News, Jobs, Events, Opportunities and lots more...
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A quick round up of this week's news, jobs and opportunities
News
Only one week left to register! ACCESS Summer School
Applications close for the ACCESS 2025 Summer School on Friday 13 June (a week today).
Join a small group of environmental social scientists from diverse sectors at our relaxed and friendly retreat-style event. We'll be addressing three main themes; nature and biodiversity, circular economies, and liveable cities. And you'll have the opportunity to:
- Build relationships across sectors
- Develop and practice skills for collaboration
- Scope collaborative research ideas
We particularly encourage applicants from the public sector, charities and business.
This year's Summer School takes place from Monday 22 to Wednesday 24 September, at the beautiful Cumberland Lodge, Windsor.
And we are delighted to be partnering with CIFAL Surrey for this event and, in conjunction with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), to provide participants with a UNITAR / CIFAL Surrey certificate on completion.
Deadline for applications: Friday 13 June
Read the ACCESS Progress Report 2024-2025
If you would like to understand more about the ACCESS project and the impact we have been having in advancing environmental social science this year, then do take a look at our recently published ACCESS 2024-2025 Progress Report.
The report describes all the ACCESS highlights and impact we have enjoyed over the past 12 months across our four work packages, as well as the challenges we have faced in this, our third year.
It also details the opportunities we have identified for the future and outlines some of the plans we have for the remainder of the project.
What does walking mean to you? 🥾 🥾 New Blog Series
Five ACCESS Leadership College Fellows – Jaya Gajparia, Susann Power, Mandi Bissett, Helen Roberts, and Jennifer Rudd – have been considering the interplay of walking and working.
They have been exploring how where they walk influences their work and how their work influences their walks and have each written a very personal blog sharing their own perspectives and experiences of walking and working in nature.
A new blog from the series will be published on the ACCESS website every Friday. Read Jennifer's introduction to the series for a taster of what's to come.
This week's post is from Jaya Gajparia. On the fifth anniversary of the murders of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman in London's Fryent Park, Jaya reflects on her own experience of running in the park in the early days of the Pandemic.
She writes about the impact that events like the sisters' murder have on women's sense of safety and access to nature and public spaces – and how the risk of harm is even greater for women of colour.
Events
Climate Courage Schools: launch
Wednesday 25 June 4.30-6pm, online
Climate Courage Schools is a new campaign from the Climate Majority Project, calling for emotionally grounded, future-facing education that puts adaptation at the heart of how we teach, lead and care in schools. This online event marks the public launch of the campaign and our new report setting out four key shifts schools need to make:
1. Leadership that champions emotional wellbeing and future-readiness
2. Culture that makes space for climate distress and emotional honesty
3. Projects that empowers schools as hubs of community adaptation
4. Curriculum that equips every student to navigate and shape a changing world
At the heart of this vision is the idea that emotional wellbeing must be the foundation of education. It enables learning, resilience and agency – and is the most powerful entry point for preparing young people to face the future with courage and care.
Join the webinar to hear from students, educators, psychologists and political leaders – including Caroline Lucas, the UK’s first Green MP (2010–2024) – and frontline voices from UK classrooms.
Creative Club Workshops, University of Exeter (Penryn & St Luke's campuses)
This summer sees three workshops for all University of Exeter professionals (including PGRs), as part of the Creative Club doctoral research project by Rebecca Edgerley.
Mutual Alterity | Poem-Making with Birds, Weds 25 June, 2-4pm, Penryn
What happens when we enter not only interdisciplinary, but interspecies collaboration? We’ll work with the birds on Penryn campus, exploring what happens when we view them as our co-creators and -investigators.
Structures of Meaning | Making as a process of becoming, Fri 27 June, 2-4pm, Penryn
Following Tim Ingold’s suggestion that making is a process of becoming more aware, we embark on a creative journey ourselves using natural materials.
Remix and recombine | using collage to rethink your research, Weds 9 July, 1.30pm-4.30pm, St Luke’s Campus, Exeter
Collage can be (roughly) defined as ‘a process that involves bringing diverse elements into a unified whole.’ In this hands-on workshop, participants will learn about collage through doing – both individually and collaboratively.
Open to University of Exeter professionals only
Seminar: 'Climate Disinformation Update: From the Old Playbook to Latest Tactics'; A Conversation with Prof. Katharine Hayhoe and Prof. Bryan Giemza (Texas Tech University)
Monday 30 June 2-3pm, University of Exeter and online
This seminar is hosted by Centre for Climate Communication and Data Science (C3DS)
Professor Katharine Hayhoe is lead author of the US National Climate Assessment and UN Champion of the Earth who also serves as chief scientist for The Nature Conservancy.
Prof Bryan Giemza (Texas Tech University) is currently a Fulbright researcher at the University of Antwerp's Institute of Development Policy. Giemza’s research focuses on global climate change disinformation and the defence of democracy in the digital age.
Email c3ds@exeter.ac.uk to register for in person or online attendance.
