Citizens Having Their Say on Chemicals
TEAM
Annamaria Carusi set up Interchange Research IRL in order to extend science / policy discussions to citizens. Her consultancy has supported science teams to communicate across disciplines, methods, and sectors. She has an academic background, specialising in philosophy of science and technology, and in medical humanities. Her research combines qualitative empirical methods with conceptual analysis, and has focused on social and cultural aspects of the biosciences and their technologies, such as modelling, imaging, and data visualisation. Since 2018, she has gained extensive experience in the chemicals regulation sector supporting the integration of non-animal methods through facilitating cross-sector, cross-disciplinary collaboration. Her work bridging across science and policy has been published in several papers, including two policy reports published by the European Commission Joint Research Centre. At this point, she is acting on her passion to include citiziens in vital discussions about the impact of industrial chemicals on all of our lives.
Emma Chynoweth is co-Director of Interchange Research IRL. She has worked for over 40 years as a business journalist and editor specialising in the area of health and environmental impacts of chemicals in products - including over 15 years at Chemical Watch. She has also worked more broadly on sustainability and communications issues at Ocki Sustainability and Environment Analyst, with contributions such as OECD to coordinate work on economic impact of chemicals, and Rallying call to talk about the societal value of sustainability, She has a degree in chemistry and economics, and more recently studied Business Sustainability Management with the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL).
Citizen jury specialists
Andy Paice is a facilitator and engagement designer dedicated to advancing public participation and deliberative democracy. He has designed and delivered more than a dozen UK-based citizens’ assemblies, juries and deliberative panels in partnership with leading civic-participation organisations. His work spans local and national government levels, including climate assemblies, democracy commissions and hyper-local community engagement initiatives.
He has also advised high-profile initiatives such as the Austrian National Climate Assembly, supporting the use of digital platforms to scale citizen participation. Committed to translating dialogue into impact, Andy focuses on ensuring that citizen input is heard, acted upon and embedded in policy and practice. He currently serves as Head of Engagement at the civic-tech organisation CrownShy, which is partnering with the Scottish Government to enable quality public participation at scale.
Ben Redhead is an experienced facilitator and designer of deliberative participation processes, dedicated to creating spaces where people and communities can meaningfully shape the decisions that affect them. He has co-facilitated several national deliberative projects, including the National Citizens’ Assembly on Animal Welfare with the RSPCA, the National Citizens’ Assembly on Trade and Climate Policy with the Trade Justice Movement, and the Citizens’ Forum on MP Pay and Funding.
A former Director and current Associate of the Sortition Foundation, and co-founder of the International Network of Sortition Advocates (INSA). He also serves as an independent advisor to the Humanity Project, which seeks to establish a culture of deliberation through community-led assemblies across the UK.
Citizen Science specialist
Joseph Cook is an anthropologist and designer with an expertise in citizen social science. He is lead of the UCL Citizen Science Academy within the University College London's Institute for Global Prosperity, and has lectured on research methods across five UCL departments. He sits on UCL’s cross-faculty Citizen Science Working Group, and chairs the Citizen Science Working Group of the London Prosperity Board, which includes representatives from the private sector, third sector, and local government. He also leads on the development of new courses awarding the UCL Citizen Science Certificate.
Deeply committed to East London, Joseph is a director of Newham Citizen Science C.I.C which has hosted a family-oriented science fair in the London Borough of Newham since 2024. His previous community-centred work includes work with Queen Mary University’s Wolfson Institute of Population Health and acting as editorial coordinator for State of the Legacy, a report interrogating the long-term impact of the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Joseph has a professional and personal interest in health and wellbeing in the widest sense. He contributed to the Architecture of Pharmacies project and, drawing on his own experience as a London canal-boater, developed Navigating the System - a study into the unique healthcare challenges faced by the capital’s transient boat-dwelling community which culminated in an exhibition shown in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and Campus Condorcet, Paris.
He is currently authoring several publications focused on the transformative power of citizen science. His work specifically explores how these methodologies can up-skill individuals into research careers and bridge the gap between professional "experts" and community members with lived-experience expertise.