Was there such a thing as ‘the good old days’ when people were happier? Are current Government policies more or less likely to increase their citizens’ feelings of wellbeing? Using innovative methods researchers have built a new index that uses data from books and newspaper to track levels of national happiness from 1820. Their research could help governments to make better decisions about policy priorities.

Nine free workshops and events are being hosted by Warwick researchers from 2 – 9 November 2019 as part of the UK-wide ESRC Festival of Social Science. Festival-goers can find out about how our understanding of DNA might shape the future of healthcare, share a refugee’s frightening journey across the Mediterranean by sea, dig deep into archive recordings of the Coventry accent, explore the impact of landmark legal cases through art, photography and theatre, or take a guided walk on Coventry’s wild side to explore the local environment.

Better ways to support young people as they leave the care system and become independent adults are at the heart of a major new research project led by the Monash Warwick Alliance and supported by £2m grant from the Economic and Social Research Council.

Researchers at the University of Warwick have launched a fifth wave of their unique Futuretrack survey, a UK-wide project following undergraduates who took up their university places in 2006 or in 2007 (after a gap year) to get a clear picture of the opportunities and obstacles faced by the generation of students who graduated just after the 2008 financial crisis – and they want to encourage as many previous participants as possible to get back in touch.

Two projects led by Warwick researchers have been shortlisted for the 2019 Newton Prize, a prestigious award which celebrates outstanding international research partnerships aimed at tackling global challenges. A project exploring innovative cancer drugs and one studying the impact of forced evictions on economically underprivileged women in Jakarta are among the final 20 which will now be reviewed by a panel of expert judges.