CAWR Newsletter

April 2025

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.

Agroforestry Living Lab in South-East Portugal

Montado agroforestry – 150 year old Holm Oak (Quercus rotundifolia) with project team 

Rosemary Venn and Ulrich Schmutz visited the AGROMIX EU Horizon project partner MVARC near Mértola, Portugal. Also present was AGROMIX media workpackage leader REVOLVE. We researched several agroforestry and syntrophic agriculture sites (Terra Sintropica) to build connections for an agroforestry living lab around the “lighthouse farms” in Mértola. Interested ?– see 14 min video on rockrose (Cistus ladanifer) cosmetics and agroforestry supply chain development.

Farm visit at Mértola Horta da Malhadinha Agroecology Center 

Various components of activities and services provided at the centre; the photo (2nd row) are from the social supermarket in the centre.

Visit to Foleshill Community Centre, Coventry

As part of a field trip on the Gender & Food Systems module, Lopa Saxena and the MSc students visited Foleshill Community Centre at Foleshill, Coventry, on 12th March 2025. The community centre aims to provide relief to people in need by providing food and various forms of advice and support (e.g. benefits, housing, debt management), and hosts community events. The primary purpose of our visit was to explore how feminist care ethics are applied to addressing food insecurity at the community level. A big thank you to David Johns, Elizabeth Arif-Fear, and Feeding Coventry for hosting us. During our visit, we had a tour of the social supermarket, community kitchen, and community garden at the centre. We also watched a video featuring several members of the centre who shared their experiences. It demonstrated the huge impact of community-led initiatives on people's lives – in tackling food insecurity and promoting social well-being by empowering vulnerable groups and fostering resilience. 

Agroecology Partnership ‘Science and Stakeholder Advisory Board’ in Seville 

Horizon’s Agroecology Partnership meeting in Seville

Ulrich Schmutz attended the ‘Science and Stakeholder Advisory Board’ of the ‘Agroecology Partnership‘ in Seville, Spain and co-chaired the 1st stage evaluation of it’s second funding call on “Integrating environmental, economic and social perspectives in assessing the performance of agroecology” 

At Seville, also the SOIL MISSION and other ‘Food and Environment Partnerships’ were present (similar size 300 million). And, in addition, SCAR*-Agroecology-2. 

*(SCAR = Standing Committee on Agricultural Research) 

Farm visit at IFAPA citrus diversity collection 

CAWR PGR Cris Argamino presenting his PhD work on the “Occurrence and impact of phthalate esters in indoor and outdoor airborne particulate matter (PM_2.5)^” at the POPsNet 2025 flash poster session

CAWR PGR awarded Best Poster Prize at POPsNet 2025 Conference 

CAWR PGR Cris Argamino received the Best Poster Prize on Emerging Contaminants at the POPsNet 2025, a conference on Persistent Organic Pollutants, on 4 April 2025 at the Royal Society of Chemistry, Burlington House, London. Cris presented his PhD work on the “Occurrence and impact of phthalate esters (PAEs) in indoor and outdoor airborne particulate matter (PM2.5) from Brazil" in the three-minute flash poster presentation and poster sessions. This work highlighted the potential health impact of indoor and outdoor inhalation exposure to phthalate esters, which can be emitted from plastic-made items, building materials, furniture, cosmetics, and personal care products. 

CAWR PGR Cris Argamino receives the Best Poster Award for Emerging Contaminants in the POPsNet 2025, a conference on persistent organic pollutants, at the Royal Society of Chemistry, Burlington House, London

Hasta La Victoria Siempre! CAWR Researcher takes part in revolutionary land politics

CAWR’s Iain MacKinnon addresses the protestors 

CAWR researcher Iain MacKinnon was invited by people in the Isle of Skye to co-organise and address a protest against the sudden sale of a large island estate. Iain’s contribution to the protest was covered in the local and national press and the protest also contributed to a subsequent offer by the estate owners to consider a community buy-out of some of the land. Iain has been invited to join a community stakeholder group to further explore buy-out options. 