Jobs
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Exeter (Remote or hybrid from Penryn Campus Cornwall)
This role will be part of the GroundsWell project, exploring how urban green and blue spaces can deliver equitable health benefits. The role focuses on inclusive decision-making processes and involves case study research in Edinburgh and Liverpool using realist approaches.
This post is ideal for candidates with expertise at the intersections of environmental psychology, public health, planning, and environmental policy and experience with complex systems or qualitative methods.
Deadline: Sunday 8 June 2025
Read more
Head of Society and Environment Research Group, Forest Research
Want to work at the cutting edge of environmental science? Passionate about making a difference and playing your part in tackling the climate and nature crisis? Forest Research (FR) is all about giving top quality evidence and advice to policymakers and practitioners to make a positive impact on the ground. Internationally recognised, we need people who have the skills and passion to work on excellent science and provide practical solutions for nature.
The postholder will head the Society and Environment Research Group, leading the development and implementation of a scientific vision for the Group and combining this with their own applied research. They will encourage innovation, ensuring that the Group delivers high-quality applied research.
This role offers hybrid working with a base in either Roslin (Midlothian) Farnham (Surrey) or Bristol.
Closing date: Wednesday 11 June, 11.55pm
Senior Researcher, Social Science team, Centre for Sustainable Energy, Bristol
The successful candidate for this post will manage social research work packages or projects within the Research and Analysis team and contribute research skills to a range of CSE projects across all teams and work programmes.
The role requires knowledge of social science research methods and research administration
skills including time management, contributing to funding proposals and bid developments, and supporting outreach and impact work. Some knowledge of energy is required.
Closing date: Friday 13 June, 12pm
UKRI policy fellowships 2025
Three types of fellowships are offered:
- Core policy fellowships, open to early and mid-career academics, focusing on key public policy priority areas and, where applicable, aligning to the government missions.
- Natural Hazards and Resilience policy fellowships, open to early and mid-career academics, helping build resilience against natural hazards; extreme natural events or situations that could cause or threaten serious damage to human welfare.
- What Works Innovation fellowships open to all career stages and based within the What Works Network to increase the supply of and demand for evidence to address priorities in the hosts’ policy areas.
All fellowship opportunities are 18 months in duration and open to applications from researchers based at an organisation eligible for UKRI funding.
Closing date: Tuesday 15 July
Opportunities
Contribute to a POSTnote: Multifunctional land use decisions: what role could collaborative governance models play?
Large-scale landscape changes are being driven by demand for housing, infrastructure, food, energy, nature recovery and climate mitigation and adaptation. The Government indicates some change in land use or management will be required to meet 2050 targets, whilst the Royal Society suggests more land would be needed than is available.
Multifunctionality is described as the capacity of a landscape or ecosystem to provide multiple social, economic and environmental benefits to society.
Decisions over land use and land change can be controversial. Different bodies have been developing and piloting collaborative models for multifunctional land use decision-making and governance. Such models can include co-production, where power is shared and different types of knowledge, expertise and stakeholders are involved on an equal basis as decisions or outputs are generated collaboratively.
The POSTnote will summarise the challenges and opportunities in the development of new multifunctional collaborative land use governance models and the evidence these can support a more integrated approach to achieving the multiple and increasing land use demands.
Deadline: Wednesday 11 June, 11.59pm
Read more
Call for Papers, Annual Conference of the Institute for Sustainable Futures, De Montford University Leicester
Towards Resilient and Sustainable Cities and Communities
The Institute for Sustainable Futures brings together researchers from engineering, architecture, materials science, social sciences and physics to deal with global challenges to sustainability, with a special emphasis on Sustainable Cities and Communities.
The Institute is organising a two-day conference in September 2025 in Leicester on greener and resilient cities and communities.
They are inviting original, unpublished and novel papers in the following thematic areas:
1) Resilient urban infrastructure, communication and network systems
2) Resilient, liveable and sustainable cities and communities
Papers are expected to focus on one of the above themes and can present
theoretical, empirical and policy-oriented perspectives. Case studies,
comparative analysis, tools and frameworks are also welcome.
All papers would be included in an open access conference proceeding to be
published at the time of the conference.
Deadline: Sunday 15 June, 5pm
Read more
Delphi survey to shape a behavioural research agenda supporting present and future EU biodiversity policy
The survey is part of a broader initiative led by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, including the EU Policy Lab and the Knowledge Centre on Biodiversity.
It is collecting expert insights from natural, social and behavioural scientists to explore how behavioural science can complement the crucial work already being done to protect and restore biodiversity across Europe.
The results of this survey will feed directly into a workshop with EU policymakers in Autumn 2025, where they will present concrete insights on research needs and policy priorities. This is an opportunity to influence the behavioural research agenda aligned with future EU biodiversity policies.
It should take around 15-20 minutes, and your responses will remain anonymous.
Deadline: Sunday 22 June
Royal Society Study: Factors Affecting Public Engagement by UK Researchers 2025
The Royal Society has commissioned Technopolis to conduct a study on the factors affecting public engagement by UK researchers in 2025.
