Oxford and the Science Vale UK Campus: Building Capacity for Engagement with Science and Technology

Rapid technological change raises new and important questions about fundamental aspects of human nature. But how can these be identified and engaged?

We need to establish personal and institutional contacts and good working relationships among theologians, religious leaders, and those developing cutting-edge technology, especially in the fields of biomedical and information technology. Theological reflection on these developments can only happen if theologians are properly informed and able to grasp the scientific and religious significance of emerging technologies.

This project seeks to transform the quality, and increase the quantity, of serious engagement within the emerging science and technology sector in the United Kingdom. To this end, it will develop outreach to one of the most significant communities of researchers: the new science and technology campus based near Oxford, which is being developed in the area around Didcot, Culham, Harwell, and Appleford, particularly at the former site of the UK Atomic Energy Commission in Harwell, and at the Joint European Torus in Culham.

The project will aim to establish a presence there through the Ian Ramsey Centre, particularly by organizing lectures and discussion groups in science and religion, preferably on the campus itself. Two fundamental objectives of this project are to:

1) Increase science and religion awareness at through a flow of information from the Ian Ramsey Centre in Oxford to the Harwell technology campus.

2) Learn from the science and technology sector about advances in technology that may have theological implications through a flow of information from the Harwell campus to the IRC.