News, Jobs, Events, Opportunities and lots more...
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A quick round up of this week's news, jobs and opportunities
News
It's been a particularly busy couple of weeks at ACCESS and we have 3 exciting pieces of ACCESS news to share in today's newsletter...
Net Zero Citizens' Survey
What does the UK public think about climate change, net zero targets and climate action?
The Net Zero Citizens' Survey Report by Alice Moseley, Jenny Hatchard, Haruka Katsuyama, Patrick Devine-Wright (University of Exeter) and Lorraine Whitmarsh (University of Bath) was published this week.
In the run-up to the 2024 UK general election, ACCESS academics surveyed almost 3,000 UK citizens to understand public views about the transition to a net zero society.
As well as presenting findings for the UK as a whole, the report compares public opinion across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
The survey complements the work of the ACCESS Net Zero Task Force.
Five ways to improve net zero action
... ACCESS research highlights lessons from the past
“The current UK government and its recent predecessors have shown a reluctance to encourage and enable lifestyle changes that reduce our collective demand for energy… we argue that shying away from changing the way we live is counterproductive.”
So write ACCESS academics Karen Bickerstaff, Alice Moseley and Patrick Devine-Wright (University of Exeter) in a new article in The Conversation this week
The authors discuss some of the highlights from the Net Zero Citizens Survey and Taskforce and propose five key steps for effective net zero action.
Congratulations to ACCESS Director, Patrick Devine-Wright!
Patrick was elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences this week, in recognition of for his substantial contribution to social science for public benefit
He said: “Election to the Academy is a wonderful opportunity to learn from and collaborate with existing Fellows to raise the visibility and impact of social science. Being a Fellow is also a way of recognising all of the collaborators, from postdoctoral students and researchers to non-academic partners, that I have worked with over the years across numerous research projects and initiatives. Thank you to all!”
ACCESS would also like to offer congratulations to several environmental social scientists who were also elected Fellows of the Academy this spring:
- Professor Sherilyn MacGregor, director of the new ESRC JUST Centre, University of Manchester (and a confirmed speaker at this year’s ACCESS Assembly);
- Professor Stefan Bouzarovski, a CoInvestigator at the JUST Centre (University of Manchester); and
- Professor Sander van der Linden, former Editor of the Journal of Environmental Psychology (University of Cambridge).
Events
ZC3 - Zero Carbon Commuting Conference 2025
Thursday 15 May, 09:30am–3:30pm online
Join 20 speakers and panellists from the worlds of sustainability, transport and behaviour change for six hours of insights, best practice and inspiration.
International best-selling author and professor Mike Berners-Lee will be this year's keynote speaker. Mike, who wrote 'How Bad Are Bananas' and 'There Is No Planet B' will draw on his decades of experience to depict the climate crisis as it is now and highlight what must be done to spark change.
ZC3 is entirely online and is hosted by Mobilityways. The aim of the conference is to inspire large employers and transport and
mobility solutions providers to come together to make zero carbon commuting a reality. Last year, 1,000 like-minded individuals signed up from across the private and public sectors to help them achieve their sustainable commuting and net-zero goals.
Book here
Study Workshop: Can public deliberation help address the environmental crisis?
Monday 19 - Tuesday 20 May, Reed Hall, University of Exeter
Organised by the Exeter Horizon REDIRECT research group and the SPSPA Department (Politics) at the University of Exeter.
Practitioners and academics are invited to address the question of whether citizens’ deliberative forums may contribute to revitalise the representative political system.
The aim of this two-day workshop is to foster a productive dialogue between political representatives, public administrators, civil activists, and researchers about the challenges and the proposals for citizens’ involvement in public debate, political deliberation and policy making for a sustainable environment.
This workshop will be followed by a Public Lecture by Professor Mark E Warren on ‘When, Where, and Why Might Elected Political Elites Reach for Democratic Innovations?’
Jobs
Fully-funded international PhD studentship at the University of Manchester
Fully-funded 3.5 year international studentship on:
Gender and Energy: Developing Social and Political Engagement
The studentship is supported via the new UKRI/ERC GENERATE project.
The studentship will involve, in the main, a participative, qualitative, place-based investigation of the socio-ecological and political opportunities for overcoming current forms of intersectional marginalisation and disadvantage in the energy sector.
