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A quick round up of the latest news, jobs and opportunities
News
ACCESS Retreat 2026
We had a wonderful 3-day retreat at Denbies Wine Estate Limited in Surrey last week. Each year, our University of Exeter and the University of Surrey teams meet up to reflect on ACCESS's achievements and challenges, and discuss our plans for the project in the year to come.
This year's retreat was particularly poignant, as ACCESS is due to finish at the end of January 2027.
Many thanks to the Surrey team for organising the retreat, and to Isabelle Cardinal (Natural England), Peter Bailey (Environment Agency) and Lorraine Whitmarsh MBE (ACCESS Leadership Team & CAST) for sharing your thoughts on the impact the project has had to date and the opportunities still ahead.
A very warm welcome to Milad Sarvestani who has just joined ACCESS as a Postgraduate Research Associate.
Milad’s research focuses on public value creation, public services and citizen and stakeholder engagement in public policy and administration.
He will be conducting quantitative analysis of the Nature Recovery Task Force’s Panel Survey of Biodiversity Recovery Stakeholders, led by Alice Moseley and Birgitta Gatersleben.
Spotlight Interview*: Intersections of power, policy and justice: Gerald E. Arhin’s energy-transitions research
Gerald Arhin’s interest in extractive governance began with personal experience. He grew up in Ghana, and watched his community’s water become polluted by gold mining. He went on to study how power shapes energy infrastructure and who pays the price.
In this week’s Spotlight Interview, Jaya Gajparia meets Gerald E. Arhin, and learns about his work:
“justice is often discussed in broad terms, such as the fair distribution of risks and benefits, but these ideas can mean different things in different places... achieving justice in climate policy requires attention to context. It is not fixed, but shaped by time, place and the specific needs of communities.”
Read Gerald's Spotlight Interview
*Gerald was interviewed by Jaya Gajparia as part of her new ACCESS interview series, spotlighting environmental social scientists with global-majority backgrounds.
Of the Land concert – a roaring success
How do communities care for their people, nature and place? Of The Land is a musical exploration of community experiences and practices in Badenoch and Strathspey as they respond to climate and nature crises.
Composer Mhairi Hall worked with the ACCESS FlexFund project Building Sustainability on a Foundation of Care, led by Sarah Parry (University of Edinburgh), to create a musical reflection on the giving and receiving of care that accompany efforts to repair both social and natural environments.
Of the Land was performed last Saturday at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall by the students of the National Centre of Excellence in Traditional Music in Plockton, as part of the Celtic Connections festival.
ACCESS Director Patrick Devine-Wright was there to hear the music and said:
"It was inspiring to be in the room with so many talented musicians and researchers - definitely a moment that made me feel proud to be involved in ACCESS"
We will be sharing some video of the concert in the weeks to come.
Events
How to Publish
Thursday 5 February, 4-5pm, online
CAST (Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations) Director and member of the ACCESS Leadership Team Lorraine Whitmarsh MBE, is hosting a webinar for the Environmental Psychology Research journal, as Editor-in-Chief, on How to Publish.
This event is aimed at both early-career researchers and experienced scholars looking to publish in the field of environmental psychology.
This webinar will cover:
- Environmental Psychology Research: Learn about the journal’s aims, scope, and commitment to multidisciplinary research on human-environment interactions.
- How to Get Published: Practical tips on preparing and submitting your manuscript, avoiding common pitfalls, and the peer review process.
Insights from an Editor Perspective: Hear directly from Professor Lorraine Whitmarsh, Editor of Environmental Psychology Research, about what makes a strong submission and how to maximise your chances of acceptance.
- Q&A: Any questions regarding the journal, open access and the editorial process.
Navigating Uncertainty, Creating Change: Social Sciences Impact Conference
Tuesday 24 – Wednesday 25 March, St Anne’s College, Oxford
Today’s rapidly-changing world is full of uncertainty – political shifts, rising global tensions and conflicts, the advance of AI and cybersecurity threats, the climate crisis, health and biosecurity risks, societal and cultural shifts, and changes in international aid, energy and supply chain systems.
