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Eurozone Inflation Rate: Is Inflation Worse In Europe Or The US?

Even after dropping off from the highs they’d seen earlier in 2022, gas prices were still causing consumers pain at … Read more

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Even after dropping off from the highs they’d seen earlier in 2022, gas prices were still causing consumers pain at the gas pump in late 2022. All Americans felt the sting of inflation at the grocery store, too, as 2022 saw heightened demand outpacing supply in many sectors. 

The inflation experts hoped would go away after 2021 was egged on further by stubborn supply chain issues and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – which continues to instill fear and uncertainty in the global economy.

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Even with core inflation dropping below 6% for the first three months of 2023, experts anticipate the Federal Reserve will push one more rate hike into effect before the year’s end to curb inflation. Remember that the Fed’s target inflation rate is just 2%, so the 5% increase in the all-items index in the CPI’s March report is still above what it should be. 

But could it be worse? As it turns out, it absolutely could.

Key Takeaways

  • Many experts initially thought inflation in the U.S. would be more stubborn than in Europe because of pandemic-era stimulus checks and higher demand levels. 
  • The Russian invasion of Ukraine changed this situation. Europe’s proximity to Russia and reliance on Russian exports are at least partially responsible for inflation in the eurozone. 
  • Inflation creates unique concerns for investors, whether they’re trying to invest in foreign markets with the U.S. dollar or contemplating the economic consequences of a global recession on the U.S. stock market. 

Is inflation worse in the eurozone or the U.S.?

Overall, inflation is worse in the eurozone than in the U.S. When we look at individual countries in the eurozone, though, we see that the U.S. ranks above some European countries while it ranks below others. 

Inflation in the U.S. in March 2023 was up 5.0% year-over-year. Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, has predicted the eurozone will have an annual inflation rate of 6.9% for the month of March. The official data for Europe should be released later this month.  

If we only look at G20 European countries, the U.S.’s inflation rate doesn’t look so bad compared to most. For greater accuracy, we’ll only use official inflation numbers from February 2023. 

  • Italy: 9.8%
  • Germany: 9.3%
  • United States: 6.0%
  • France: 7.3%

Other eurozone countries that are suffering from worse inflation than the U.S. include: 

  • Estonia: 17.8%
  • Lithuania: 17.2%
  • Latvia: 20.1%
  • Netherlands: 8.9%
  • Slovakia: 15.4%
  • Austria: 11.0%
  • Portugal: 8.6%
  • Slovenia: 9.4%
  • Greece: 6.5%
  • Ireland: 8.1%
  • Cyprus: 6.7%
  • Finland: 8.0%

While it’s no longer in the eurozone, inflation in the UK was up to 10.4% in February 2023.

Why is Inflation Higher in Europe? 

Over the last year, inflation has been a persistent problem across the globe. The pandemic and its related supply chain issues spurred the issue initially. During the pandemic, the U.S. government issued stimulus checks to help people struggling with unemployment and stimulate economic activity. 

However, stimulus checks partially encourage inflation by increasing demand for products whose supply chains were interrupted by the pandemic. 

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 also contributed to inflation, but it didn’t affect all economies equally. The energy and food sectors are two of the most significant areas where we saw inflation worldwide after the invasion. 

Ukraine is known as the breadbasket of Europe. Huge populations outside of Europe depend on Ukrainian exports for sustenance, too, but the eurozone was hit particularly hard after the war began.

The U.S. and Russian Energy

While large swaths of the planet are varying degrees of dependent on Russian oil and natural gas, European countries were some of the hardest hit after they imposed sanctions on Russia after the invasion. 

The U.S. had always depended less on Russia for resources like natural gas and food – even before the aggressive sanctions it placed on Russia throughout 2022. Petroleum imports from Russia accounted for 8% of the U.S.’s supply in 2021. The U.S. has its own strategic petroleum reserve (SPR), which President Biden drew from throughout 2022 to stabilize gas prices. 

Part of why the U.S. is less dependent on Russia is pure necessity. Natural gas is a difficult commodity to transfer. The U.S. is far enough removed from Europe geographically that, over the decades, it has had to build its own infrastructure in this regard. It also helps that Canada has a booming natural gas industry in the North American continent.

The geographic distance also makes it harder for the U.S. to provide this resource to its European allies when they need it most. As winter crept into the European continent’s northern latitudes, the demand for these energy resources increased, worsening the supply problem – and, by extension, inflation. 

