The Thomas More Institute is an initiative of NEA that seeks to provide a forum for civil discourse, offering opportunities for principled engagement with intellectual and public issues to those who take part in its activities.

The Institute wishes to make a positive impact on public debate and decision-making and draws its name and inspiration from an Englishman who notably integrated private life, humanistic interests, professional work, public office and spirituality.

For its premises in London, the Institute makes use of seminar rooms and offices in the central area of Netherhall House, as well as the adjoining lecture theatre and auditorium as occasion demands.  Following restoration and building work at Grandpont House in Oxford, the Institute's main establishment will be located there.

After earlier preparatory work, the Institute's first seminar series, 'Conscience, Values and Belief in Public Life', commenced in mid-2004. There have been well-attended monthly meetings in the seminar rooms on the Hampstead site, and the mailing list for invitations has grown apace. The seminars are intended to be small enough to allow for the fullest participation by those present, and many discussions have been very lively. Whenever possible the text of the paper given, and often an edited version of the discussion that followed, have been placed for wider access on our website which will be developed further over the year ahead. The Institute aims to bring together on an equal footing around a table men and women, both academics and professional people, of varied backgrounds and viewpoints, who agree that there is more to making important decisions about public policy and human flourishing than merely pragmatic and utilitarian considerations.

Views expressed at the seminars and published on the website are, naturally, those of the persons concerned rather than collective policies of the Institute.

A second series of seminars will run parallel with the first, starting in the 2005-2006 academic year. It bears the title, 'Communication, Perception and the Biological Sciences', and will focus on the difficulties involved in accurately understanding and communicating knowledge in areas of bio-scientific research that are of ever-increasing public concern. While a number of the seminars will inevitably touch upon substantive ethical questions, their essential purpose will be to explore the ways in which discussion of the issues can be, and often is, conditioned by extraneous factors. The first part of the series will treat of matters such as the impact of institutional, media and funding agenda upon the relevant public debates, and the latter part will engage with problems of accurate communication in more subject-specific topics of scientific research.

Much preliminary work has also been done towards creating a small Law Group within the Institute.  It is intended that this Group should meet regularly during the year ahead and provide a template for the creation of other specialised study and policy groups.

Commissioned by a benefactor, the Institute co-ordinated a funded study of support for education about marriage in the U.K., and a survey of the charities and agencies which are engaged in this work.

In a modest way the Institute has commenced a programme of receiving visiting research fellows which it is hoped will be much developed as funding becomes available. It is also planned that the Institute will receive younger people as temporary 'interns'. Those who attend activities of the Institute can become Associates with a view to supporting our activities financially and participating more actively.