Deadline: Monday 7 April
Senior Researcher (Energy) - House of Commons Research & Information Team
The Research and Information team is looking to appoint a Senior Researcher in Energy to join the Science and Environment Section (SES) in the House of Commons Library.
The core work of the role will involve providing briefings for MPs and their staff on a wide range of energy topics including large scale energy infrastructure, energy efficiency, consumer energy bills, energy trading and markets.
There are two virtual information sessions scheduled on MS Teams for you to find out more about this role and working at Parliament.
These sessions will be on:
- Friday 4 April at 12:00 - 13:00
- Tuesday 8 April at 13:30 - 14:30
To register to attend, book your slot via Eventbrite here.
This is a permanent, full-time (or full time/job share), hybrid position. Salary £56,180 - £66,497.
Deadline: Tuesday 15 April
Alternate Delegate – User-Centred Energy Systems TCP
The UK Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) has opened an Invitation to Tender for the role of Alternate Delegate for the UK to the User-Centred Energy Systems TCP by IEA.
This is primarily an advisory and knowledge dissemination role taking around 15 days spread out over the year. It involves international travel to one or two Executive Committee meetings per year which run for typically two to four days and are often held alongside relevant other international events.
This role suites a mid to late career academic or consultant with a broad familiarity of the UK energy system and expertise in the role of energy end users in the energy transition.
This is a paid role to provide support to the Primary Delegate in DESNZ in representing the UK in the work of the UsersTCP.
Enquiry deadline: Tuesday 15 April, 5pm
Tender submission deadline: Monday 28 April, 2pm
Fully-funded PhD in Environmental Psychology - University of Exeter (Cornwall)
The European Centre for Environment & Human Health (ECEHH) at the University of Exeter is inviting applications for a funded PhD studentship to commence on 22 September 2025 or as soon as possible thereafter:
The impact of climate change on the mental health of parents & carers
The research will establish to what extent parents are concerned about overheating and how it affects their own mental health. The student will also work with antenatal and postnatal care providers, e.g. midwives.
Deadline: Tuesday 15 April
Postdoctoral Opportunity at the University of Chicago
Public Acceptance of Climate Technologies
The Harris School of Public Policy seeks applicants for a Postdoctoral Scholar for work at the convergence of psychology and applied sciences to investigate the public acceptance of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) approaches.
The overall aim of this project is to develop an integrative framework to gauge public acceptance of CDR. This work will rely on a systematic literature review of the theories, methods, and indicators used across fields.
The successful candidate will work as part of a team with Dr. Kim Wolske (at Harris) as well as Dr. Udayan Singh at Argonne National Laboratory.
Appointment Term: 12 to 18 months depending on start date. The position offers a salary of $70,000-$72,000/year with up to $3,000 for moving expenses.
Deadline: 29 April 2025
To apply, send the following to Dr. Kim Wolske at wolske@uchicago.edu with the subject line “CDR Postdoc”:
(1) a cover letter summarizing your qualifications, areas of expertise, research interests, career goals, and a statement of how you meet the required and desired qualifications described above;
(2) your CV, along with the contact information for two references
(3) one relevant publication
Fully funded PhD opportunity, Coventry University
The Centre for Agroecology Water and Resilience at Coventry University is offering a new funded studentship:
Technologies of care: fostering nature-relatedness and environmental practice through social-technological innovation.
This doctoral project explores how digital technology shapes human-nature relationships, examining its role in fostering (or inhibiting) nature-relatedness and pro-environmental behaviour.
Grounded in political ecology and feminist care ethics, it aims to advance understanding of the varying potential for digital technology to consolidate or dissipate the human-nature divide.
The position begins in September
Deadline: Tuesday 27 May
Opportunities
Senned Area of Research Interest: Environmental Governance, Principles and Biodiversity Targets
The Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure Committee is launching an ARI to support its work on the forthcoming Environmental Governance, Principles and Biodiversity Targets Bill.
The Committee is particularly interested in:
- The process of establishing and remit of other UK environmental governance bodies, and lessons learned;
- Building on its existing knowledge and work on biodiversity targets; and
- Developing an evidence base to inform its assessment of the environmental principles included in the Bill.