How has Europe Battled Inflation? 

Monetary policy in Europe looks much like it does in the U.S. The Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank (Europe’s Fed equivalent) aggressively raised rates throughout 2022 to combat inflation. 

Lowering inflation is one possible outcome of these rate hikes, but another probable outcome is a recession. 

People tend to spend less when borrowing becomes too expensive, which can drive inflation down. But as consumers spend less money, companies’ profit margins tend to shrink, resulting in layoffs as corporations attempt to trim their budget by cutting labor costs. When employment is hard to obtain, income becomes more scarce, making it even harder to afford essential goods.

The good news is that these monetary policies appear to be lowering inflation. Experts feared that if inflation hadn’t decreased and the U.S. or EU called a recession, it would result in more people with less money competing for already-too-expensive necessities. Instead, most countries in the EU have seen their inflation rate going down in recent months. 

This is only true for some countries, though. For example, Latvia has not been able to bring its annual inflation rate below 20% for the past five months. Early estimates of March inflation data suggest they’ll finally get under that threshold, but we’ll have to wait to see. 

Germany, too, has yet to see its annual inflation rate drop as quickly as a country like Belgium. In fact, Germany’s inflation rate increased by 0.1% between January and February of 2023, though Eurostat estimates the rate will drop by 1.5% for March to 7.8%. 

What Does European Inflation Mean for Your Investments? 

Global recessions have a significant impact on international markets. When people aren’t feeling great about their pocketbooks, they’re less likely to throw money into the market. That could be due to anxieties about what’s to come or because they already don’t have the extra cash to invest today. 

Recessions can lead to vicious cycles in which investors become nervous about future profits for corporations and pull their money out of the market, further driving it down.  

The U.S. stock market is seen as one of the most stable in the world, attracting investors from around the globe. Many experts have expressed fear that with Europeans feeling the pinch of inflation, it could mean fewer foreign dollars entering U.S. companies. This would further reduce demand and stock prices. 

Inflation – regardless of which country is experiencing it – also makes it difficult for investors to confidently assess the value of a company versus the value of the stock. Less confident investors tend to be skittish, opting for safer investments or – particularly for retail investors – keeping more cash on hand. 

Should I Keep Investing Even Though Inflation Has Been So High? 

Market downturns are part of the plan when you’re a long-term investor. While they’re not fun to live through, periods of inflation and recession will happen over a 30-year-plus time horizon. The old adage in investment communities still rings true. Time in the market is better than trying to time the market. 

While inflation, global conflict, and the potential of recession are all undeniably scary, they’re all things that have happened before. The U.S. stock market has always recovered and then some. For example, inflation, global conflict, and economic hardships overlapped during WWII, but after things turned peaceful, we saw all three burdens ease for Americans.

If you’re investing in European markets, your dollar may go further when the euro weakens. In times of high inflation, the U.S. dollar strengthens with higher interest rates. Global investors seek a safe place to store their money in U.S. bonds and equities. This phenomenon helped the USD reach parity with the euro this year for the first time since 2002. 

The Bottom Line

Inflation is worse in most of Europe than in the U.S. Still, that doesn’t mean either region is doing well in the battle against rising prices. During times like these, it’s normal to feel anxious about your investments – even if you know that times of economic hardship are a part of your long-term investing plan.

We’ll have to wait for certain development, including how some European countries will continue to respond to higher interest rates and whether the Federal Reserve will push through another rate hike before the end of 2023. 

The inflation we’re seeing today was partially caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, pandemic-related stimulus checks, and supply chain issues caused by the pandemic. As supply and demand imbalances shake out over time, inflation will hopefully continue to wane. 

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EUR/AUD bearish breakdown supported by additional China fiscal stimulus and AU inflation

Weak PMI readings from the Eurozone, an increase in China’s budget deficit ratio, and renewed inflationary pressures in Australia may trigger a persistent…

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October 24, 2023

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  • Weak PMI readings from the Eurozone, an increase in China’s budget deficit ratio, and renewed inflationary pressures in Australia may trigger a persistent bearish sentiment loop in EUR/AUD.
  • Watch the key short-term resistance at 1.6700 for EUR/AUD.
  • A break below 1.6250 key medium-term support on the EUR/AUD may trigger a multi-week bearish impulsive down move.

