Professor Ernestina Coast has been awarded LSE Urgency Funding for the project “Innovations in Self-Managed Abortion Care: User & Provider Experiences” (August 2025–August 2026). The research will explore user and provider perspectives to inform more responsive and inclusive approaches to abortion care, benefitting both service users and practitioners.

Professor Kathy Hochstetler was interviewed around the climate COP in Belém, Brazil. Brazil hosts COP30 with high ambitions and scaling environmental ambiguities (Mongabay), explores the political complexities behind Brazil’s climate positioning. China and Brazil aim to be climate leaders and keep polluting too (Bloomberg), examines how both countries balance climate ambition with ongoing emissions.

Professor Ken Shadlen gave an online seminar in October to a university in Buenos Aires, FLACSO as part of their Propiedad intelectual en América Latina y el Caribe series. The topic was secondary patents, challenges and responses. The talk was in Spanish with the title “Patentes secundarias en el área farmacéutica: desafíos y respuestas.” Watch a recording of the lecture here.

Dr Tine Hanrieder gave a presentation on ‘The Managed Migration of Health Professionals’ at the 9^th Summer School of Migration organised by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Tunisia. The presentation highlighted the limitations of present-day bilateral agreements in mitigating ‘brain drain’ and unequal exchanges between origin and destination countries.

Dr BooKang Seol’s project “Forests as Economic Infrastructure: The Economic Dividends of Reforestation in South Korea’s 1970s Industrialization” has been selected for funding under the 9th STEG SRG call. The award provides £25,000 over 12 months to support digitisation and research assistance. The project provides the first causal, micro-level evidence that reforestation acted as economic infrastructure in South Korea’s 1970s transformation – reducing disasters, boosting farm productivity, and freeing women’s and children’s time for education and market work.

Dr Lydia Assouad has been awarded £15,000 from the LSE Research and Innovation fund for her project “The Socio-Economic Impact of Water Scarcity: Evidence from Jordan”. The project uses original household survey data and quasi-experimental variation in water rationing schedules in Amman, Jordan, to causally estimate how chronic water scarcity affects households’ time use, wellbeing, labour supply, mental health, and children’s educational outcomes.