Protesters against the sale of Clan Donald lands in the Isle of Skye. Photo credit: Magnus Graham

Opening plenary of the ATTER conference. Credit: ATTER project

CAWR Staff attend ATTER Open Conference: Agroecological Transitions for Territorial Food Systems  

CAWR staff Chris Maughan and Julia Wright attended the final event of the RISE project: Agroecological Transitions for Territorial Food Systems which took place in Brussels on the 8th April. The event was an ‘open conference’, presenting findings and reflections on this fascinating four-year staff exchange project. Outcomes from the project can be found on the project website; of especially interest is the ATTER Observatory, a repository detailing the 16 territorial case studies that were the focal point of the project exchanges. 

Presenting PhD Research at the CIBSE IBPSA England Technical Symposium 2025 

Yasaman Namazi presenting and discussing her PhD research at the CIBSE IBPSA England Technical Symposium 2025

Yasaman Namazi recently attended the CIBSE IBPSA England Technical Symposium 2025, held at UCL, London, where she presented part of her PhD research, “The Impact of Green Infrastructure on Schools’ Microclimates and the Risk of Overheating: A Case Study in Coventry, UK”. 

The symposium was organised by CIBSE (the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers) and IBPSA England (the International Building Performance Simulation Association – England chapter). 

The event brought together building services engineers, policy makers and academics, creating an excellent opportunity to engage with experts from both academia and industry and to learn about a wide range of exciting new studies. 

Participants at Wyken Nature Park.

CAWR’s City Nature Challenge event at Wyken Nature Park 

CAWR's Natalie Morley and PhD Megan Bedford were joined by Severn Trent Services and the public to take part in this year’s City Nature Challenge, a competition between participating cities to find and document the most species using iNaturalist. 

We were lucky to get good weather and were able to spot 8 different species of bee and many native British plants. Overall we made about 250 observations of over 100 different species.  

You can see the iNaturalist project page here: City Nature Challenge 2025: Warwickshire, Coventry and Solihull · iNaturalist  

Some of the species captured on the day.

Over 2 years a range of analysis and trials were used to develop peat-free alternatives

Peat-free project concludes 

Colleagues working on the ‘Design and evaluation of peat-free blocking media’ have come to the end of their current project. The harvest of the final trial at Ryton Organic Gardens, showed no significant differences in yield between lettuce grown in 80% peat and those grown in some of the peat-free blends developed.  

The team presented their findings in a final meeting with funder UKRI, including positive assessments of the economic and environmental sustainability of potential blends. The project also looked forward to the refinement and scale-up of manufacture, with the team now looking for opportunities to progress towards commercial production. 

More City Nature Challenge activities! 

Photo montage of species found

City Nature Challenge (CNC) is a global four-day nature-recording extravaganza where citizens compete to record nature sightings in their area. Coventry and Warwickshire joined together for the 2025 competition. 

Alongside Natalie and Bethan’s big recording session at Wyken Croft in Coventry, and members of PLANET4B hosting a local Walking Warrior group with Geraldine Brown (read more in the impact section below), CAWR colleagues led and attended four CNC events in the Coventry and Warwickshire region, 25-28th April: Sam Green, Liz Trenchard, and CU Estates held a Monday lunchtime event for staff and students onsite in the warm sunshine that brought out the colours of the spring flowers and the bee-flies. James Bennett and allotment holders at Highland Lane Allotments in Coventry recorded on the weekend days, finding that spiders were easily verified by keen volunteer identifiers – observations must be verified for the records to be used for the challenge results. Liz Trenchard and Sam Green joined Warwickshire Wildlife Trust and Coventry City Council recorders to lead a tree walk for recording at Lakeview Park with residents and park users, and Katharina Dehnen-Schmutz and Sam Green led recording training at St Mary’s allotments in Leamington Spa. Hundreds of species were recorded across our events including red deadnettle, scarlet tiger moth caterpillars and a variety of bees.  We used the free iNaturalist app for the recording. If you’d like to join in next year’s City Nature Challenge, you’re more than welcome!

