We are thrilled to announce the launch of the BASIC-N Square Network Map of departments, organisations and scholars working on nuclear threat reduction in the United Kingdom. This map is intended as a gift to the community, with hopes that it will serve as a useful tool to build connections amongst those of us based in the UK.
The production of this map was kindly funded by N Square and the New Venture Fund.
This Network Map is an effort to visualise the loose collection of organisations, scholars and funders working – in their own way – to reduce, minimise or eliminate the threat of nuclear weapons. We think of these entities as the ‘nodes’ in the network. We also mapped the connections between those nodes: do two or more entities share a collaborative, geographic, or funding relationship? These are the ties you see between the nodes in the map.
We built it to show the connections that exist within our community, but – more importantly – to highlight where we can do better to integrate ourselves and our work. If you scan through the node descriptions (which are directly from the “About Us” and “Mission” pages of the relevant node), you’ll see how often these elements are aligned in their mission. A safer, more stable and secure world is what we all want. However, we work towards those missions in silos, competing for funding, carving niches and rarely working together outside of conferences to further our shared aims.
We built it from data available in the open source, but we also conducted multiple interviews under the Chatham House Rule with stakeholders across the government, academia, funding and NGO spaces. We are enormously grateful to those interviewees who took part.
This map is not perfect, and it is unlikely to ever be complete, and so we are leaving this open – we welcome additions and suggestions, and hope that this might be a collaborative effort to strengthen bridges within the community. If you have a change you’d like to suggest, there are details in the map description on how to request a revision or addition.