The Euro (EUR) tumbled overnight throughout the US session as it erased its prior gains against the US dollar recorded on Monday, 23 October; the EUR/USD shed -104 pips from yesterday’s intraday high of 1.0695 to close the US session at 1.0591, its weakest performance in the past seven sessions.

Yesterday’s resurgence of the USD dollar strength has been attributed to a robust set of October flash manufacturing and services PMI data from the US in contrast with weak readings seen in the UK and Eurozone that represented stagflation risks.

Interestingly, the Aussie dollar (AUD) has outperformed the US dollar where the AUD/USD managed to squeeze out a minor daily gain of 21 pips by the close of yesterday’s US session. The resilient movement of the AUD/USD has been impacted by positive news flow out from China, Australia’s key trading partner.

China’s national legislature has just approved a budgetary plan to raise the fiscal deficit ratio for 2023 to around 3.8% of its GDP which was above the initial 3% set in March and set to issue additional sovereign debt worth 1 trillion yuan in Q4. This latest round of additional fiscal stimulus suggests that China’s top policymakers are expanding their initial targeted measures to address the ongoing severe liquidity crunch in the domestic property market as well as to reverse the persistent weak sentiment inherent in the stock market.

In addition, the latest set of Australia’s inflation data surpassed expectations has also reinforced another layer of positive feedback loop in the Aussie dollar which in turn may put Australia’s central bank, RBA on a “hawkish guard” against cutting its policy cash rate too soon.

The less lagging monthly CPI Indicator has risen to an annualized rate of 5.6% in September, above consensus estimates of 5.4%, and surpassed August’s reading of 5.2% which has translated into a second consecutive month of uptick in inflationary growth.

In the lens of technical analysis, a potential bearish configuration setup has emerged in the EUR/AUD cross pair from a short to medium-term perspective.

Major uptrend phase of EUR/AUD is weakening

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Fig 1: EUR/AUD medium-term trend as of 25 Oct 2023 (Source: TradingView, click to enlarge chart)

Even though the price actions of the EUR/AUD have been oscillating within a major ascending channel since its 25 August 2023 low of 1.4285 and traded above the key 200-day moving average so far, the momentum of this up movement is showing signs of bullish exhaustion.

Yesterday (24 October) price action ended with a daily bearish reversal “Marubozu” candlestick coupled with the daily RSI momentum indicator that retreated right at a significant parallel resistance in place since March 2023 at the 65 level which suggests a revival of medium-term bearish momentum.

EUR/AUD bears are now attacking the minor ascending support

Fig 2: EUR/AUD minor short-term trend as of 25 Oct 2023 (Source: TradingView, click to enlarge chart)

The EUR/AUD has now staged a bearish price action follow-through via the breakdown of its minor ascending support from its 29 September 2023 low after a momentum bearish breakdown that was flashed earlier yesterday (24 October) during the European session as seen from the 4-hour RSI momentum indicator.

Watch the 1.6700 key short-term pivotal resistance (also the 50-day moving average) for a further potential slide toward the intermediate supports of 1.6460 and 1.6320 in the first step.

On the other hand, a clearance above 1.6700 invalidates the bearish tone to see the next intermediate resistance coming in at 1.6890.

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GigXR partners with NUS Medicine to deliver holographic clinical scenarios for gastroenterology training

GigXR, Inc., a global provider of holographic healthcare training, announced today its partnership with the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University…

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October 24, 2023

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GigXR, Inc., a global provider of holographic healthcare training, announced today its partnership with the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine), one of the world’s leading medical schools, to introduce a new gastrointestinal module for the award-winning HoloScenarios application. Created to better prepare medical and nursing students in diagnosing and treating acute gastrointestinal diseases, HoloScenarios: Gastrointestinal delivers evidence-based, robust clinical simulations that present hyperrealistic holographic simulated patients and medical equipment to be used in any physical learning environment, accessed anywhere in the world.

Credit: Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine), and GigXR

GigXR, Inc., a global provider of holographic healthcare training, announced today its partnership with the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine), one of the world’s leading medical schools, to introduce a new gastrointestinal module for the award-winning HoloScenarios application. Created to better prepare medical and nursing students in diagnosing and treating acute gastrointestinal diseases, HoloScenarios: Gastrointestinal delivers evidence-based, robust clinical simulations that present hyperrealistic holographic simulated patients and medical equipment to be used in any physical learning environment, accessed anywhere in the world.

