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 engagement 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.