The James Martin Institute (my office) is part of the James Martin 21st Century School, a collection of ten research centres in Oxford with the task ‘to think imaginatively and positively about the problems and the opportunities that the future will bring.’ The School includes, for instance, the Oxford Future of Humanity Institute and the Environmental Change Institute.

Recently, it appears that Baroness Susan Greenfield, head of the Royal Institute and Director of another section of the School, the Institute for the Future of the Mind, has been trying to make South Australia an international partner with the 21st Century School.

The School, like the Martin Institute, is keen on developing international links with similar institutions. The Martin Institute, for instance, has good connections with the University of Wisconsin, Madison’s Initiative on Nanotechnology and Society, Harvard’s Program on Science, Technology, and Society, and Arizona State’s Consortium for Science, Policy, and Outcomes.