This uncertainty brings new challenges – but it also provides many opportunities to work together, to build resilience and enable meaningful change. Social sciences can provide robust approaches, evidence and understanding to inform responses and reimagine futures for the better.
This two-day social sciences impact conference supported by the University of Oxford’s ESRC Impact Acceleration Account, will explore how collaboration, openness, innovation and inclusion can help us move forward positively to address some of the major challenges we collectively face.
Funding
UKERC Whole Systems Networking Fund for Early Career Researchers
The UKERC Whole Systems Networking Fund is designed to improve Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), collaboration and networking in energy research.
It will support up to four, early career researcher (ECR) led projects through grants of up to £88,500 (at Full Economic Cost).
The Whole Systems Networking Fund will:
- Offer career enhancement and networking opportunities for ECRs
- Bring in diverse teams to deliver projects that align with UKERC research areas
- Widen participation to share experience across disciplines and the four UK nations
- Improve EDI across the energy research space
Proposals should align with UKERC’s current research areas. They also welcome proposals for interdisciplinary research, approaches, and methods that speak to more than one current research area.
Deadline: Friday 30 January, 5pm
Apply here
Postdoctoral Visiting Fellowship in Sustainability and Environment (British Library)
This is an £8,000 bursary to support 8 months part-time research (0.5) at the British Library.
This is a collections-based fellowship, aimed at early career researchers in the arts and humanities or social sciences. It is designed to encourage the promotion and use of British Library collections in sustainability and environmental research, an expanding and urgent area of current social and cultural enquiry.
They are open to any form or focus of proposal which explore collection areas relevant to sustainability and environment, but are particularly excited for researchers to approach our collections through the following research themes:
- Development of environmentalism – eco-criticism; representations and experiences of climate crisis; climate activism; changing attitudes to the natural world; pedagogies and practice; accessibility of environmental knowledge; sustainability and wellbeing; public engagement in science.
- How archive and library collections can be used to examine changing landscapes, waterways, climates and ecologies – including anthropogenic impacts, human-animal relations; human geography.
- Colonial and imperial environments – networks, institutions and communities; natural economies and commodity frontiers; scarcity and extraction; conflict, agency and social justice.
- Green Libraries – developing environmentally sustainable practices in archives and libraries; improving environmental conditions for historical collections; risk management including new and emerging risks from a changing climate; community engagement and learning practice/pedagogies.
Deadline: Monday 9 February, 12 noon
Jobs
Lecturer in Quantitative Social Research, teaching & research (University of Leeds)
With digital and quantitative skills increasingly important to the graduate jobs market, the University of Leeds is looking for someone with expertise in a range of quantitative research methods who will bring innovative teaching that will inspire students and an exciting quantitative research agenda.
They particularly welcome applicants whose quantitative expertise engages with emerging or cross-disciplinary fields such as digital sociology, computational social science, epidemiological approaches to social policy and / or the use of artificial intelligence and data science methods in social research.
The successful applicant will contribute to all aspects of the development and provision of social research teaching and learning in the School, as well as delivering research-led teaching in other areas.
This is a full-time, permanent position.
Deadline: Monday 2 February
Policy Partnerships Officer, School of Society & Environment (Queen Mary, University of London)
The Policy Partnership Officer is a new role, created to support the Mile End Institute to develop their policy engagement activities. The post-holder will be responsible for establishing and maintaining effective partnerships with organisations in the policy, civil society and education sectors.
They will support the Institute Manager, Director and Deputy Director (Policy) to deliver the Institute's policy engagement activities (including briefing sessions, workshops and seminars) which add impact, educational and/or financial value to the School of Society and Environment and the wider University community.
The ideal candidate will understand the needs of policymakers in national and local government and other political and policymaking organisations and be able to communicate effectively with senior staff and varied stakeholders.
