News, Jobs, Events, Funding Opportunities and lots more...
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Quick round up of this week's news, jobs and events
News
In case you missed it.
How can we decarbonise society in ways that are place-sensitive and fair?
This webinar was recorded Thursday 9 May 2024
Climate change policy targets necessitate rapid and deep decarbonisation of energy sectors globally. In this ACCESS webinar, Professor Patrick Devine-Wright (ACCESS Director at the University of Exeter) critically discusses the challenges this poses for policy and practice, and social science.
Our next ACCESS webinar will take place on Thursday 14 November. Professor Stewart Barr (ACCESS Team leader at the University of Exeter) will be talking about De-carbonising Travel in Higher Education: from values to action.
More details to follow in the autumn. You can find all our ACCESS webinar recordings here.
Events & Training
Clean Air Programme 2024 Conference
Wednesday 2 and Thursday 3 October, Birmingham
Registration is available up until Tuesday 1 October, but there’s a deadline of Sunday 30 June for securing accommodation/ dinner (subject to availability).
Environmental Training Opportunities
Monday 3 to Thursday 6 June, Exeter
The Collaboration for Environmental Training Opportunities (CEETOP) is a NERC funded training initiative consisting of two elements: a taught training course and mentoring. Each can be attended independently of each other.
This free training is led by evidence synthesis specialists with experience of producing information for stakeholders including policy makers and business.
Priority will be given to ECR and PhD students funded by NERC or working in NERC relevant topics.
For more information please contact Martine Paynter or Ness Gordon ECEHHAdmin@exeter.ac.uk
UPDATE - Submissions wanted for the ESRC Festival of Social Science
Saturday 19 October to Saturday 9 November 2024
If you're interested in running an event as part of the festival, you can check if your research institution is one of the festival partners. The majority of festival partners are ESRC Impact Acceleration Accounts (IAAs). If you’re based at a partner institution, please contact your own festival team directly to enquire about running an event and to request guidance, templates and branding assets for festival events. For institutions with an ESRC IAA, the festival team will sit within the IAA. If you’re not based at one of our partners, please contact your nearest partner institution to explore potential for collaboration.
Jobs
Research Associate in Public Perception of Climate Geoengineering at the University of Manchester
The Geography department are looking to appoint an outstanding Research Associate to undertake research on responsible innovation and stakeholder engagement as part of the Conditions for Responsible Research of Solar Radiation Modification – Analysis, Co-Creation, and Ethos (Co-CREATE) project, funded by Horizon Europe.
Closing date for applications is Tuesday 25 June
Director of Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
The Tyndall Centre seeks an inspiring, passionate and dedicated leader, whether rising star or established, to direct the UK’s Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research.
Closing date for applications is Wednesday 5 June
Funding
Maximising UK adaptation to climate change research projects
Apply for funding for transdisciplinary research projects under the UKRI-Defra co-funded Maximising UK Adaptation to Climate Change programme. This is the second phase of programme, to fund world leading strategic research projects to help improve the UK’s resilience to climate change impacts.
Closing date to apply is Tuesday 16 July
Pre-announcement: Sustainable Industrial Futures
This is a £21million (funded by Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) flagship investment focused on tackling cross-sectoral research challenges rooted in excellent, leading-edge engineering and physical sciences and transdisciplinary approaches to enable the transition of UK industrial processes and operations to net zero.
Call opens on Thursday 20 June and closes on Tuesday 19 November
OECD CRP launches Call for Event Sponsorship and Fellowship Awards in 2025
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Cooperative Research Programme (CRP) on Sustainable Agricultural and Food Systems has opened its Call for applications for international event sponsorship and research fellowship grants to be funded in 2025.
