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CAWR Newsletter
August 2022
Our monthly newsletters are an easy way to keep up-to-date with new developments at our research centre. From successful project bids to upcoming events, our newsletter informs you on how we are 'driving innovative transdisciplinary research on equitable, sustainable and resilient food and water systems.'
The views and opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of the contributors at the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Coventry University.
CAWR co-defines what it means to measure ‘agroecologicalness’
Some of the thinking that helped to fine-tune the agroecological assessment tool at the Berlin workshop attended by Nina Moeller recently
Together with civil society partner CIDSE, Nina Moeller has been developing a ‘tool’ to help assess how ‘agroecological’ a given project or development programme is. The tool was collaboratively fine-tuned with the Community of Practice on Financing Agroecology at a recent workshop in Berlin hosted by German government agencies. This group is made up of civil society and farmers’ organisations, researchers, international institutions and development agencies, as well as the Agroecology Coalition – all working to ensure agroecology continues to be understood as a radically transformative paradigm spanning social, political and economic as well as environmental dimensions.
The tool is now in a testing phase - if you want to help test its usefulness, please get in touch with Nina: nina.moeller [AT] coventry.ac.uk
Nina and colleagues at the Berlin workshop
Organic-PLUS Consortium Meeting
Johannes Bentele shows delegates around a hop farm as part of the Organic-PLUS consortium meeting in Hohenheim
As the Organic-PLUS project enters its final weeks, the CAWR-led consortium of universities and NGOs met at the University of Hohenheim to discuss their remaining work and next steps.
40 participants representing 25 partners took part in meetings and presentations; CAWR has been particularly active in work on perceptions of organic/contentious inputs, as well as soil-related issues (peat, plastic and fertilisers). There was also the opportunity to visit a range of organic and biodynamic farms in the locality.
CAWR hosts International Terraced Landscapes Alliance journals
CAWR is now hosting the three journals of the International Terraced Landscapes Alliance (ITLA). ITLA was formed in Mengzi, Yunnan Province in China in November 2010 by enthusiasts and visionaries who met there for the First World Conference on Terraced Landscapes. Since 2010 ITLA members have organized further conferences globally and are preparing the 5th ITLA congress in 2024 in Bhutan.
Timmi Tillmann, Honorary Research Fellow of CAWR, is the global coordinator of the Alliance of local and national networks and CAWR director Michel Pimbert has participated in a number of ITLA activities. The proceedings of all international conferences have been published on the ITLA website.
ITLA members bring interdisciplinary expertise to the Alliance’s main goal of acting for the benefit of nature and the people who still live in terraced landscapes. Membership in ITLA is free of charge, by applying in writing to TimmiTillmann@gmail.com
The expertise of researchers, activists and terrace guardians contributes to wider discussion, knowledge and learning about terraced landscapes. To this end, under the guidance of Prof Lucija Azman from Ljubljana University as Editor in Chief, ITLA has developed the three journals that are now hosted by CAWR. Further details about the journals can be found here.
UK sunflower oil production
Sunflowers thriving in the polytunnel at Ryton
Researchers at CAWR are investigating the possibility of small scale organic farmers producing sunflower oil in the UK. It could be a valuable break crop that has great potential in a changing climate. The performance of plants grown in a polytunnel and the open field are being compared and small scale machinery is being constructed to thresh the crop and press the oil. We are working on this in collaboration with Five Acre Farm community farm.
Talk on Research Integrity in Publishing
The Research Integrity Advisor at Springer Nature Research Integrity Group will be giving a talk at Coventry University in September on “Improving Research Integrity in Publishing”.
The online seminar from Laura Whitehead will take place on 5th September from 2pm to 3pm as part of the Research Ethics and Integrity Series, and will focus on the main research integrity issues recognised at the research publication stage.
The first part of this presentation will discuss the most common issues and the biggest problems journal editors and publishers face and will provide suggestions on what can researchers do to avoid these issues.
The second part of the presentation will give researchers an overview of what publishers are doing to combat the current issues and how they are working to improve research integrity.
The presentation will also showcase examples of good practice from other researchers and institutions.
Registration for this event is available here.
Everyone Welcome to Queer Words Evening Celebrating LGBTQ+ poetry
Queer Words is an LGBTQIA+ poetry evening event to be held on 12th September for all staff & students at Coventry University. Whether you want to perform a poetry piece or listen, everyone is welcome!
The organisers aim to make this event a safe, inclusive space and have therefore opted to provide a non-alcoholic refreshment station and will manage capacity to avoid overcrowding.
You can pre-register to perform by selecting the 'performer & spectator' ticket on the link here, or register on the night. The event is collaboration between the Community Officer and LGBTQIA+groups, hosted by Lucy Aphramor (CAWR).
European Regional Dialogue on Agroecology and the Politics of Knowledge
The Global Alliance for the Future of Food has put together a compendium to explore the politics of knowledge to which several CAWR researchers have contributed. Based on this, Regional Dialogues were organised around the world, bringing together policy makers, farmers, civil society organisations and researchers to discuss the evidence for agroecology as solution to interconnected global crises.