This is a full-time, permanent role.
Deadline: Thursday 5 February
Postdoctoral Fellow in Political Science (University of Oslo)
Recruiting a Postdoctoral Fellow with specialisation in public policy and administration, comparative politics or international relations. The successful applicant will work with the political science component of the interdisciplinary research project “Renewable energy-driven recycling of CO2 and H2O to consumer products and fuels, (CH-CYCLE)”.
The appointment is a fulltime position for a period of three years. Depending on the candidate’s competence and the teaching needs of the department, the fellowship period can be extended up to four years for other types of qualification work including various teaching tasks and obligations.
The primary aim of CH-CYCLE is to understand how to overcome key technological, environmental and political obstacles to renewable energy driven recycling of CO2 and H2O to consumer products and fuels. The political science component of CH-CYCLE explores policies that influence the development of Carbon Removals, and particularly Carbon Capture and Usage.
Applicants must hold a degree equivalent to a Norwegian doctoral degree (PhD) in Political Science or a closely related discipline before taking up the post.
Deadline: Friday 6 February, 10.59pm
Senior/Research Fellow in Energy Transitions and Justice (Cranfield University, Bedfordshire)
This is a full-time, 30-month fixed-contract role. You will be advancing the development and application of socio-technical systems thinking and justice principles to ensure the benefits and disbenefits of hydrogen transition are borne fairly.
You will be joining the Global Hydrogen Production Technologies (HyPT) Center which aims to develop net-zero and responsible hydrogen pathways across the UK, USA, Canada and Australia. You will become a member of the cross-cutting policies, economics and market thrust as well as the UK team.
You will lead social aspects of hydrogen infrastructure development and justice work streams across the four jurisdictions. You will be expected to evaluate the incumbent governance regimes, including formal laws and regulations, against principles of flexibility and learning with a view to establish a set of adaptive governance principles and identify best practices. Analysing how hydrogen transition may impact vulnerable or indigenous peoples, in particular whether and how it can undo past injustices, is very important for this role.
You will be educated to doctoral level in governance of energy systems or institutional perspectives to energy transitions or socio-technical perspectives to energy systems change or energy justice or energy policy and regulation.
Deadline: Wednesday 11 February
PhD studentships
PhD scholarship in Environmental and Political Psychology (Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany)
Public Endorsement of (Non)Democratic Decision-Making Processes and Support for Long-Term Sustainable Policies in Times of Global Crises
This PhD scholarship is at the intersection of environmental psychology and political psychology as part of the large-scale university program, Embracing Transformation, which aims to advance our understanding of societal transformations worldwide.
The project aims to:
- investigate how various forms of governmental decision-making processes – ranging from democratic consensus to authoritarian decision-making – shape public support of pro/anti-climate policies and endorsement of involved stakeholders.
- examine how the importance attributed to climate policies and democratic decision-making processes shifts in various societal groups based on the salience of societal crises.
- examine effects of interventions and participatory approaches (e.g., citizen councils) to reinforcing both democratic resilience and long-term climate policy commitments in times of multidimensional challenges.
For further information on the scholarship and the application process, please contact Prof. Ulf Hahnel (ulf.hahnel@leuphana.de)
Deadline: Saturday 31 January
"Given the relatively short application deadline, feel free to get in touch in case you experience any difficulties meeting the deadline."
PhD Studentship: Sustainable Transitions (University of Essex)
This is an opportunity for a person from an underrepresented group to undertake a fully funded master’s degree followed by a fully funded interdisciplinary PhD research degree under the ‘Sustainable Transitions – Leverhulme Doctoral Training Programme’ at the University of Essex.
Each research project is interdisciplinary in nature and supervised by expert academics drawn from two of the following six disciplines at the University - Business, Government, Law, Life Sciences, Maths, and Sociology - to address specific challenges.
