News, Jobs, Events, Opportunities and lots more...
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Quick round up of this week's news, jobs and events
News
How can Environmental Social Scientists have more impact on policymaking?
The ACCESS Environmental Social Science kNowledge Exchange Map of Opportunities (ESS NEMO), is now available to help. The map will help anyone looking to improve collaboration across sectors and disciplines, help overcome barriers in driving impact, and foster greater science-policy engagement.
The maps were co-produced by 32 environmental social scientists including the core team of George Warren, Harry Marshall, and Birgitta Gatersleben. ESS NEMO is specifically designed to support knowledge creators, brokers, policy makers and practitioners
engaging with Environmental Social Science in academia, civil society, commercial entities, political organisations, intergovernmental organisations, the UK Government, devolved administrations, and local government.
Find out more
Events & Training
The new parliament’s climate story: Climate Outreach webinar
Tuesday 30 July, 10am to 11.30am, online
As the new government begins work - what should its climate story be?
Join Climate Outreach and
- Paul McNamee, Labour Climate and Environment Forum
- Emma Pinchbeck, Energy UK
- Sasha Josette, Working Class Climate Alliance
- Mika Minio-Paluello, Trades Union Congress
- James Murray, Business Green
- Josh Akapo, Creatives for Climate
for an agenda-setting and challenging webinar to kick off the next Parliament.
Climate Change and Mental Health online training course for civil servants
Online, Anytime
Climate change and mental health are two of the biggest challenges facing governments globally, and they’re inextricably linked.
Climate change has a huge, negative effect on mental health, but the connection works both ways. Stronger social and emotional health means more climate action, and when people see and participate in climate action, their mental health improves.
Apolitical has developed this course with experts from the Institute of Global Health Innovation and Imperial College London. Through these lessons, you’ll gain the knowledge and tools to address both issues at once, designing initiatives that support mental and environmental health.
Net Zero Futures Conference 2024
Wednesday 18 September, Centre for postdoctoral development in infrastructure cities and energy, Cranfield University
The conference celebrates the contributions of postdoctoral and doctoral researchers in the transition to Net Zero. Gain insights through the lens of academics and researchers driving impact, and find inspiration to create new career development pathways for yourself. The conference is free to attend for all postdoctoral researchers.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Higher Education Conference, Westminster Insight
Tuesday 30 September, 9.30am to 3pm, IStructE, London and online
Students from minority ethnic, disabled, LGBTQ+, and low socio-economic backgrounds still face barriers to learning which stop them from reaching their potential. In England, disadvantaged students are more likely to drop out of higher education compared to other students.
Through a series of expert-led sessions and case studies, we will share practical guidance and expertise to help you monitor diversity, improve experiences, and increase student retention.
1st annual Society of Risk Analysis Europe (SRA-E) UK conference: UK Chapter reactivated: The Future of Risk Analysis
Monday 28 & Tuesday 29 October, King's College London
The conference aims to bring together researchers, academics, practitioners, and policy makers engaged in risk analysis. It also aims to promote risk research and its application, and enhance the knowledge and understanding of risk analysis concepts and their use within the UK and internationally.
Abstract submission deadline: 31 July 2024
Jobs
Project Internship - Understanding social acceptability of ‘lost’ tree species restoration at Forest Research, Midlothian, Scotland
This six month project internship will be assisting with PhD research into the values, attitudes, and expectations related to elm species restoration at three case study sites across the UK. Tasks may include literature review and synthesis, assistance with fieldwork logistics, conducting semi-structured interviews, assisting with participatory research activities within communities, preliminary data analysis and writing up aspects of the research undertaken.
Application deadline is Sunday 4 August
Postdoctoral Research Associate or Fellow for the RENEWing Biodiversity project at the University of Exeter
The Collaboration in Practice research team of RENEWing Biodiversity is looking for a Postdoctoral Research Associate or Fellow to continue ethnographic research investigating interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary biodiversity research collaboration, in which we are reflexively studying the wider RENEW programme as it unfolds.
Applications welcome from those with backgrounds in science and technology studies or related fields (e.g. sociology, anthropology, science engagement, environmental social science, human geography; or contemporary history of science, technology and medicine).
Application deadline is Wednesday 7 August
University Assistant at the Uni of Graz, Austria.
The University of is looking for someone with a Master's/ diploma degree in environmental sociology, environmental psychology, environmental systems sciences, environment and bioresources management or comparable social science discipline.
Application deadline is Wednesday 14 August
Fully Funded PhD: Governing Housing Retrofit: The Role of Social Intermediaries at the University of Manchester
This exciting interdisciplinary project focuses on the relationships between people, places, public policy, and the environment. The researcher on this project will examine how, and why, individuals, groups, communities, and policymakers interact with one another to shape policy objectives through diverse practices of intermediation.
