory group, where I hope to contribute my experience in developing and translating science anticipation for international science diplomacy in support of the Council’s vital ethics foresight work.”
Dr Sophie Gilbert
Dr Usha Boolaky is a Visiting Professor of Practice at the NIHR Innovation Observatory, a world leading health and care innovation scanning centre, providing data-driven insights to foster innovation and equitable access to high-quality care. She has led a number of strategic national research and innovation initiatives at NHS England and the Health Foundation.
The Nuffield Council’s work in shining a light on the ethical challenges in biomedicine and health is hugely important. By understanding these early enough to inform policy and practice, we can improve outcomes for people. The Horizon scanning, futures and foresight programme offers a systematic way to do this, and I look forward to supporting the team.”
Dr Usha Boolaky
Each expert member of the HSAG has been invited to serve a three-year term (2025-2028) meaning they will be in post until the end of our Making ethics matter strategy.
Stephen Wilkinson, Co-Chair of the NCOB’s HSAG said:
I am delighted to welcome Douglas, Ruth, Sophie and Usha to the Nuffield Council on Bioethics Horizon Scanning Advisory Group. Our horizon scanning and foresight programme has evolved at pace these past two years, taking us into new innovative spaces and opening opportunities for us to try new things. However, capacity and resources are finite, so it is of upmost importance that we prioritise effectively for greatest impact. The experience our new expert members will bring is sure to provide us with the informed counsel we need to achieve this. I look forward to working with and getting to know these new colleagues from September.”
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