The primary objective is to understand…
- What public engagement means and entails in 2025
- The value and significance of public engagement
- Enablers and barriers, and opportunities and risks of public engagement
- Effective implementation and support strategies
- How these elements have changed over time
The 2025 study follows on from similar surveys undertaken in 2006 and 2015, and will thereby serve to provide evidence of the development of the UK public engagement landscape over time. This research will support decision and policy making around how to support public engagement activity amongst researchers.
Closing date: Monday 30 June
Invitation to participate: Climate Distress in Children and Young People
Trainee Clinical Psychologist at Cardiff and Vale University, Sophie Randall, is recruiting for an initial online focus group. She would like to include a range of professionals who either have direct experience supporting young people with climate distress or have relevant research expertise.
The focus group will comprise 5-7 professionals and the lead researcher via MS Teams. It will last approximately I hour, and you will be asked questions about how climate distress presents, and is managed, in your work with CYP.
Register your interest by emailing randalls2@cardiff.ac.uk
BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards
The Frontiers of Knowledge Awards honour fundamental disciplinary or interdisciplinary advances across a broad expanse of the knowledge map of the 21st century, including the social sciences.
These awards recognise and encourage world-class research and cultural creation, prizing contributions of singular impact for their originality and significance.
Nominations are open for one or more persons or organisations that have made independent or convergent contributions to a given advance in the realms of knowledge or cultural creation.
Award: €400,000, a diploma and commemorative artwork.
Deadline: Monday June 30, 4pm
Jonathan Sime Award for best UK undergraduate dissertation in people environment studies
Are you an academic in the UK who is currently or soon-to-be in the depths of marking undergraduate dissertations?
The prestigious Jonathan Sime annual award is inviting submissions for the best UK undergraduate dissertation in people environment studies.
It is open to all undergraduates attending a British University. The Award Panel welcomes applications which clearly exhibit originality of thought, quality of research and reflects Jonathan’s interests in people-environment relationships. Dissertation Tutors or Heads of Departments must nominate dissertations for this award which includes a cash prize of £150 for the winner and £50 for the runner up.
Closing date: Tuesday 1 July
Info
How social sciences are essential in the UK’s net zero transition
“Social science research can not only assist the UK in meeting climate mitigation and net zero goals, it can also help us all imagine what future low carbon places and societies – in terms of societal needs and aspirations and technological possibilities – could and should look like,” writes ACCESS’s Professor Karen Bickerstaff for The Foundation for Science and Technology (FST) blog.
Drawing on the findings of the ACCESS Net Zero Task Force and Citizens’ Survey, Karen demonstrates the British public’s willingness to make some of these necessary changes as well as the need for meaningful civic dialogue around net zero policy.
Looking to join an exchange scheme?
The Academic Engagement team in GO-Science have created a Directory of Academic and Policy Exchange Schemes.
This comprehensive directory lists current exchange schemes from policy to academia and academia to policy and across all career stages.
The directory has been designed to help more civil servants gain experience of working with academics, and to help more academics come into policy settings.
ACCESS Knowledge Exchange Fellow, Dr Sarah Golding and Project Manager, Sarah Baker were consulted in the development of GO-Science's webpage content, and ACCESS activities are also highlighted under the Capacity Building section of these directories!
Reflections on the 2025 ACCESS Leadership College from Richard Bridge
"Calling our annual get-together a retreat seems a misnomer … in truth, it is always intense. But I wouldn’t have it any other way..."
Richard Bridge, ACCESS Leadership College Fellow and Head of Monitoring and Evaluation at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), has written a blog about this year's Leadership College retreat at Dartington Hall, Devon.
Richard describes the 'glue' that holds the College together:
"Generating hopeful (and truly radical?) leadership where collaboration trumps hierarchy, a participatory purpose-driven approach that seeks to preference participation, inclusion, deep listening, dialogue and a learning culture. Enabling us to leverage environmental social science to address the pressing climate and nature emergencies of our time."
Book: The Psychology of Collective Climate Action – Building Climate Courage
This open-access and free-to-download book by Karen Hamann (University of Leipzig) et al. focuses on two core questions:
How can we build and sustain collective climate action?
How can collective climate action become resilient and effective?
It also touches on a wide range of topics, from anger, moral considerations, activist burnout, and the perception of protests, to general theories of socio-ecological change.
Join the ACCESS Expert Database of environmental social scientists
Join our growing Expert Database to connect with other environmental social scientists, share your research and find opportunities for collaboration.
Our database includes social scientists working in academia, the public sector, charities and businesses.
Joining takes only 15 to 20 minutes through our online form.
Send in your news
Thank you to all the contributors who sent items in for this week's newsletter.
Do get in touch if you have any events, job or funding opportunities or new research that you would like to share with the ACCESS Network.
And if you have any feedback on the newsletter, we'd love to hear it.
Email me (Suzy) at: s.p.a.darke@exeter.ac.uk
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