News, Jobs, Events, Funding Opportunities and lots more...
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Quick round up of this week's news, jobs and events
News
Reflections from this year's Leadership College
Read Richard Bridge’s reflections on his time at this year’s Leadership College Retreat, 24 to 26 April, at Dartington Hall in Devon. Before writing this piece, Richard canvased the whole cohort for their most memorable moments. Whilst impossible to include them all, his blog gives us a flavour of their time spent together.
Thank you to everyone who has been sending in information for the newsletter. Please note there will be no newsletter next week. Sarah B, ACCESS Communications Officer
Events & Training
NERC-ESRC Policy Engagement Training – Phase 2
This is a FREE training programme being delivered by the Institute for Methods Innovation on behalf of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC).
The programme is designed to support researchers to make a demonstrable difference to evidence-informed public policy with their research. It consists of a self-paced online training course and live virtual training or in-person training sessions at different locations in the UK.
Application closing date is Friday 31 May
Health Impacts of Climate Change in Wales: Examining the evidence base and identifying future priorities
Thursday 6 June, 9.30 to 12.30 pm
This webinar organised by Public Health Network Cymru, brings together current evidence on the health impacts of climate change across Wales including recent reports from Public Health Wales and the UK Health Security Agency.
Attendees will gain an understanding of
– the health and wellbeing impacts of climate change in Wales and the risks and opportunities at a Wales and UK level
– the existing evidence around the health impacts of climate change
– the need for gap analysis across all aspects of our response to climate change to ensure long-lasting and effective change.
Sustainable Foods Summit
Thursday 4 & Friday 5 July, Amsterdam
Topics on the summit agenda include food diversity, green claims & marketing, ingredient innovations, impact measurement & reduction, novel packaging materials, upcycled foods, precision fermentation, social risks, artificial intelligence, consumer trends, marketing success stories, etc
Jobs
Senior Social Scientist at Forest Research
The Society and Environment Research Group (SERG) are seeking to appoint a Senior Social Scientist to undertake research across the group but will have a particular emphasis on the forest disturbances theme, which includes consideration of the social dimensions of storms, floods and wildfire as well as tree health.
Members of the group are based at Alice Holt Lodge near Farnham, at the Northern Research Station near Edinburgh, and at the Forestry Commission national office in Bristol. SERG scientists are involved in interdisciplinary research with colleagues across Forest Research, and with universities and other research institutes in the UK and overseas.
Closing date to apply is Sunday 9 June
Funding
The Future Fibres Network Flexible Fund
The Future Fibres Network Flexible Fund is part of the Future Fibres Network project, funded by UKRI.
The aim of the funding is to bridge the gap between science and industry by embedding environmental science and the need from circularity right from design concept stage.
Tier 1 – Community Impact Grants: These funds will support international community building, industrial and interdisciplinary placements, travel and collaboration (funded at up to £5000 per application). The call will stay open throughout the project’s duration and they will consider ad-hoc applications supporting the themes and endeavours of Future Fibres Network+.
Tier 2– Mini Projects: grants of up to £100,000 to support multi-disciplinary research projects, prototypes, feasibility studies, knowledge exchange visits, educational activities and much more in the sustainable fashion and textiles sector. These could include short research projects and pilot trials, flexible funding may also support seminars, webinars or roundtables, workshops and convene expert working groups and allow for knowledge exchange visits and skills training.
Expression of interest deadline is Thursday 13 June
Opportunities
The British Academy is seeking discussion papers to contribute to their Net Zero Governance policy programme
The British Academy is seeking to commission up to ten discussion papers that will contribute to their Net Zero Governance policy programme. You can find the full details and terms of reference here. The deadline for proposals is Friday 7 June.
The papers will provide crucial evidence to inform the programme on how, why and when governance matters on net zero, and practical mechanisms that enable effective direction, oversight and delivery for organisations and institutions committed to delivering net zero. This can be explored through the perspective of leaders and the perspective of publics. The authors will be invited to join policy events convened by the Academy in the coming months.
