Media Centre

Helping media professionals

The STEPS Media Centre is designed to help media professionals access the latest news and resources from the STEPS Centre as quickly and easily as possible. Here you will find press releases, background briefings, and resources to help with your research and stories. If you can’t find what you need, please get in touch with the press office in one of the following ways:

Contact us:

Nathan Oxley, communications officer
Tel +44 (0)1273 915726 / M: +44 (0)7989 568586
Email n.oxley@ids.ac.uk

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Latest press releases and press packs

Innovation, Sustainability, Development: A New Manifesto

• Press release: A Manifesto to make innovation deliver for development
  15 June 2010
• Opening presentation from launch event by STEPS director Melissa Leach and project convenor Adrian Ely (Slideshare)
• Launch event programme (pdf 351kb)

General releases

• Avian Flu Threat: New Approach Needed 23 October 2008
• New PhD places for 2008 30 Jan 2008
• Douglas Alexander must ensure science and technology work for the poor 28 June 2007
• Poverty and environment millions could be wasted: STEPS Centre launch 25 June 2007
• Paid for PhD places at new global research centre
• New for 2007: MA in science, society and development

Towards a Green Revolution in Africa press pack ( 30 April 2008)

• Kofi Annan calls for a "uniquely African Green revolution" to address food crisis 30 April 2008
• "Forging a Uniquely African Green Revolution” Address by Mr Kofi A. Annan, Chairman of AGRA Salzburg Global Seminars Austria (pdf 117kb) 30 April 2008
• Transcript of Kofi Annan and panellists press conference

More information on this event
Photos available, contact: j.day@ ids.ac.uk

 

African 'Livestock Revolution' press pack (April 2008)

• Press release: African farmers missing out on the global livestock revolution
• Press release: High-level backing for African farmers' participation in global 'livestock revolution'
• Opening speech: How can Africa benefit from the livestock revolution? Written by Dr Babagana Ahmadu, Director for Rural Economy and Agriculture, African Union Commission, Ethiopia
  Presented by Martin Bwalya NEPAD, South Africa
• Biographies of researchers
• Fast Facts
• Background overview

More information on this project

Press release archive

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Register to receive STEPS press information

Have STEPS press releases and briefings delivered direct to your inbox. Sign up for this service by emailing j.day@ids.ac.uk

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Find an expert

STEPS members are world-class experts in the many social and natural science fields around our issues of social, environmental and technological development, and are very experienced in working with print, broadcast and online media.

From food and agriculture, water and sanitation to health and disease, we have engineers, ecologists, anthropologists to economists, physicians, physicists and more who are happy to provide comment and analysis.

Have a look at members' profiles to see whose areas of expertise match what you need, or contact communications officer Julia Day on +44 (0)1273 876814 or 07974 209148 or j.day@ids.ac.uk, who will help you find an expert as quickly as possible.

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Images, video, audio and more

From a climate change project in Kenya to urbanisation in India, STEPS Centre offers images, audio and video to accompany reports and to help accurately reflect our work around the world. We have an archive of quality still images taken by our own researchers during their work. This material is for editorial use only.

To request an image or other material (for editorial use only) email the media centre or call us on +44 (0)1273 876814.

Watch STEPS Centre videos

Listen to STEPS Centre podcasts

Look at STEPS Centre Flickr photo collection

Briefing papers and reports

Our Research Briefings offer easily-digestible summaries of our research. They are available to download from our publications page

Or sign up for the Briefings to be delivered direct to your inbo as soon as they are published by sending an email to: lyris@lyris.ids.ac.uk with the following line in the subject box:

subscribe steps-briefing YourFirstName YourLastName
e.g.   subscribe steps-briefing Emily Smith

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STEPS in the news

What the media have been saying about STEPS, and what STEPS has been saying in the media

General STEPS Centre coverage

• STEPS water and sanitation research featured in an article entitled Water Flows, in the Spring 2010 edition of Society Now
• Erik Millstone is interviewed on food security in piece entitled Social Studies in the Sunday Times supplement, Environment, Sustainability and the Food Supply Challenge. 18 April 2010
• GM crops: still not a panacea for poor farmers - in SciDev.net and The New Nation (Bangladesh) February 2010
• Climate change and you Video of Melissa Leach talking about climate change and development ahead of COP15
• Climate change and you Featuring STEPS water and sanitation research
• Food Sustainability: Modified opinions Erik Millstone's comments at a Royal Society of Chemistry debate reported in The Guardian's leader column, 4 Dec 2009
• Africa's biotechnology battle Book review by Ian Scoones & Dominic Glover, Nature, 13 August 2009
• The lessons of swine flu Comment piece by Ian Scoones in the Guardian, 10 May 2009
• Epidemics for all? Governing Health in a Global Age STEPS work featured in Eldis Health reporter, 10 March 2009
• How inclusive is knowledge? The Hindu covers the STEPS Knowledge Society debates, 11 January 2009
  Knowledge Society Debates today Deccan Herald, 9 January 2009
• Knowledge Society debate comes to town The Times of India. 3 January 2009
• Know can do Time Out Bangalore covers the Knowledge Society debates, 26 December 2009
  