Impact News - 'working for change'

Organic North delivery van loaded up and off on its rounds

‘Procurement for Good’ participate in Sustain’s ‘Bridging the Gap’ workshop 

Organised by Sustain’s Bridging the Gap team, Procurement For Good researchers Rosemary Venn and Gareth Owen joined colleagues from across the UK at a knowledge exchange event held in Manchester to better understand how we can best scale opportunities to introduce local and sustainable fruit and veg into schools.  With the recent promise from Labour that half of food brought across the public sector is “locally produced or certified to higher environmental standards”, the discussion is a timely one. 

After visits to Royal Oak Farm and Organic North, colleagues sat down to discuss what’s needed to achieve the goal of local and sustainable food on the public plate. For more, read our blog on the website.  

PLANET4B: Knowledge exchange with GER Rwanda

Planet4B sharing knowledge and action planning 

Geraldine Brown and Liliane Binego were privileged to participate in knowledge exchange and impact-related activities in Kigali, Rwanda. The visit was funded by PLANET4B and the ESRC Impact Acceleration Awards, involving collaboration with Innocent Musore, Executive Director, and his team at the Global Initiative for Environment and Reconciliation (GER Rwanda), along with Dr. Runyambo Irakiza from the University of Lay Adventist of Kigali. The visit provided valuable insights into GER's work, including field trips to observe traditional agricultural techniques used by local farmers to support biodiversity and their livelihoods. Geraldine and Liliane co-facilitated two impact-related workshops, fostering direct engagement with farmers and key stakeholders in the conservation and biodiversity sector. This led to insightful discussions and created a space for sharing knowledge and identifying areas for future action that support biodiversity and livelihoods. 

PLANET4B impact workshop

PLANET4B: Creating a space of learning and action

On Saturday, 26th April, the PLANET4B team welcomed a local community group to Ryton. The gardens provided a wonderful setting to introduce the group to the app iNaturalist, share reflections on nature and biodiversity, and engage in dialogue about gardening experiences, particularly how upbringing in the Caribbean, spirituality, and culture have influenced their nature journeys and the impact of nature on their well-being, health, and relationships.  
 
The workshop provided a valuable space for exchanging insights from the PLANET4B Project and considering ways to incorporate biodiversity-focused activities into their regular walks. 
 
A special shoutout to Walking Warriors. Also, thank you to Judith Conroy and Natalie Morley from the @Centre for Agroecology, Water & Resilience for generously sharing their expertise and time with the group.

Events

Catch up on our events and seminars by visiting our YouTube channel

Publications

Rastorgueva, N., Bassignana, C. F., Angarita, E., Fasso, A., Hassink, J., Goris, M., Schmutz, U., Conroy, J., Dinç, S., Wezel, A., Migliorini, P. (2025). Agroecological Living Labs as entry points for transition towards sustainable food systems: a novel framework for the evaluation of living labs at different scales. Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 1–34. https://doi.org/10.1080/21683565.2025.2477215

D.I. Anene, M. Beltran, B. Tjahjono, A. Schultz, M. McKenzie, S. Stevanovic, A. Bogush. 2025. Microplastics and chemical additives from disposable face masks: Environmental, human health and behavioural impacts, Science of The Total Environment, Vol 973, 179079. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.179079 

Maughan, C., Belletti, G., Marescotti, A., Balázs, B., Lazányi, O., & Mengoni, M. (2025). Against the grain: A commons approach to the governance of ‘Alternative Grain Networks’. Agricultural and Food Economics, 13(1), 9. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40100-025-00352-y

Yitbarek, TW, Wilson, JRU, Evans, A, Dehnen-Schmutz, K. (2025). Community perceptions and governance of tree planting schemes in Ethiopia: Insights for sustainable ecological and socioeconomic outcomes. People and Nature. https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.70022

CHUN, OCTAVIANTI, DOGULU, TYRALIS, PAPACHARALAMPOUS, ROWBERRY, FAN, EVERARD, FRANCESCH-HUIDOBRO, MIGLIARI, HANNAH, MARSHALL, CALASANZ, STADDON, ANSHARYANI, DIEPPOIS et al. (2025) Transforming Disaster Risk Reduction with AI and Big Data: Legal and Interdisciplinary Perspectives. WIREs Data Min. Knowl. Discov.