There are seven different projects that you can apply for under the programme:
- Building Energy Commons: Law, Governance, and Community Power in African Renewable Energy Transitions
- How do climate change-induced biodiversity targets influence the dynamics and effectiveness of international cooperation in biodiversity governance?
- Implementation of the Human Right to Water
- Investigating Fake News Related to Climate Change
- Political Economy of the Environment and Development
- The Relationship between Legal and Economic interventions for effective Climate Adaptation Strategies
- The role of international economic law in environmental policy
- Waste Management – Towards Sustainability
Deadline: Monday 13 April, 11.59pm
Opportunities
Call for Papers: 7th Student-led Climate and Energy Transition Nest Conference
Saturday 16 June, College of Europe, Natolin, Warsaw
This annual conference brings together the College of Europe’s international student community (over 35 nationalities), alongside external researchers, practitioners, and policy actors.
This year’s theme is: EU Climate Policy in Crisis: Continuously Absent Solutions to Persistent Challenges
The conference will examine the EU’s climate and energy ambitions in the current political and geopolitical context, including:
Narratives surrounding the energy transition
Energy and structural dependencies
Links between climate policy, energy security, and democratic governance
The conference is interdisciplinary. English is the main working language, with the possibility of presenting in French. Selected contributions may be published in a post-conference academic journal.
Deadline for abstracts: Saturday 31 January
10 New Insights in Climate Science - Call for Experts
The Call for Expert Input for this year’s 10 New Insights in Climate Science is now open. It welcomes and encourages researchers working on climate change-related topics (both natural and social sciences) to share the key recent developments in climate change research that should be brought to the attention of policymakers and negotiators at the UNFCCC.
The call also aims to identify topic experts interested in contributing as co-authors of the academic manuscript that underpins the policy report.
Deadline: Saturday 31 January
Opportunity to join the Department for Transport Science Advisory Council
The DfT is seeking five new members for its Science Advisory Council (SAC) – a committee of academic and industry experts who provide independent, strategic advice on science and technology issues.
DfT are looking for members who have expertise in one of the following specific technical areas relevant to transport, together with the broader skills to contribute effectively across all SAC activities:
- Social and behavioural research
- Environment, ecology and land-use
- Data, digital and telecommunications
- Position, Navigation and Timing
- Transport risk, resilience and/or security research
- Transport energy systems, including hydrogen and/or other alternative fuels
- User-Centred Design
The role involves a time commitment of up to eight days on your specialism and ten days on wider SAC work, with remuneration offered.
To apply, please submit:
- A CV (max two pages, font size 11)
- A Statement of Suitability (max 750 words) showing how you meet the essential criteria
- A completed Supporting Information Form (attached)
Send applications to: SAC.Secretariat@dft.gov.uk with the subject line “SAC member application.”
For questions about the process or if you need additional assistance, email: SAC.Secretariat@dft.gov.uk
For an informal discussion with a senior DfT official, contact: DfTChiefScientificAdviser@dft.gov.uk
Deadline: Sunday 8 February, midnight
Call for session proposals: UPEN (Universities Policy Engagement Network) Conference
9am Monday 29 June – 5pm Tuesday 30 June, University College London
This year’s conference theme is trust. It will explore how trust in evidence is built, challenged, maintained, and used in academic-policy engagement.
Proposals should focus on perspectives on trust in evidence, drawing on real-world experience from research, policy, funding, or knowledge mobilisation contexts.
Proposals should address one or more of the following areas:
- How trust in evidence works
- Trust in evidence under pressure
- Building trust in practice
- Democratic accountability for evidence use in policymaking
Deadline: Sunday 15 February
Call for abstracts: Tackling Energy Inequalities through Home Energy Advice and Retrofit, RGS-IBG Annual Conference
Tuesday 1 – Friday 4 September, Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) Annual Conference, London & online
This is a call for papers that critically examine the role of energy advice provision and home retrofit practices, specifically for tackling energy inequalities. We aim to foster discussion and generate new insights into how these interventions can shape fairer and more equitable energy futures.