Going beyond linear step-based training traditionally seen with virtual reality (VR), HoloScenarios: Gastrointestinal uses mixed reality (MR) to simulate the entire patient journey, while including branching logic to catalyze variance in learning experiences. From taking basic medical history to performing invasive testing and emergency procedures, the new module empowers learners to master vital medical decision-making and manual skills as they would see them in real-life clinical scenarios and patient care.

HoloScenarios: Gastrointestinal is created in collaboration with renowned medical professionals and educators from NUS Medicine who specialize in the fields of Gastrointestinal (GI) Surgery and holographic medical training. The module is delivered by the Gig Immersive Learning Platform, the enterprise-scale platform enabling the creation, curation, and sharing of immersive training applications and modules made by the world’s preeminent healthcare institutions and MR developers.

“Gastrointestinal pathologies can be complex and challenging to diagnose. This module will allow learners to form a deeper understanding and appreciation of the gastrointestinal tract, especially the three-dimensional understanding of anatomy and body functions,” said Associate Professor Alfred Kow Wei Chieh from the school’s Department of Surgery and Assistant Dean (Education) at NUS Medicine. “We believe mixed reality is the next evolution in healthcare training, and collaborating with immersive platform innovators like GigXR helps us to bring this vital content to more learners globally and, ultimately, improve patient care.”

With international medical and surgical credentials that include MBBS (S’pore), M Med (Surg), FRCSEd (Gen Surg), FAMS, and FACS, Associate Professor Kow has trained thousands of healthcare professionals and advanced surgical fellows. He received the 2023 REAL Advancing in Liver Transplantation Award for his contributions to global liver transplantation education and is a founding member of The Holomedicine® Association.

“GigXR has one of the most advanced and comprehensive platforms in mixed reality, especially in medical training, and enables the exchange of developments, innovation, and expertise with a wider community across Asia and beyond,” added Associate Professor Kow. He is also the Head and Senior Consultant of the Division of Hepatobiliary & Pancreatic Surgery, Department of Surgery, at Singapore’s National University Hospital (NUH), the teaching hospital of NUS Medicine.

The new module also delivers enhanced realism in training learners to more accurately diagnose and treat acute gastrointestinal diseases. Whereas VR has been widely used in gastroenterology training for linear step-based skills, such as in endoscopic procedures, it is limited in its ability to simulate fully realized clinical scenarios. Holographic patient simulation in MR merges hyper-realistic holograms in physical learning spaces that accurately reflect the clinical environment and tools with which learners will care for real patients.

With HoloScenarios: Gastrointestinal, learners can interact with the holographic simulated patients, holographic medical equipment, instructors, and each other. This allows them to master both technical and soft skills, such as patient empathy and team communication, in hyper-realistic, safe-to-fail environments that reduce cognitive load. If the holographic patient displays the need for further care, such as a definitive surgery, learners can discuss a definitive treatment plan.

To gain a deeper evaluation of outward symptoms, co-located learners can safely walk around the patient hologram that is displayed on top of their real-world surroundings. Whereas VR locks learners into a virtual “box,” MR enables clear visibility and awareness of physical surroundings. This allows learners to move freely without fear of physical collisions and safety so they can fully focus on learning key gastrointestinal treatment, diagnostic, and communication skills with peers and instructors.

“In healthcare, educators are not only trying to help learners master and retain vital knowledge, but recall and apply it when a patient’s life may be at risk,” said Dr. Gao Yujia, MBBS (S’Pore), MRCS, FRCSEd, Consultant and Assistant Group Chief Technology Officer at Singapore’s National University Health System, and Vice Chairman of The Holomedicine® Association. “With HoloScenarios: Gastrointestinal, learners will have the ability to not only visualize the presentation of a given disease in 3D but better understand how to apply key learnings in the clinical context and within team environments.” Dr Gao is also the Director of Undergraduate Medical Education for Surgery at NUS Medicine.

With scenarios across gastrointestinal pathologies that include gastrointestinal bleeding, intestinal obstruction, and chronic liver failure, learners can master complex and potentially critical situations. They can learn, for example, how to stabilize patients who are dehydrated, bleeding, or septic, as well as the types of diagnostic procedures that may then be required to get a definitive diagnosis. Using mixed reality headsets or any Android, iOS smartphone or tablet, learners can access HoloScenearios: Gastrointestinal from anywhere for remotely distributed, yet highly immersive simulation.

