King’s College London’s social science research and teaching connects the UK Government’s ‘Health is Global’ strategy to the Economic & Social Research Council’s (ESRC) two strategic challenges, on ‘Health and Well-being’ and ‘Security, conflict and justice’, responding to both in interdisciplinary and innovative ways.

The Environment, Politics & Development Group of the Department of Geography hosts a number of funded – ESRC, BA, Nuffield, Department for International Development (DfID) – projects that seek to re-conceptualise traditional notions of national or military security in terms of the more people-centred approach to human security, particularly as it applies in the Global South.

The Conflict, Security and Development Group of the Department of War Studies focuses on the crucial linkages between human security and development in low and middle income countries. This group is committed to empirically grounded, policy orientated research. It has an outstanding track record in stakeholder engagement having worked closely with both the OECD and UK government in developing their security sector reform agenda.

The Institute of Gerontology, part of the Social Science Commons, researches ageing in a global context and its implications for public health. A recentlycompleted project examined ageing, health and support among older people in developing countries. In collaboration with colleagues from USA, Costa Rica and Spain the project sought to better understand how family structure, marriage and cohabitation are related to family support and health in later life by examining these relationships in settings in the developing world where demographic and social changes have profoundly transformed families.

The Centre for Biomedicine & Society (CBAS) also part of the Social Science Commons hosts an ESRC funded ‘rising powers’ network addressing the impact of China and India on state strategies of governance in global biomedical innovation. These emerging innovations hold the promise of significant impact on global public health, healthcare systems and economic restructuring. The network has been established to develop, test and refine with academics and policy makers a robust interdisciplinary framework for the analysis of competing state strategies of governance in global biomedical innovation capable of illuminating the position of China and India and the policy implications for the UK: a framework that can serve as the platform for the development of a large, case-study based research proposal. In addition, the rapid global development of the bioeconomy of the life sciences has produced a demand from those wishing to understand, analyse and engage with the scientific, social and ethical implications of this powerful new knowledge domain.