• Lessons of Zimbabwe Mahmood Mamdani writes about Ian Scoones' IDS and PLAAS project on land reform in the London Review of Books. 4 December 2008
• Zimbabwe: Agriculture still key to recovery Ian Scoones quoted in Financial Gazette, Zimbabwe, 6 December 2008
• New book launched for Bamako 2008: Melissa Leach and Ian Scoones have written a piece for Global Forum Update on Research for Health Volume 5, entitled Health dynamics, innovation and the slow race to make technology work for the poor. The book will launched at the Global Ministerial Forum on Research for Health in Bamako, Mali, 17-19 November 2008
  
• Safety is just the start if we want good regulation

  Adrian Ely writes for "Food Ethics", the magazine of the Food Ethics Council, on the regulation of genetically modified foods. 

• Digging for Hope in Land Reform Ian Scoones talks to Inter Press Service, Johannesburg, about land reform in Zimbabwe
• Risking regulatory capture at the UK's Food Standards Agency? (pdf 144kb) Erik Millstone writes for The Lancet, with Tim Lang
• Lunch with The Lancet (56kb) Melissa Leach, director of the STEPS Centre, in conversation with the Lancet's Priya Shetty.
  Vol 371, 21 June 2008
• Melissa Leach writes on haemorrhagic fevers for Wellcome History (pdf 70kb) May 2008
• Building genuine pathways to a more secure future
  Melissa Leach writes for the ESRC's The Edge magazine, Spring 2008, Issue 27
• Water, the ethics of efficiency Lyla Mehta writes for Food Ethics magazine about whether our food is too thirsty. Spring 2008 (pdf 2MB)
• Hard to Swallow Melissa Leach talks to New Scientist about her work on vaccine anxeties
• New Agriculturist: Farmer First Revisited Podcast
• New Agriculturist: Programme for African radio stations (Farmer First Revisited is fourth item)
• Can science sustain our world? BBC Radio 4's Material World asks STEPS co-director Andy Stirling and three other scientists about the role of science in sustaining and preserving Earth (3.01.08).
• Accomodating dissent Melissa Leach writes for Nature on vaccination
• Vaccination dissent - Nature podcast with Melissa Leach talks about vaccination dissent on the Nature podcast
• Lagging behind Linda Waldman writes for the Guardian on the House of Lords asbestos-related disease ruling
• Gerry Bloom interviewed in Real Health News about his work in China (pdf 1,380kb)
• Foot & mouth Erik Millstone writes for the Guardian
• Biotechnology crops and small farmers Erik Millstone talks to CNN's Principal Voices
• The STEPS Centre's approach to development Melissa Leach talks to the Guardian Weekly. Download the podcast (MP3 28.7MB)
• Village Voice The Guardian interviews Melissa Leach about putting local knowledge first, her passion for anthropology and the STEPS Centre.
• Path-finder Andy Stirling, co-director of the STEPS Centre, interviewed in The Engineer magazine
• Steps towards better development Mark Tran writes about the launch of the STEPS Centre on Education Guardian online
• Science & development centre launched ResearchResearch
  
• Making big ideas possible Ian Scoones talks to CNN.com's Principal Voices about grassroots technology
• Making Technology Work for the Poor Melissa Leach speaks to the Guardian
• First class news The Guardian covers STEPS PhD courses
• Rattling the food chain STEPS member Erik Millstone interviewed about taking on the agri-food industry

Coverage from Towards a Green Revolution in Africa conference, Salzburg, April 08

• BBC World Service (1)
• BBC World Service (2)
• International Herald Tribune
• New Agriculturalist
• Reuters Africa
• The Guardian
• AllAfrica.com (1)
• AllAfrica.com (2)
• AllAfrica.com (3)
• New Scientist
• The Guardian world news podcast, UK: Ian Scoones speaks about the food crisis

Coverage from Veterinary Science, Transboundary Animal Disease and Market Access workshop, Pretoria, South Africa, April 08

• IRIN, Africa: Beefing up for a Revolution
• The Herald, Zimbabwe: Beef Industry Under the Spotlight
• New Era, Namibia: VCF Hampers Market Access
• Sunday News, Zimbabwe: Commodity trade to improve beef exports
• Sunday News Zimbabwe: African farmers missing out on global boom
• Landbou Weekblad, South Africa: Afrika uit vleisrevolusie geboelie?
• Landbou Weekblad, South Africa: Oorgrens dieresiektes bekyk
• New Agriculturist, UK: 'My Perspective' by Dr Babagana Ahmadu
• Developments magazine, UK: What's the Beef?
• Veterinary Times, UK: Taking Steps to Fairer Trade page 1 / page 2 / page 3
• AllAfrica.com
• Reuters Alertnet
• Plus coverage in The Citizen, South Africa; Farmer's Weekly, South Africa; Financial Mail, South Africa

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Fast Facts

Our Fast Facts page answers frequently asked questions about the STEPS Centre.

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