They will be running an open webinar on Zoom on Friday 31 May at 10am for anyone interested in the call to hear a short presentation and ask questions. If you would like to join the webinar, please email for a Zoom link.
In September, they are also planning to convene researchers working on net zero governance through knowledge exchange events to support sharing existing and emerging research across SHAPE disciplines – please email them if interested.
Working with the Scottish Parliament
The Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) has produced a helpful guide on how to get your research into the Scottish Parliament. The guide includes a summary of who you can engage with and some tips for how best to go about it.
SPICe has been working with the other UK legislatures to produce a guide on Writing for a parliamentary audience. Whether you are writing a response to committee consultation, a research commission, or a guest article, here are some advice for getting your research used in parliaments.
Call for Evidence for the Climate Change Risk Assessment 4 - Independent Assessment Technical Report
The Met Office have a “Call for Evidence” to help inform their Independent Assessment Technical report.
They seek to engage a broad set of stakeholders and enable a ‘balance and check’ to their own literature review. They are keen to receive evidence in the form of academic papers, as well as other relevant information that exists within the grey literature. These could take the form of PhD or Masters theses, conference proceedings, project reports, webinars, internal presentations or reports, blogs, etc.
Submission deadline is 30 June 2025
IPCC Call for Experts
The Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change’s (IPCC) are calling for the nomination of experts to draft the outline of the Working Group contributions to the Seventh Assessment Report (AR7) at a Scoping Meeting tentatively scheduled for December 2024.
The three Working Group contributions will cover the physical science basis of climate change, impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability to climate change, and the mitigation of climate change. The AR7 will also include an update of the 1994 Technical Guidelines for Assessing Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation in conjunction with the Working Group II contribution.
Closing date to apply is Sunday 2 June
Energy Geographies Research Group 2024 Post-graduate Paper Prize
Open to all PhD researchers working on an area related to energy geographies to submit their writing - this can be an abridged journal article (in development or published), chapters, policy papers, conference submissions, blogs/social media outputs or public outreach documents.
Work can be submitted to one of three categories: Research Design & Methods, Conceptual Contribution, and Impact, Co-creation & Engagement. Open to currently enrolled postgraduate students across the world.
Closing date for application is Friday 31 May
Info
Pathways to Net Zero-ready home retrofit scrutinised by government-funded research programme
Homes for Net Zero is a research programme funded by the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero and delivered by Energy Systems Catapult, E.ON, University College London, and Oxford University.
The programme aims to identify options for homeowners to decarbonise their homes by testing practical solutions.
A combination of in-home data monitoring and consumer research will help measure the impact of these measures on consumers and their homes.
Extinction of experience due to climate change
Ongoing climate change has the potential to reduce people’s direct experiences with nature, leading to or further exacerbating the ‘extinction of experience’. In this Nature Climate paper, Masahi Soga and Kevin J Gaston argue that understanding these impacts is crucial, as the extinction of experience can have adverse consequences for both humans and the natural environment.
Career mobility enriches people and their research and innovation
Frances Burstow, Director of Talent and Skills, UK Research and Innovation talks about how more people switching between academia, business and government is key to UK’s position as a world-class research and innovation nation.
Local Planning for Renewables: Five key policy challenges
Rebecca Windemer, one of the ACCESS Leadership College Fellows has written a report after analysis of UK government planning data and consultations with both developers and planning authorities. In this REGEN report she identifies the critical challenges and proposes five policy solutions to enhance the planning system for clean energy projects.
X Trillion
X Trillion, is a new documentary film that charts the progress of a 3,000-nautical-mile voyage across the north Pacific in search of micro plastics. Emily Duncan (University of Exeter) was one of a 14 all female international crew of scientists, sailors, designers, engineers and teachers. She talks about her 3 week voyage in this recent article in The Conversation. You can watch a trailer for the film here