Call for Associate Editors and Editorial Board Members' Applications
Environmental Psychology Research is seeking qualified candidates for the positions of Associate Editor and Editorial Board member.
Editors-in-Chief: Lorraine Whitmarsh (University of Bath) & John Jamir Benzon R. Aruta (De La Salle University)
Environmental Psychology Research is an upcoming international Wiley Gold Open Access journal, supported by the British Psychological Society (BPS), that publishes full research articles, brief reports, review papers, policy briefings, registered reports, theoretical papers, perspectives and commentaries that cover topics including:
● Environment and human interaction, with focus on environmental sustainability
● Intersection of consumer behaviour, environmentalism and political community engagement, social/political/civic behaviours
● Interventions, including behaviour change, mental health, nature-based, etc.
● Cultural and cross-cultural perspectives on environmental psychology
● Non-academic work (policy, arts, community best practices, etc.)
The journal is also committed to diversity of perspectives and methodologies and welcomes submissions that are quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods, and those that involve novel and cutting-edge methodologies, especially submissions from scholars from different world regions and historically and structurally marginalized backgrounds.
Deadline: Tuesday 15 April
Study on Impact of Fixed-Term Contracts
Early career researchers face challenges like lack of permanent employment, affecting their careers and well-being. The study will quantify the costs of these impacts on researchers and their employers and advocate for better policies for a more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable research culture.
The anonymous online survey from Loughborough University and the Centre for Postdoctoral Development in Infrastructure, Cities, and Energy (C-DICE) is open to all early career researchers in any discipline that are currently or have recently been employed on a fixed-term contract.
For each response, they will donate to Cara, the Council for At-Risk Academics.
Deadline: Friday 25 April
Call for submissions – Environmental Politics in Turbulent Times
The Journal of European Public Policy is inviting submissions for a special issue on 'Environmental Politics in Turbulent Times', guest edited by Merethe Dotterud Leiren and Jarle Trondal
This special issue aims to understand environmental politics in turbulent times. Under such circumstances, the ability of governing systems and processes to adapt while maintaining basic public institutions, values and functions becomes a central feature of public governance, and thus an important element in their long-term robustness.
Deadline: 15 May
Two surveys by the ESRC Data Strategy Team
Two surveys are being run by ESRC Data Strategy Team:
- Trusted Research Environment (TRE) Survey
Aim: to understand what researchers need when accessing sensitive data in Trusted Research Environments, and what challenges they currently experience.
Participate here
- Discovery and Data Curation – Service User Survey
Aim: to understand the experience of researchers when they try to find data for their research
Participate here
Deadline: end of August
Info
The Earth alignment principle for artificial intelligence
"At a time when the world must cut greenhouse gas emissions precipitously, artificial intelligence (AI) brings large opportunities and large risks," write Owen Gaffney (Utrecht University) et al. in this article in Nature Sustainability.
To address AI's uncertain environmental impact they propose "the ‘Earth alignment’ principle to guide AI development and deployment towards planetary stability".
Special Social Science Issue of Conservation Biology
There is a special social-science issue of Conservation Biology out this month:
Trends and Future Directions in the Conservation Social Sciences
Articles include:
- Advancing social impact assessments for more effective and equitable conservation
- Insights on human−wildlife coexistence from social science and Indigenous and traditional knowledge
- Navigating scale and interdisciplinary dynamics in conservation social science
Why evaluation is so important
In this video, Richard Bridge, ACCESS Leadership College Fellow, talks about his work as Head of Monitoring and Evaluation at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
Richard is currently leading a team for a three year evaluation of the Nature for Climate Fund, and he describes the different stakeholders he works with and why evaluation is so important.
Richard is one of 16 ACCESS Leadership College Fellows. The next Leadership College retreat is taking place this month, after the Easter break.
Are you on the ACCESS Environmental Social Science expert database?
Join our searchable database of social scientists and experts working in the fields of climate and environment. The database includes both academics in universities as well as those working in the public sector, charities and businesses. It's quickly becoming one of our most visited web pages. A useful resource for people looking to collaborate and connect with environmental social scientists.
It only takes 15 to 20 minutes to complete the online form.
Finally, with the Easter break just around the corner, the next ACCESS Newsletter will go out in three weeks' time, on 25 April.
Have a good couple of weeks!
