POSTnotes: the University’s work with the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology
The University’s work with the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST)

The core objective of the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) is to supply trusted and impartial analysis to the UK Parliament.
Its work is used to inform both the House of Commons and House of Lords and its advisers are in constant contact with leading experts from academia, industry, government, the third sector and beyond.
That process – which includes horizon scanning and literature reviews, contextualising research evidence, and peer reviewing – ensures POST is aware of emerging topics of interest in the science community and can begin to work with Government to address them.
POSTnotes are the organisation’s flagship report, a four-page briefing reviewing emerging areas of research, the challenges they may pose and the solutions potentially required to address them.
Since 2016, our world-leading research has been showcased through POSTnotes in climate change, microplastics, offshore renewable energy, natural hazards, and much more.
It is one of the many ways in which the University is helping to shape government policy, setting the national and international agenda on topics likely to impact society as a whole.
Professor Richard Thompson OBE
Plastic pollution is accumulating rapidly in the world’s oceans, and the potential effects of microplastics on the environment and human health are an area of active research. This POSTnote was co-written by Professor Richard Thompson OBE – whose seminal paper in 2004 was the first to mention microplastics in a marine context – and Dr Kayleigh Wyles, an environmental psychologist pioneering new ways of examining public relationships with environmental issues. It summarises their sources and spread, the evidence that they present a risk and possible strategies to reduce plastic pollution.
READ MORE: https://post.parliament.uk/research-briefings/post-pn-0528/