Researchers from around the world have gathered at Cardiff University to explore how we understand, communicate, and act under uncertainty - and how those choices shape the future.
The Art and Science of Uncertainty and the Future: an interdisciplinary summer school brought together 35 early-career researchers from ten countries — Benin, China, France, Kenya, Luxembourg, Malawi, Nigeria, Taiwan, Turkey, and the UK.
Representing disciplines including psychology, architecture, law, engineering and statistics, participants explored a shared challenge: how we can better understand uncertainty and make decisions that support positive, sustainable futures.
The event included keynotes from academics at the forefront of research into risk and uncertainty, including Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter, Professor Barbara Adam and Dr Bill Sharpe. Panel discussions also brought together the fields of higher education, public policy, emergency services, and healthcare, along with Derek Walker, the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales.
Topics covered over the week-long summer school include decision making under uncertainty, how we communicate and visualise uncertainty and how today's choices can affect future generations. Discussions encouraged researchers to consider not only how uncertainty influences decisions, but how it can create opportunities for innovation, adaptation and long-term thinking.
Professor Bahman Rostami-Tabar of the University's Cardiff Business School was the summer school's academic director. He said: "We usually treat uncertainty as a problem to reduce or remove. But it is also what keeps the future open."
We built this summer school as a meeting place, not solely as a lecture hall - somewhere a statistician, a historian, an engineer, and an artist could sit together and discover that what counts as common sense in one field is a real question in another. That is where new thinking begins.
Alongside the keynotes and panels, participants took part in hands-on workshops on decision quality, communicating and visualising uncertainty, algorithmic risk, and long-term planning, as well as creative and interactive sessions ranging from poetic engagement across disciplines to embracing uncertainty. The week also included a visit to Big Pit National Coal Museum and a documentary screening, using Wales's coal-mining history to frame discussion of industrial change, regional identity, and fairer futures beyond carbon-intensive economies.
We very much hope this continues in the years ahead. With the enthusiasm we saw from participants, this is a recipe for success - one that will keep drawing people from across the disciplines.
Cardiff University is committed to bringing together disciplines, partners, and perspectives, to tackle the challenges facing our world – from climate change and health inequality to technological disruption and democratic instability.
