COP26 observer David Rapley in his lab at Sheffield University.

David Rapley research fellowship in Parliament

Congratulations to Grantham Scholar David Rapley on completing his Post Fellowship and co-authoring a report on genome-edited food crops. 

The Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) is an office of both UK Houses of Parliament, charged with providing independent and balanced analysis of policy issues that have a basis in science and technology.

David Rapley POST Fellowship

As the primary focus of his work at POST, David co-authored a report with his supervisor Dr Jonathan Wentworth (who is an Energy and Environment Adviser at POST). David’s responsibilities included writing the scope of the POSTnote and identifying relevant stakeholders to interview.

After receiving training from POST, David then interviewed the relevant stakeholders. Their expertise on the topic helped David draft the report, which he then sent back to them for external review, incorporating their feedback into the final report.

More on the Grantham Centre and POST

With help from Centre Manager Deborah Beck, a number of our people have worked with or at POST. Grantham Scholars are given advice on working with policy makers as part of our training programme.

Nicole Kennard also completed a POST Fellowship. In 2021, she worked with POST on a parliamentary briefing on pesticides, health and post-Brexit regulation. Read more: Nicole Kennard research fellowship in Parliament.

In 2020, Joe Llanos had three-month placement with POST and wrote a POSTnote. Joe’s note explains the need for a resilient UK food sector. Read A resilient UK food system: POSTnote by Grantham Scholar for more information.

Grantham Centre experts gave evidence to POST about both soil health and plastic food packaging in 2019. If you want to find out more then read: Our experts give evidence on soil and plastic to POST.

Samuel Leigh, POST Fellow for Energy and Environment, visited us back in 2017. While here, he discussed contributions for the note on Environmentally Sustainable Agriculture with Grantham Scholars and TUoS academics. Read: Grantham Centre colleagues contribute to POSTnote on Environmentally Sustainable Agriculture for more.


The main image is of David Rapley and is by Dora Damian.