Application deadline is Monday 16 September
Fully Funded Phd: The Decarbonisation Divide: Emergent Socio-Spatial Inequalities on the Path to a Low-Carbon Future at the University of Manchester
This novel research project aims to explore the growing 'decarbonisation divide' within the United Kingdom’s housing sector. The project seeks to develop new conceptual and policy tools to analyse the legal frameworks, strategic decisions, policy practices and spatial patterns linked to the shift away from fossil fuel use in the residential housing stock.
Application deadline is Monday 16 September
Funding
British Academy Mid-Career Fellowships
Through this scheme, the Academy intends to both support outstanding individual researchers with excellent research proposals, and to promote public understanding of and engagement with the humanities and social sciences. The primary rationale of the scheme is, therefore, to free successful applicants from their normal academic and administrative commitments for a period of six to twelve months, to devote to the completion of a major piece of research. In addition, the Academy will look for evidence of a clear commitment to a strategy of public engagement and communication of the research outcomes during the period of the Fellowship.
Application deadline is Wednesday 21 August
Opportunities
Are you on the map?
Who is doing behavioural research in the UK and where? This question has been an important starting point for Behaviour Research-UK in their role to provide leadership and build capability in behavioural research across the UK.
To develop their understanding they have mapped information from almost 700 organisations, research groups and networks which you can now access on their website.
If your organisation is not represented on the map, but you think it should be, please contact BehaviouralResearchUK@ucl.ac.uk
Climate Attributable Mental Health: Impacts and Interventions - Submissions welcome
Climate related disasters such as wildfires, drought, heat waves and floods and their consequences are resulting in deaths and disease from causes ranging from cardio-respiratory disease to malnutrition and malaria. Mental ill health too, is on the rise, however, causal pathways and psychiatric diagnoses in relation to climate change remains less well recognised and estimated.
This Topic Collection in BMJ Mental Health plans to bring together the latest evidence on the burden of climate-attributable mental health impacts and potential actions to address these impacts.
Submissions Open | Submission Deadline: Friday 6 September
Info
What Affects Your Engagement with the UK Government?
The Academic Engagement team at the Government Office for Science would like to gather your views on how you engage with the UK Government. The information you provide will be used to understand current academic engagement with UK Government. It will also be used to build an evidence base for a scoping project to increase the number of mid-career scientists in the Civil Service at senior levels, permanently.
To share your views, please click here to fill out the survey. They would welcome views from early career researchers all the way to senior researchers and from a broad range of disciplines.
The survey will close Friday 16 August
Connecting Climate Minds Global Research and Action Agenda for climate change and mental health
The Connecting Climate Minds project, led by Imperial College London, have just launched the co-created report: ‘Connecting Climate Minds Global Research and Action Agenda for climate change and mental health’.
The report is an interdisciplinary co-creation of a research and action that centres lived experience and practical action. There is also a short online course for public servants: Climate Change and Mental Health
Opportunities for improved social sustainability in marine governance
A collaborative knowledge exchange project between the University of Exeter and the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) has produced a new report considering how the MMO and marine decision-makers in England can better deliver social sustainability.
The project, ‘Marine planning reform for better governance’, brought Marine Management Organisation (MMO) staff working in marine planning, evidence and evaluation, together with a panel of academic researchers and practitioners who have expertise in environmental governance and social impact. Together they generated new ideas about how culture and practice in marine planning and evidence gathering can be changed.
The report identifies barriers and makes key recommendations to drive change in marine governance decision-making that empowers coastal communities and considers the social impacts from marine developments.
The project was led by Pamela Buchan, an ACCESS Leadership College Fellow and a marine social scientist at the University of Exeter, and Dr Aisling Lannin, a member of the ACCESS Policy & Practice Working Group and Head of Evidence and Evaluation at the MMO.
Good Practice Guide for Social Enterprises Working on Food, Wellbeing and Sustainability
The Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity launches a Good Practice Guide, which draws on research from their Social Enterprise Food Systems project. The project explored how social enterprises can introduce innovations for healthy and sustainable food.
This guide is for any initiatives that want to start up and sustain activities that use a social enterprises approach (i.e. meeting social and environmental aims through trading activity and grants). The guide sets out topics to consider ranging from the early stages of start up through to scaling what works through growing organisations or simply sharing ideas. Through all this, there is a need to consider how those involved care for themselves and others. The guide identifies a range of ways that social enterprises can be the alternative needed to transform the UK food system.
What University College London's social scientists gain from collaborative partnerships
In this podcast series four UCL social scientists, who talk about their pilot projects and what they gained from their cross-disciplinary partnerships.
