New European Voices on Existential Risk
The New European Voices on Existential Risk (NEVER) project aims to attract, nurture and sustain new talent and ideas from wider Europe on nuclear issues, climate change, biosecurity and emerging disruptive technologies (EDTs), and to connect this talent pipeline with wider debates on existential risks facing humanity.
What will the project do?
Attract new talent to work on nuclear issues as part of a broader approach to existential risk, i.e. threats that could lead to human or planetary extinction.
Nurture this talent by convening a network dedicated to existential risk, integrating it with other ELN networks and providing connections to policymakers, developing skills through seminars and mentoring.
Sustain interest and ideas on nuclear topics, by building lasting links with expert and policy ecosystems, drawing on mid-career and late-career role-models and mentors to help identify career paths, and integrating nuclear work with other relevant fields.
How will we carry out the project?
- We have recruited a network of 36 diverse new European voices on existential risk. Our members come from all over Europe and beyond, with a geographic range spanning from Brazil to China.
- We will convene roundtables and seminars with a broader ecosystem of partners.
- Co-create recommendations for decision-makers to translate long-term risk into steps that can be taken now.
- Publish commentaries from new and emerging voices.
- Share resources with accessible language and creative multimedia formats.
Why is this important?
Nuclear war has the potential to end human life as we know it – through mass casualties and through cascading effects on the world’s economies and societies. Yet the nuclear policy field has been shrinking in recent years and much of the thinking is stuck in 20th century paradigms.
We believe that more talent and fresh thinking from the field of existential risk needs to be applied to the problems of nuclear policy to prevent possible catastrophe.
Nuclear policy could benefit from new and more diverse talent, and from linkages with thinkers, doers, scholars, activists and entrepreneurs who are seeking to address other existential risks to humanity, such as those from climate change, biological threats, or AI.
It is not only about developing the nuclear field specifically, but developing expertise on nuclear issues among a wider set of people working for a safer future – so that this expertise is not siloed and is integrated with wider thinking about protecting our shared future.
How are we measuring progress?
- Feedback from participants and other stakeholders.
- Measuring the reach of the project to university students.
- Number of recommendations produced and feedback from decision makers.
Who's involved? - Staff
Who's involved? - The NEVER members
Rebecca Donaldson
Technology Strategy Consultant at Cambridge Consultants
United Kingdom
Safia Sangster
Senior Policy associate at the UK Equality and Human Rights Commission.
United Kingdom
Shane Ward
Master's Student and Third Nuclear Age Project Lead at International Student/Young Pugwash (ISYP)
United Kingdom
Funders
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Macarthur Foundation
Go to website
Commentaries
Commentary
Why aren’t young people engaged in nuclear disarmament?
In our latest commentary from our New European Voices on Existential Risk (NEVER) network, Michaela Higgins Sørensen explores and refutes the claim that young people are not interested in the nuclear space and calls for the sector to provide the appropriate support for young people to engage in the world of nuclear disarmament successfully.
Commentary
Could establishing Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) systems for nuclear security in the EU improve existential risk resilience?
Nicholas Moulios, from the ELN’s New European Voices on Existential Risk (NEVER) Network, has written the ELN’s first commentary as part of this project. He explores the capabilities of OSINT systems for assessing and mitigating potential nuclear disasters, and how these emerging technologies can be harnessed to improve existential risk resilience in Europe and beyond.
Commentary
How can we help science to save the world?
To launch the ELN’s new project “NEVER”, which seeks to unite young people working on global catastrophic risk from across Europe, Lord Martin Rees writes on the need for an alliance between science and the public sphere and the role young individuals and activists can play in this.
Commentary
Network reflections: What one thing could the world do to turn back the Doomsday Clock?
Today the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists have announced the Doomsday Clock 2023 and how close we are to midnight. We asked some of our network members what can be done to turn back the clock and avert a man-made global catastrophe.
Commentary
Pillar III: the quiet success story of the NPT RevCon
In contrast to the disappointing outcomes of the non-proliferation and disarmament pillars of the 2022 Review Conference, a significant reinvigoration took place in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy pillar. Olamide Samuel writes that Pillar III offered progressive solutions by identifying how the treaty plays a role in mitigating some of the most pressing human and environmental security issues of our time and could help inform mechanisms for cooperation and success in future RevCons.
Commentary
Leadership for a more resilient future: In conversation with Steve Killelea and Lord Des Browne
In September, between International Peace Day, UN General Assembly Week and the COP climate summit, the ELN and the Institute for Economics and Peace convened an intergenerational group of leaders to identify the kinds of leadership that are needed to confront the global challenges facing humanity.
Events
Event
NEVER: Climate politics and great power competition
Members of the NEVER network convened on Thursday, the 24th of August, to discuss climate change, climate change governance, and the role of great power competition in aggravating this existential risk, with NEVER coordinator, Edan Simpson, chairing the meeting.
Event
NEVER: AI Roundtable
NEVER members gathered for a roundtable discussion of AI and its role in aggravating existential risks.
Event
NEVER: June meeting
In June NEVER members gathered for a discussion of internal logistical matters in relation to running the network.
Event
New European Voices on Existential Risk (NEVER): Inaugural meeting
In May, the ELN’s New European Voices on Existential Risk (NEVER) network convened for the first time for a discussion of existential risk, how policymakers should react to it, and why diverse voices matter in the existential risk space.