Subscribe to our "Population in Perspective" Substack Here!
The Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science (LCDS) welcomed representatives from the Leverhulme Trust to Oxford for an afternoon exploring the Centre’s research, development and ambitions for the future.
Image: From left to right: Alan Jope CBE, Professor Dame Julia Black FBA (Nuffield College), Conny Braams, Professor Melinda Mills MBE (LCDS), Professor Anna Vignoles, Jakub Bijak (LCDS), Sue Garrard and Emily Nisbet, outside Nuffield College. Photography: Kevin Potter.
Professor Anna Vignoles, Director of the Leverhulme Trust, Alan Jope CBE, Chair of the Trust Board, Trustees Conny Braams and Sue Garrard, and Grants Manager Emily Nisbet met with LCDS leadership, researchers and professional services colleagues during the visit.
The afternoon began at Nuffield College, where LCDS Director Professor Melinda Mills and Professor Jakub Bijak presented an overview of the breadth of research taking place across the Centre and discussed LCDS’s sustainability strategy beyond 2029.
The visit continued at the LCDS offices, giving colleagues from across the Centre an opportunity to share their work and exchange perspectives with the Trust team. Discussions ranged from LCDS’s research and future direction to collaboration and cohesion across the Centre, as well as the wider contribution demographic science can make to understanding major social and population challenges.
The conversations also provided an opportunity for LCDS to hear perspectives and questions from the Trust team, drawing on their expert experience across academia, business and organisational leadership.
Professor Dame Julia Black FBA joined the visit at Nuffield College, which kindly hosted the presentation.
Professor Melinda Mills, Director of LCDS, said:
"It was incredibly valuable to have the opportunity to discuss both the work we are doing across LCDS and our ambitions for the Centre’s future. The questions and perspectives from the Leverhulme Trust team prompted thoughtful conversations about our strategy, very useful suggestions for the future, how we work together as a Centre, and where demographic science can make a meaningful contribution in the years ahead.”
The Leverhulme Trust has supported the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science since its establishment in 2019. Bringing together researchers from across disciplines, LCDS seeks to disrupt and realign how we measure and model populations by developing new demographic methods and using them to address the demographic challenges of our time.
The visit provided an opportunity both to reflect on the Centre’s work to date and to look ahead to its next chapter.