REDDY, MASSEI, JARDANI, HENRIOT, FOURNIER, DIEPPOIS (2025) Groundwater level projections for aquifers affected by annual to decadal hydroclimate variations: Example of Northern France. Earth’s Future.

BAULON, MASSEI, DIEPPOIS, FOSSA, ALLIER, BESSIERE, FOURNIER (2025) Large-scale climate drivers of groundwater level variations in northern France over the last century. J. Hydrol.

MIRGOL, DIEPPOIS, NORTHEY, JARLAN, KHABBA, LE PAGE, EDEN, EKOLU, EL HAZDOUR, MAHE (2025) Interplay Among Recent Trends in Climate Extremes, Vegetation Phenology, and Crop Production in the Southern Mediterranean Region. Int. J. Clim.

Farrell, M. and Bunting, M.J. (2025) Beyond decline: heathland and the dynamics of cultural and environmental change in Bronze Age Orkney. In Løvschal, M. and Grønneberg, K. (eds) A Place for the Heathlands? Jutland Archaeological Society. https://heathland.place/beyond-decline

Green, S., Fourel, R., Lecourt, G., Grillas, H., 'What we can learn from fruit and nut tree nurseries in the Ardeche' The Organic Grower Magazine, journal of the Organic Growers Alliance, Winter 2024, No 69.

Folorunsho O, Bogush A, Kourtchev I. (2025) Occurrence of emerging and persistent organic pollutants in the rivers Cam, Ouse and Thames, UK. Sci Total Environ. 14;962:178436. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.178436.  

Bautista Quispe, J. I., Campos, L. C., Trejos, B., & Bogush, A. (2024). Exploring rural school students’ perceptions, willingness, motivations, and concerns regarding greywater treatment and reuse in southern Peru. Sustainable Environment, 11 (1). doi.org/10.1080/27658511.2024.2440960

REDDY, MASSEI, JARDANI, DIEPPOIS et al. (2024) Training deep learning models with a multi-station approach and static aquifer attributes for groundwater level simulation: what’s the best way to leverage regionalised information? HESS. In-press, preprint available at https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-794

DIOP, TRAMBLAY, BODIAN, EKOLU, ROUCHE, DIEPPOIS (2024) Flood frequency analysis in West Africa. Journal of Flood Risk Management. In-press.

BAULON, FOSSA, MASSEI, FLIPO, GALLOIS, FOURNIER, DIEPPOIS, et al. (2024) Sensitivity of groundwater levels to low-frequency climate variability in a large watershed. Sci. Total Environ. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.177636

MIRGOL, DIEPPOIS, et al. (2024) Future changes in agrometeorological extremes in the southern Mediterranean region: when and where will they affect croplands and wheatlands? Agric. For. Meteorol. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2024.110232

YANG, FOK, DIEPPOIS, et al. (2024) Examining relations between sea-level anomalies in the Nino3.4 region and terrestrial hydroclimatic conditions in China. J. Hydrol. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2024.131942

Yitbarek, TW, Wilson, JRU, Dehnen-Schmutz, K (2025): An assessment of tree planting schemes in Ethiopia: schemes that adhere to guidelines on good governance are more effective. Journal of Environmental Management. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.123475

Milgroom, J., Brem-Wilson, J. (2024) Opinion: How informal policies of care shape agroecological food systems. Rooted Magazine: Issue 1 on Policies for Agroecology. Open access