The Science and Technology Studies Cambridge Network (SCaN) emerged from a shared desire to connect and support interdisciplinary scholars working at the intersection of Science Technology and Society across the University of Cambridge. Since its informal beginnings during the 4S–EASST conference in Amsterdam in July 2024, SCaN has grown into a cross-institutional community engaging in events ranging from seminars to social and cultural outings. The network is led by Dr Valeria Ramirez, with the support of a Cambridge dedicated steering group, UK and international STS scholars.

Download the SCaN Brief 2026 here

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 What does Science, Technology and Society look like in Cambridge?

Cambridge has the scientific density, institutional reach and global reputation to lead — but its potential to engage Science, Technology and Society remains largely unexploited. This report presents findings from the SCaN Fishbowl event, a full-day workshop that piloted the fishbowl discussion format to explore what a Science, Technology and Society (STS) agenda could look like in Cambridge. Organised by the Science and Technology Studies Cambridge Network (SCaN) and funded by the West Hub Small Grants Programme, the event brought together 47 participants across disciplines, institutions and career stages, combining two fishbowl discussions with a co-creative workshop. Findings show that STS could strengthen a distinctive voice in shaping how science and technology serve society — bridging policy, industry, teaching and place-based engagement, and extending the University’s influence beyond its own walls into the city, the region and the wider world. Four tensions were identified as barriers — critique versus collaboration, expertise versus lived experience, institutionalisation versus agility, and teaching versus research — but participants converged on a shared methodological identity capable of carrying this ambition forward. The findings suggest that sustained institutional support is now needed to turn this potential into a defining, outward-facing mission for Cambridge.

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Past and upcoming events

Planned for 2026-2027

  • The Atlas of STS Methods. Led by Dr Maya Indira Ganesh and Dr Lalitha Sundaram. Contributions are currently invited on STS methods, examples, teaching ideas and the future shape of the Atlas. Contribute to the Atlas. A Visiting Fellow is also expected to join SCaN next year to help develop this and related initiatives.
  • A Place for STS by Jane Calvert (provisional first read). SCaN and Discuss book club. Returning in Michaelmas 2026 under the care of Dr Chaitanya Erady and Dr Kavita Tiwari. Suggestions for books and formats are welcome. Join the Teams group.
  • A Sense of Place. Led by Dr Will Brown and Dr David Skinner (ARU). Returning in 2026–27 with new walks, visits and seminars exploring Cambridge as a science-led city, from Addenbrooke’s and the Old Cavendish to Cambridge West, the New Cavendish and Silicon Valley. Programme information.
  • SCaN–IfM–STS Buns talks. Returning in the 2026–27 academic year, bringing together colleagues from across Cambridge and beyond to share work in progress, discuss new ideas and connect across disciplines — accompanied, as ever, by the kind hospitality offered by the Institute for Manufacturing, Management, Technology and Policy (Department of Engineering) and chaired by Dr Valeria Ramirez. Programme and inaugural speaker to be announced.
  • Informal SCaN meet-ups. Informal gatherings at the start of each term for conversation, new faces and familiar ones over a drink. 1 October 2026 (Michaelmas); 14 January 2027 (Lent); Easter date TBC. No agenda, no presentations — simply an opportunity to meet and reconnect.
  • SCaN–HPS film night. Returning in the 2026–27 academic year in collaboration with the Department of History and Philosophy of Science. An evening screening followed by informal discussion, bringing together STS, HPS and adjacent communities. Film and date to be announced.
  • And more exciting events to be announced in our mailing list.