“Immersive technology has accelerated the sharing of expertise for teaching, training, and simulation. Mixed reality, with its natural propensity to facilitate hyperrealistic, safe, and collaborative learning, continues to accelerate both the quality and scale of training outcomes,” said Jared Mermey, CEO of GigXR. “We are immensely proud to partner with NUS Medicine which has been at the forefront of adopting mixed reality in both clinical and educational use cases. By bringing their esteemed expertise onto our platform with the co-creation of HoloScenarios’ newest module, we believe clinical breakthroughs in diagnosing and treating gastrointestinal diseases will take a giant leap forward.”

Designed specifically for pedagogy, the Gig Immersive Learning Platform is trusted by over 70 enterprise-scale healthcare institutions across four continents to build full immersive curricula utilizing a robust content catalog – all of which is managed from a single dashboard. Third-party content developed by leading 3D medical partners, including DICOM Director, 3D4Medical by Elsevier, and ANIMA RES, seamlessly integrates with the platform to provide complementary, in-depth anatomy applications that empower learners with a broader physical context for the pathologies that they study.

“The Gig Immersive Learning Platform has quickly become the premier educational, social network for sharing healthcare training expertise in the immersive format, spanning global healthcare institutions and the Department of Defense to content developers and enterprises large and small,” said David King Lassman, Founder of GigXR. “HoloScenarios: Gastrointestinal marks the latest milestone in our rapidly expanding catalog, which now boasts a dozen different licensable training modules that span holographic simulated patients, clinical scenarios, anatomy, pathophysiology, and 3D medical imaging.”

NUS joins the University of Cambridge and Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH) NHS Foundation Trust, University of Michigan, and Morlen Health, a subsidiary of Northwest Permanente, P.C., as the world-class institutions partnering with GigXR to co-create holographic healthcare training. These simulations include modules centered around Respiratory diseases, Basic Life Support, Advanced Cardiac Life Support, Neurology scenarios, and now, with NUS, Gastrointestinal diseases.

GigXR and NUS Medicine plan to launch HoloScenarios: Gastro in Spring 2024. For more information on GigXR, visit GigXR.com or email sales@gigxr.com. For more information on NUS, visit nus.edu.sg.

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Public support for extending the 14-day rule on human embryo research indicated by foundational dialogue project

The findings of a foundational UK public dialogue on human embryo research are published today, Wednesday 25th October 2023, as part of the Wellcome-funded…

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October 24, 2023

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The findings of a foundational UK public dialogue on human embryo research are published today, Wednesday 25th October 2023, as part of the Wellcome-funded Human Developmental Biology Initiative (HDBI). The HDBI is an ambitious scientific endeavour to advance our understanding of human development. The dialogue project, which was co-funded by UKRI Sciencewise programme, engaged a diverse group of the public to consider how early human embryo research can be used to its fullest, the 14-day rule and the fast-paced field of stem cell-based embryo models.

Credit: Dr Matteo Molè (Babraham Institute)

The findings of a foundational UK public dialogue on human embryo research are published today, Wednesday 25th October 2023, as part of the Wellcome-funded Human Developmental Biology Initiative (HDBI). The HDBI is an ambitious scientific endeavour to advance our understanding of human development. The dialogue project, which was co-funded by UKRI Sciencewise programme, engaged a diverse group of the public to consider how early human embryo research can be used to its fullest, the 14-day rule and the fast-paced field of stem cell-based embryo models.

Headline findings include:

  • Appetite for review of the 14-day rule: Participants recognised that extending the 14-day rule could open up ways to achieve benefits in fertility and health, with participant support for reviewing this, including national discussion.
  • Confidence in regulation: There was a high level of confidence in how human embryo research is regulated, despite a low level of awareness of the regulators and statutes themselves. This included strong desire to see robust regulation governing any changes to the 14-day rule and further regulation for the use of stem cell-based embryo models.
  • Support for improved fertility and health outcomes: The strongest hopes for future human embryo research were where new knowledge would deliver improvements in understanding miscarriage, preventing health conditions such as spina bifida and raising the success rates of IVF procedures.
  • Concerns about genetically engineering humans: The public expressed concerns on the application of developments in this field to genetically alter or engineer humans.

The dialogue engaged a group of 70 people broadly reflective of the UK population in over 15 hours of activities including a series of online and face-to-face workshops with scientists, ethicists, philosophers, policy makers and people with relevant lived experience (such as embryo donors from IVF procedures).