Suggested areas may include (but are not limited to):
- Innovative and emerging approaches to delivering household energy advice and retrofit for reducing energy inequalities
- Challenges and opportunities to equitable access for advice and retrofit, including best practice examples and case studies
- Community-led initiatives and grassroots responses in advice and retrofit delivery
- Policy and governance frameworks for progressing energy equity dimensions
- The role of governing actors and cross-sectoral/collaborative partnership networks in energy advice and retrofit
Submissions welcome from all career stages.
Please submit a title and abstract (max. 250 words) to the lead session organiser Katherine Sugar: (Katherine.sugar@manchester.ac.uk)
Deadline: Friday 20 February
Call for abstracts: Energy justice and the longue durée of coloniality within energy systems, RGS-IBG Annual Conference
Tuesday 1 – Friday 4 September, London & online
In this session, papers are invited from all disciplines that bring a (de/post/anti)colonial lens to energy justice studies to collectively and critically reflect on the colonial ways of knowing, producing and living with energy. Papers might examine, but are not limited to, the following themes and topics:
- Land and place, particularly concerning local and Indigenous peoples and their relationship with land;
- Policy, governance and decision-making which enacts or inhibits justice;
- Ontologies and/or epistemologies of energy and energy justice;
- Alternative, justice-centred energy futures;
- Innovative or praxis-oriented methods to study energy in ways that empower marginalized groups.
Scholars and practitioners are invited from all from all disciplines, career stages, institutional affiliations and geographies. Collaborative presentations (e.g. co-presentation with community co-researchers or similar) are welcome in the session.
Please send a short abstract (up to 300 words) to Anna Cain (anna.cain@unsw.edu.au)
Deadline: Friday 20 February
Call for abstracts: Building Capability in Behavioural Research Conference 2026
Tuesday 30 June, University of Birmingham
This is a BR-UK (Behavioural Research UK) and Centre-UB (Centre for Understanding Behaviour) conference dedicated to building capability in behavioural research.
They want to hear from scientists, analysts, researchers, policy and delivery professionals working within the private, public and third sectors (in addition to those within academia) who are driving innovation to better society through our understanding of human behaviour.
The call for abstracts is live and includes abstracts for presentations and case studies about where knowledge of human behaviour is being put into practice; whether that is in product, service or intervention design, changing working practice, or guiding public policy development and delivery.
Deadline for abstracts: Thursday 26 February
Free online mindfulness programme, worldwide research study
Are you:
- Currently feeling stressed
- Between 18 and 65 years of age
- Willing to complete a screening questionnaire
- New to mindfulness
- Willing to practice mindfulness for minimum 2 hours per week for 4 weeks
Francesco Saldarini is a postdoctoral fellow at Waseda University (Japan). His research focuses on investigating the (potential) effects of mind-body practices on psychology.
He is running a longitudinal intervention study investigating the effects of a digital mindfulness-based programme on a variety of health and cognitive outcomes.
The study takes place entirely online and will require you to participate in two or three main experimental sessions, when you will be asked to complete a task and answer some questions. Each session will take approximately 40 minutes to complete.
You will also participate in an online NHS-approved mindfulness-based programme. The programme is pre-recorded and you can flexibly choose when to attend a session.
Participants will receive ¥3800 (≈ £20) for their participation.
If you are interested in participating in the study and wish to know more about it, please contact Franecsco at: w.iac23317@kurenai.waseda.jp.
Info
UK newspaper editorial opposition to climate action overtakes support for first time
New analysis from Sylvia Hayes (University of Exeter) and Josh Gabbatiss (Carbon Brief) shows editorial opposition to climate action overtaking support for the first time.
Nearly 100 UK newspaper editorials opposed climate action in 2025, a record figure that reveals the scale of the backlash against net-zero in the right-leaning press.