Past events

  • Mapping the “Economies of Worth” of academic impact: reframing value perceptions of knowledge exchange.’ Émile Provendier, CNRS/Huma-Num/Sciences Po, and Valeria Ramirez, SCaN–IfM–STS Buns talk. 17 July 2026, 10am. IfM Seminar Room 3, Alan Reece Building, 17 Charles Babbage Road, Cambridge CB3 0FS.
  • STS–PSP friendship pub night. Final gathering of the academic year, hosted by SCaN. 17 July 2026, 7.30pm. The Bath House, 3 Bene’t Street, Cambridge.
  • ‘How to Organize Inclusive Events and Conferences by Dr Alex D. Ketchum. Forthcoming, 28 May 2026. SCaN and Discuss book club: Link to book club 
  • Meet and Greet. Easter term. 20 April. 5h30. The Mill
  • The roles of government in artificial intelligence policy’. Dr Inga Ulnicane, Associate, Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, SCaN-IFM-STS- Buns talk. 13 March 2026. Post
  • SCaN–HPS film night: Screening of Soylent Green. 4 February 2026. Film details
  •  Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory by Bruno Latour. SCaN and Discuss book club:19 March 2026. Book details
  • ‘Sweet sustainability? Zero-deforestation regulation, food standards and the new chocolate supply chain challenge.’ Professor Allison Loconto, INRAE France, SCaN-IFM-STS- Buns talk. 28 November 2025. Post 
  • A fishbowl experiment of voices in flux: challenging knowledge structures and co-producing interdisciplinary research agendas in Science, Technology and Society at Cambridge. 27 November 2025 – Event page 
    • Report: Ramirez, V. (2026). Science, Technology & Society in Cambridge. A Fishbowl Experiment to co-producing an Interdisciplinary STS research agenda. Apollo – University of Cambridge Repository. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.132840 
  • SCaN members’ meet up. 23 September 2025
  • Panel on Science, Technology and Society (STS) Centres, organised by the UK Association for Studies in Innovation, Science and Technology (AsSIST-UK). Dr Valeria Ramirez, invited speaker. 3 June 2025. Details
  • Mind matters in the park: Artistic encounters with Dr Chaitanya Erady. May 2025
  • Exploring utopias and research cultures at STS-IfM workshop hosted by IfM/Department of Engineering and facilitated by Dr Anatolii Kozlov and Dr Helene Scott-Fordsmand from CultureLab. 23 May 2025. Link
  • Co-creation and STS methods: Walking seminar to Grantchester with Dr Helene Scott-Fordsmand and Dr Valeria Ramirez. 13 May 2025
  • ‘Auto-Correct: The Fantasies and Failures of AI, Ethics, and the Driverless Car’ SCaN-IFM-STS- Buns talk and book presentation by Dr Maya Indira Ganesh 8 March 2025 – Link
  • SHAPE in STEM Workshop: Crafting future pathways for collaboration West Hub small grants award; 17 participants. 7 February 2025
  • Where is the human in the data? Bridging STEM and AHSS – Hearts & Minds West Hub small grants award; 60 participants. 6 February 2025
    • Article ‘Lessons in love: what speed-dating taught us about interdisciplinary collaboration’ – published by the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology Review Link to article
    • Event information
    • Grant report: Bridging AHSS + STEM hearts and minds: unlocking interdisciplinary potential in West Cambridge.  https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.119832 
  • Whipple Museum private tour and Cavendish Laboratory visit hosted by HPS with Josh Nall and Dr Hannah Price; 17 participants 21 January 2025
  • Bridgmas gathering: STS towards 2025 convenors Louise Elstow and Valeria Ramirez 16 December 2024
  • SCaN-HPS Film night: “The Day After” (1983) screening and discussion moderated by Dr Jamie Allen, hosted by HPS 13 November 2024
  • Making collaborative radiation knowledge in Fukushima: can syncretism reinvigorate how we understand work between different groups?’ SCaN-IFM-STS- Buns talk, speaker Dr Louise Elstow 8 November 2024 Link
  • Guided walk around the expanding Biomedical Campus led by Dr Will Brown (CoU) and Dr David Skinner (ARU) 1 October 2024 – Details here
  • SCaN launch meeting at The Eagle 3 September 2024. To  learn more about how SCaN began here is a link to a PDF  
  • First gathering at the 4S–EASST conference in Amsterdam 18 July 2024

STS at Cambridge

The acronym STS is used to refer both to Science, Technology and Society and to Science and Technology Studies. The former conveys a broad conceptual perspective that encompasses interactions among organisations, businesses, institutions, and communities in relation to science and technology. The latter denotes an interdisciplinary academic field that draws on methods from the arts, humanities, and social sciences to examine the intertwined nature of science, technology, innovation, and society.

Science Technology and Society in Cambridge is articulated in a unique way, due to the nature of Cambridge as a Science-led City that makes visible alternative research outcomes in policy making, knowledge transfer and research commercialisation that are not yet explored by other bodies of knowledge. This is an exceptional opportunity study the thriving scientific and innovation Cambridge ecosystem and place it at the heart of the wider conceptual interdisciplinary framework of the Science and Technology Studies.

SCaN members

Emerging from the University of Cambridge, SCaN builds on the university’s strengths while extending beyond them. The network is open and inclusive, welcoming all who wish to engage with Science and Technology Studies in Cambridge and further afield. We work across the city’s vibrant innovation ecosystem and change making public sphere, having participation from partners in industry, community organisations, and policymaking. Together, our members foster research, dialogue and collaboration that connect scholarship with practice and generate wider societal impact.

The members of SCaN include scholars and practitioners from Engineering, History and Philosophy of Science (HPS), Computer Science and Technology, Sociology, the Scott Polar Research Institute, Archaeology, Education, the Kavli Centre for Ethics and Society, CRASSH, Centre for Existential Risk (CSER), The Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (CFI), The Centre for Science and Policy (CSaP), Think Lab, the Cambridge Gates Foundation, as well as the Wellcome Sanger Institute, and Anglia Ruskin University.

As an initial call to register interest, the organisers collected an anonymised list with affiliations and research interests. Interests expressed ranged from research topics (such as AI, big data, climate change, energy, robotics, genetics); applied knowledge (such as decision-making, mobility platforms, citizen participation, public deliberation, science communication, governance); to more philosophical orientations (pluralism in science, ethics, experimentation, anthropology of physics and astronomy, mathematics, epistemic (in)justice, trust).

SCaN contact

Members are connected through a mailing list with over 140 participants (SCaN Jiscmail): https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=STSCAMBRIDGENETWORK.

You can also connect via LinkedIn, or contact Valeria Ramirez with any queries.

The network is open and inclusive, welcoming all who wish to engage with Science and Technology Studies in Cambridge and further afield—everyone is invited to join, connect, and contribute.