The Welsh Ambulance Service wants to fly medical supplies—blood, defibrillators, drugs—across Wales via drone, but no one knows whether the public or the organisations on the ground will accept it. This fellowship tackles that blind spot. The UK government has already committed £20 million to drone infrastructure, and NHS trials have delivered real cargo in England and Scotland. But a drone network only works if people trust it, if hospitals and air traffic controllers can integrate it, and if rural communities don’t block the flight corridors. The researcher will interview ambulance staff, regulators, and residents in different parts of Wales, then run a survey to map exactly where support and resistance lie. If the findings show that public fear is the main barrier, policymakers can target public engagement before building routes. If the barrier is organisational—say, NHS trusts unsure about liability—then regulatory guidance can be drafted. The result could be a medical drone network that cuts delivery times for blood and defibrillators from hours to minutes, especially in remote Welsh valleys where road access is slow. This is applied social science: it does not invent the drone, but it decides whether the drone ever gets off the ground.
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A recent £20 million funding announcement by the UK government and newly established Regulatory Innovation Office (RIO) has emphasised the strategic importance of developing drone capabilities in the UK, such as in NHS medical contexts. This follows several trials of drone deliveries of blood, defibrillators and other related materials by NHS and industry partners in UK nations as part of the UKRI Future Flight Challenge – a government and industry-funded innovation programme. The Welsh Ambulance Services University NHS Trust with Snowdonia Aerospace have been making the case for a medical drone network in Wales, and as part of this acknowledges there are potential planning and public perceptibility risks with integrating drone technologies. Building on my PhD, and my postdoctoral research in the ESRC Future Flight Social Science research programme, this fellowship will explore the organisational and public perceptual factors that may shape and influence how medical drone use develops. In partnership with the Welsh Ambulance Services University NHS Trust, I will use a mixed-methods approach to provide behavioural insights into 1) the range of public perceptual and attitudinal factors in different geographical contexts across the Welsh drone network; and 2) the organisational attitudes and behaviours of stakeholder groups as possible enablers or barriers to its integration. The project will combine new qualitative and quantitative data (semi-structured interviews, focus groups, survey) with insights from existing research (nationally representative surveys, qualitative data), to systematically detail behaviours in relation to the barriers, opportunities and risks of medical drones. The multi-disciplinary social science insights generated by this fellowship will further support my engagement with policy makers, regulatory bodies and other stakeholders in this emerging sector.
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