The UK is amongst the 30 OECD countries participating in the CRP, which supports research collaboration related to the sustainable use of natural resources in agriculture, food, forestry and fisheries. Applications should fit in to one of the following three research themes, full details of which can be found in the CRP’s research theme document:
- Managing natural capital
- Strengthening resilience in the face of multiple risks in a connected world
- Transformational technologies and innovation
The closing date for submission of applications is Tuesday 10 September 2024 (midnight, Paris time, CET)
Opportunities
Sharing your research with your MP
How much do you know about your MP? Before meeting your MP to talk about your research (which you should be able to do in one of their surgeries), you may want to find out as much as you can about their opinion or interest in the topic of your research. There are different ways to do this. One way is to look at their voting record.
To find your MP’s voting record, search for them through the Find MPs function, then click onto their profile. Once there, click on the ‘Voting Record’ button on the left hand side of the page.
So what?
The more you know about your audience, the more you can tailor your interactions with them to help you bring about the outcome you’re hoping for.
Advice from UK Parliament Knowledge Exchange Unit
Call for evidence - Barriers to community energy projects
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero have a consultation on Barriers to community energy projects is seeking views and evidence on the barriers to community energy projects - projects that involve groups of people coming together to purchase, manage, generate, or reduce consumption of energy.
Submission deadline is Sunday 30 June
Info
Leeds Residents To Be Given The Opportunity To Design Alternatives To Car Ownership
A multimillion-pound project to encourage people in Leeds to design and try an alternative to private vehicle ownership has been announced by researchers.
The groundbreaking INFUZE study (Inspiring Futures for Zero Carbon Mobility) will ask communities across the city to help design bespoke mobility solutions, which could include car clubs, responsive taxi-style bus services and shared bicycle and scooter schemes.
The £7.8m plan is being led by the Institute for Transport Studies (ITS) at the University of Leeds, along with research partners The Royal College of Art and Lancaster University and is being funded by the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council.
It will eventually involve up to 400 households across the city and could lead to the creation of a national centre of excellence in low carbon alternatives to car ownership.
Climate action is for all, not just the wealthy
In this blog for UK Universities Climate Network, Hettie Moorcroft, Sam Hampton & Lorraine Whitmarsh from the University of Bath discuss misconceptions around concern about climate change, income level, and ability to take action.
Field bottlenecks and skill development for conservation social scientists
Laura Thomas-Walters (University of Stirling) et al surveyed 119 professionals working in conservation social science across the world to identify the soft and technical skills that the conservation social science sector will most need over the next five years. They found that current conservation social scientists believe students and early career conservationists should prioritize SOFT skills rather than technical skills to be effective, and that these skills are also correlated with the skills considered hardest to train on the job.
CAPE Resource Navigator & toolkits
Capabilities in Academic Engagement (CAPE) is a £10 million initiative funded by Research England. It membership includes is a consortium of five university partners (UCL, and the Universities of Cambridge, Manchester, Nottingham and Northumbria), alongside policy partners from the Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology (POST), Government Office for Science (GO-Science), and the Transforming Evidence Hub.
It aims to enhance the use of evidence in public policy. It explores what works in diverse institutional, geographical and policy contexts, while fostering greater collaboration between universities and improving diversity in engagements.
Access to gardens and citizen science helps encourage conservation among children
Access to gardens and citizen science projects at school can help promote pro-conservation behaviour among pupils, a new study shows. Offering children the chance to take part in authentic scientific ecological work and gardening encourages an interest in plants.
This can change behaviour – to spend more time gardening or to pursue a botanical career - and fuels a positive attitude towards safeguarding the environment, experts found.
Bethan Stagg, ACCESS Flex Fund awardee from the University of Exeter and Justin Dillon, from University College London, assessed the evidence around teaching conservation and ecology.
Should we stop using the word ‘stakeholder’ in research?
The word ‘stakeholder’ stands in for a range of people and practices across many research fields.
Caitlin Hafferty, Ursula Pool and Pedi Obani argue that the colonial connotations and ingrained inequalities of the term, require scholars to rethink its use and take greater care with the way in which words shape attitudes and approaches to research.
Can we end the age of destruction?
Watch here a Climate Crisis Advisory Group discussion about a recent paper 'Earth at risk: An urgent call to end the age of destruction and forge a just and sustainable future' published in the National Academy of Sciences in the United States of America.