Dr Peter Rugg-Gunn, scientific lead for the HDBI and senior group leader at the Babraham Institute, said: “Recent scientific advances bring incredible new opportunities to study and understand the earliest stages of human development. To ensure this research remains aligned with society’s values and expectations, we must listen and respond to public desires and concerns. This public dialogue is an important first step and as a scientist I am reassured by the findings but there is still a long way to go to fully understand this complex issue.” 

The report is exceedingly timely, following notable scientific advances in human developmental biology presented at conferences and in leading scientific journals in recent months. As well as generating excitement in scientific fields and with the public, announcement of these breakthroughs also prompted some concerns and criticisms, with the view that these findings raised significant ethical issues. The dialogue provides insight into public considerations following deliberation on early human embryo research. The hope is that it will act as a foundational reference point that others in the sectors can build upon, such as in any future review of the law on embryo research.

Professor Robin Lovell-Badge, co-chair of the HDBI Oversight group, senior group leader and head of the Laboratory of Stem Cell Biology and Developmental Genetics at the Francis Crick Institute, said: “We have learnt a lot about human development before 14 days, but there are areas of investigation that could change how we understand development, and associated diseases, that lie beyond our current window of knowledge. Despite low awareness of current laws, members of the public quickly recognised many of the critical issues researchers are keenly aware of when it comes to growing embryos beyond the current limit. This dialogue also reinforced the fact that the public are in support of research that will yield better health outcomes, and in this case, increase the success of IVF procedures.

Other countries will be looking to the UK to see how we deal with the 14-day rule; we are not there yet with any mandate to make a change, but this does give a strong pointer. The next step will be to delve deeper into some of the topics raised through this dialogue as they apply to specific areas of research, as well as feeding into policy changes.”

The 14-day rule and the regulation of stem cell-based models

When considering the regulation of research involving human embryos, the dialogue explored participant’s views on the 14-day rule. Introduced in 1990, the 14-day rule is a limit enforced by statute in the UK. It applies to early human embryos that are donated by consent to research and embryos that are created for research from donated sperm and eggs. It limits the amount of time early human embryos can be developed in a laboratory for scientific study to 14 days after fertilisation. Due to technical advances, it is now possible to grow embryos in the lab past 14 days, but researchers are not allowed to by the law. If the law changed, it would open up this ‘black box’ of development with researchers able to investigate this crucial time in development from 14-28 days after fertilisation.

Professor Bobbie Farsides, co-chair of the HDBI Oversight group and Professor of Clinical and Biomedical Ethics at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School, said: “It has been a fascinating experience to support HDBI in the undertaking of this exercise.  I commend the participants for the care and mutual respect they have shown throughout. Their engagement and commitment to a subject few of them had previously considered allowed for a wide range of views to be expressed and considered. I hope the scientists involved will be encouraged by the high level of interest in their work, and will want to keep the public conversation going around these important subjects.”

The dialogue included participant discussion on what a change to the 14-day rule might look like, and identified points that should be considered, such as defining what the benefits of extending the rule would be and potential mis-alignment with human embryo research regulations in other countries.

Participants acknowledged the astonishing possibilities of stem cell-based embryo models. The majority of participants would like to see these models further regulated. Work in establishing potential governance mechanisms is already underway. In recognition of the need for additional guidance and regulation in this area, the Cambridge Reproduction initiative launched a project in March 2023 to develop a governance framework for research using stem cell-based embryo models and to promote responsible, transparent and accountable research.

Future steps

A key outcome from the public dialogue is the identification of areas for further exploration, with participants proposing how future national conversations might be shaped. It is hoped that the project acts as a reference base for both widening engagement with the subject and also prompting deeper exploration of areas of concern.

Dr Michael Norman, HDBI Public Dialogue coordinator and Public Engagement Manager at the Babraham Institute, said: “This dialogue shows that people want the public to work closely with scientists and the government to shape both future embryo research legislation and scientific research direction. It is crucial that others in the sector build on these high quality, two-way engagement methodologies that allow for a genuine exchange of views and information to ensure that the public’s desires and concerns are listened to and respected. Transparency and openness around science is vital for public trust and through this we, as a society, can shape UK research in way that enriches the outcomes for all.”

Public Participant (Broad public group, south) said: “I do think that an extension of this public dialogue, and educating a wider society has a benefit in itself. This is really complex and sensitive and the wider you talk about it before decisions are made, the better.”

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