At the European Dialogue, Nina Moeller brought in CAWR’s People's Knowledge perspective by underlining that systemic problems can only be solved through transdisciplinary approaches. Transdisciplinarity involves conversations between different disciplines as well as the knowledge arising from the lived experience and cultural history of farmers, peasants, Indigenous peoples, and others.
Summer Research Internship Scheme 2022
Francis Rayns and Judith Conroy have been working with Miji Vijayan, a Global Healthcare Management MSc student. This is a placement in CAWR arranged by the Doctoral College as part of their Summer Research Internship Scheme, designed to provide research experience throughout the university. Miji has been assisting with experiments to evaluate peat free growing media as part of the Organic-PLUS project.
The Body and the City
Poets and educators Lucy Aphramor (CAWR) and Navkiran Mann held a workshop entitled 'The Body and the City' earlier this summer, exploring how poetry can help us re-imagine how we meet the city.
The workshop was part of a transdisciplinary and radical research method series sponsored by the Sustainable Cities GRP, focused on creating transdisciplinary communities of practice with the aim to learn and co-create knowledge with all members of society.
Biofach and peat phase-out
Margi Lennartsson making the case for peat phase-out.
At the end of July, CAWR researchers working on the Organic-PLUS project participated in the international conference and exhibition Biofach 2022. There was an internal project session and a public workshop, ‘Raising the bar for Organic: Input-substitution or system redesign?’ held jointly with sister project RELACS. There was a particular focus on peat-based growing media, where Margi Lennartsson discussed the phase-out of peat in horticulture, which is within reach.
Events
On Friday 2nd September there will be a seminar with Shahidul Mallick on 'Culture-based adaptation and water conservation in Bangladesh'. The seminar runs from 11:30am until 12:30pm and attendees can join by Zoom. For further details contact Lisa Marley on aa0251@cawr.ac.uk
Catch up on our events and seminars by visiting our YouTube channel
Studentships
New PhD Projects on Monitoring and Impacts of Emerging Contaminants
Two Cotutelle PhD positions will begin on January 23rd 2023 which have been developed by Ivan Kourtchev in cooperation with Deakin University. One position will be at Coventry and the other at Deakin.
The Coventry based position seeks to understand the impact of e-waste recycling on environmental pollution from emerging contaminants.
The Deakin based position concerns the discovery and monitoring of emerging contaminants in run-off from modern urban built infrastructure made from recycled materials in local aquatic environments such as fresh water, estuarine and ground water. The closing date for applications for both projects is 20th October 2022.
Publications
Mahdad, F., Riyahi Bakhtiari, A., Moeinaddini, M., Charlesworth, S. and Emrani, N. (2022) Concentration Levels, Spatial Distribution and Source Identifcation of PAHs, n-Alkanes, Hopanes and Steranes in Deposited Dust of Mashhad, Iran, and Potential Health Risk Assessment. Environmental Processes, 9, 3. DOI: 10.1007/s40710-022-00591-x
Kinlock, N.L., Dehnen‐Schmutz, K., Essl, F., Pergl, J., Pyšek, P., Kreft, H., Weigelt, P., Yang, Q. and van Kleunen, M. (2022). Introduction history mediates naturalization and invasiveness of cultivated plants. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 31(6), pp.1104-1119.
Quispe J.I.B., Campos L., Masek O., Bogush A. (2022). Use of biochar-based column filtration systems for greywater treatment: a systematic review. Journal of Water Process Engineering, 48, 102908.
Du T., Bogush A., Mašek O., Purton S., Campos L. (2022). Algae, biochar and bacteria for acid mine drainage (AMD) remediation: a review. Chemosphere, 304, 135284.
Valdés-Correcher, E., Popova, A., Galmán, A., … Green, S. et al. (2022). Herbivory on the pedunculate oak along an urbanization gradient in Europe: Effects of impervious surface, local tree cover, and insect feeding guild. Ecology and Evolution, 12, e8709.
Kourtchev I, Hellebust S, Heffernan E, Wenger J, Towers S, Diapouli E, Eleftheriadis K. (2022). A new on-line SPE LC-HRMS method for the analysis of Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in PM2.5 and its application for screening atmospheric particulates from Dublin and Enniscorthy, Ireland. Sci Total Environ. 2022 Apr 26; 835:155496. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.155496.
Burnett, E. (2022). Nurturing Clever Cities: The Intersection Between Urban Agriculture and Smart Technologies. In N. Minaei (Ed.), Smart Cities: Critical Debates on Big Data, Urban Development and Social Environmental Sustainability. CRC Press.
Dehnen-Schmutz, K., & Novoa, A. (2022). Advances in the management of invasive plants. In D. Clements, M. Upadhyaya, S. Joshi, & A. Shrestha (Eds.), Global Plant Invasions (pp. 317-330). Springer Nature Switzerland AG. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89684-3