Drawing from a database of more than 1,300 editorials, which are the formal “voice” of a newspaper, this analysis examines how the language used to describe human-caused climate change, as well as renewables, fracking and nuclear power, has shifted since 2011.
The analysis shows that the number of editorials calling for more action to tackle climate change has quadrupled in the space of three years, mirroring a wider increase in news coverage of the topic. Nowhere has this shift been more apparent than among the nation’s right-leaning newspapers.
What do Gen-Z think about sustainability?
How do young people think about sustainability and how does this shape their consumption decisions? These questions underpin new exploratory research by Brand Legacy in collaboration with ACCESS Co-Director Kate Burningham and Anastasia Loukianov (University of Surrey).
In this blogpost for CUSP, the authors describe how participant videos and focus groups were used to explore issues of sustainability and consumption with lower-middle class young people aged 23-25 living in and around Manchester.
Particularly interesting for the authors were insights into how everyday sustainability is navigated by both parents and their young adult children in households where they continue to live together:
"While it’s common to see conflicts between Gen Z and baby boomers highlighted, the project suggests that rather than having a ‘them versus us’ mentality, young participants felt that all generations were ‘in it together’ and share responsibility for sustainability."
The Care Economy: Tim Jackson in Conversation with Kate Raworth
Will prosperity ever be measured in health not wealth? And what might an economy organised around care, rather than growth truly look like?
Care is the foundation of our lives and societies but in the markets it remains sidelined, its value and labour too often forgotten in the relentless rush for productivity and wealth.
In this conversation recorded at The Conduit, London, in September, Tim Jackson and Kate Raworth, explore how we arrived in this dysfunctional place and what we can do to change it.
From the state of our healthcare and planetary systems, to our troubled relationships with patriarchy and profit, they discuss why a new economics guided by care for people and the planet is not only possible, but so urgently needed.
From Public Acceptance to Societal Responsiveness of Net Zero Infrastructures
This policy briefing from Phedeas Stephanides (University of East Anglia) et al., synthesises insights from a collaborative UK Energy Research Centre
(UKERC) project that reviewed and analysed social science literature and UK
policy discourse on public acceptance of net zero infrastructures.
"The review suggests that alongside dominant public acceptance and societal
acceptability perspectives, emerging social science understandings challenge the bulk of contemporary policy for net zero by emphasising the need for societal responsiveness, both in specific contexts and more systemically... and suggest that successful net zero transitions depend on moving beyond acceptance to be more, not less, responsive to society."
Can you balance the limited power needed to keep data centre lights on, with the local town where your friends and family huddle in the cold?
If you're interested in data centres and electricity and their relationship to people and landscapes, you might enjoy this new game from the Megabytes versus Megawatts research project, at Linköping University, Sweden.
Northdark is a narrative role-playing game for 1-2 players set in a Nordic data center, when the lights have gone out.
Northdark invites you to tell the story of a data centre as an ecosystem with power, people, processing and place at its heart, literally.
Using simple components (dice, deck of cards, tokens, and a microphone) you record what happens each hour, as the snowstorm passes. Will you make it home? What must the data centre become to survive?
Football-style ‘Video Assistant Referee’ tackles climate misinformation
A football-inspired, AI-powered, climate misinformation tool launched at Davos this week.
Developed by the University of Exeter’s Nature and Climate Impact Team, ClimaVAR is designed to be a personal Video Assistant Referee for climate information.
Just like football VAR, it reviews controversial claims and provides clear, science-based verdicts on climate-related content.
Content is flagged as onside/in game (accurate), or shown a yellow (misleading/partially incorrect) or red card/offside (false or harmful). ClimaVar also provides the user with scientific references as to where the information was verified.
How ClimaVAR works:
- AI-assisted detection identifies trending or suspect climate claims.
- Referee-style verdicts make each claim’s accuracy instantly clear.
- Replay / explanation mode shows why a claim was flagged, and links to verified scientific sources.
- Designed for social media – decisions can be shared as cards, reels, or live commentary during climate events.
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.
