News, Jobs, Events, Opportunities and lots more...
No images? Click here
Quick round up of this week's news, jobs and events
News
Working at the Energy Saving Trust. Reflections on an Industry Placement. Blog by George Warren, ACCESS Knowledge Exchange Fellow
George took part in an NGO placement scheme for the Energy-PIECES project funded by the UKERC Whole Systems Networking Fund while a PhD student.
Find out what he learned during the placement and why he would recommend industry placements to others.
Meet more of our Leadership College Fellows
At this year's ACCESS Leadership College, I caught up with Susann one of the Leadership College Fellows to find out more about her areas of interest and research.
Susann talked about her work on sustainability and pro-environmental behaviour change and the two projects, Future Island-Island and Epic Futures NI, she is currently working on. Susann highlights the impact her work is having on stakeholders and policy-makers. She finishes with some quick insights into co-production on the UKRI Green Transition Ecosystems project.
I met Helen last year at the ACCESS Assembly (2023) to find out what it's like to be an environmental social scientist in the Meteorological Office (Met Office).
New to her post in 2023, her first job has been raising awareness of environmental social science with her meteorology and climatology colleagues. This naturally opens up conversations about how the social sciences can help inform "decision science" and the forecasting and weather alert communications.
We are excited to see some of the ACCESS network giving presentations in London (27 Nov) and Bristol (28 Nov).
In London. Soundscapes: The Power of Nature Engagement through Sound. Sarah Payne, University of Surrey, and Jessica Wardlaw, Natural History Museum & Bridget Appleby, Secret Life of Sounds. Chaired by Birgitta Gatersleben.
In Bristol. Disability inclusive nature engagement with Sarah Bell, University of Exeter, Andy Shipley, Sensing Nature, George Rhodes, All Able.
Decolonising conservation & environmental sectors in the UK using a social justice framework. Jaya Gajparia and Megha Kashyap (LSB) and Chair Laura Fogg-Rogers (UWE).
ACCESS Knowledge Exchange Fellow, Jenny Hatchard and myself will be in Bristol too. If you are attending please come and say hello!
Events
Effectively communicating psychological research and practice to a wider audience
Friday 1 November, 3 to 5 pm, In person, London
The British Psychological Society has invited David Robson, an award-winning author and science writer at the BBC and the New Scientist to talk about how to communicate psychology to a non-psychological audience.
Daivd regularly writes about the work and the research of psychologists for a global audience. In this event, he will talk about his work as a science communicator and journalist, and how to explain psychological research and practice to non-technical audiences. His talk will be followed by a moderated discussion, with plenty of time for Q&A from the audience.
Greens & Gains: A Fun Dive into Plant Power!
Saturday 9 November, 10 am to 4 pm, St Thomas Community Food Hub, Saint Thomas, Exeter
For the Festival of Social Science, the University of Exeter and Love Food CIC have collaborated to host a fun, interactive event exploring how plant-based diets can support the environment and human health. Plant-based diets have 75% less environmental impact (carbon emissions, land and water use) and are estimated to add 10 years of life and prevent 24% of premature deaths.
Check out more Festival of Social Science events here
Calling all researchers with expertise in climate change and health: Climate Change & Health Wikipedia Workshop
Wednesday 6 November, 12 to 1 pm, Tuesday 12 November 4 to 5 pm, and Thursday 21 November 10 to 11 am
The National Institute for Health and Care Research and the Global Systems Institute at the University of Exeter are looking for experts in health and climate change to help them create a new Wikipedia article for the ‘Health effects of climate change in the UK’.
In the workshops, they will improve publicly available knowledge by creating a high-quality Wikipedia article on this important topic at the intersection of the climate crisis and health research. You only need to attend one workshop.
Environment and Society mid-term and Energy and Society Network 7th joint conference at the University of Kaunas, Lithuania
Wednesday 24 to Thursday 25 September, 2025
The conference calls for critical sociological reflection and data driven social science responses within the overlapping broad themes of energy transitions and the climate change emergency, biodiversity loss, and environmental pollution crises.
Call for papers. Submission deadline for abstracts and special session proposals by Monday 20 January 2025
Jobs
Research and Development Fellowships 2025/26 at Defra
Following the success of their first fellowship programme Defra are now launching the second Defra R&D Fellowship Programme. This programme provides an opportunity for researchers to gain experience in a policy-focused environment.
Feedback from their first cohort of fellows highlights the opportunity the programme has afforded to form new networks and connections, support career development, understand how government works, work at the intersection of science and policy and be involved with research that has real-world impact.
The closing date for applications is Monday 4 November
Senior Research Associate at the University of Portsmouth
This post is based in the Technology Acceptance Research Group for Energy Technologies (TARG:ET) in the School of Psychology, Sport and Health Sciences at the University of Portsmouth.
The successful candidate will take up the post of Senior Research Associate to work on a targeted 6-month project examining the social acceptance of proposed innovations in residential sector heating.
The closing date for applications is Friday 8 November
Postdoctoral Position, Stanford School of Sustainability
The Climate Cognition and Sustainability & Social Change Labs at Stanford University seek a Postdoctoral Scholar, focused on the psychological and socio-political dimensions of climate impacts, beliefs and solutions (e.g. behaviours, policies).
Applications will be evaluated on a rolling basis.
Finalists will be contacted for an interview. Flexible start date, but ideally by September 2025.
Operations Manager at the Women's Environmental Network
The Women’s Environmental Network is looking for someone dynamic and progressive to manage operations (people, places and finance) for their growing organisation.
The closing date for applications is Monday 11 November
Opportunities
PhD Student Placement opportunity at the Welsh Government for Anti Racist Systematic Review
The WG has launched the Anti-racism Wales Action Plan (ArWAP) in June of 2022. Outlining a visionary path toward crafting an anti-racist Wales by 2030. This ground breaking plan not only defines the essence of anti-racism but also distinguishes itself as a dynamic blueprint rather than a static strategy.
In its first iteration, the ArWAP referenced the need for inclusion of climate change and environmental matters for action. Reports on diversity in UK consistently identify that Environment, followed by Farming, Fishing and Forestry professions are the least diverse sectors in the UK. This complete lack of diversity in the sector speaks of deep systemic inequalities and lack of opportunity for people of ethnic minority background to pursue careers in these sectors or even to engage in the public debates of the issues.
This placement will provide a PhD student with an opportunity to gain hands experience of undertaking a systematic review and translating that into developing a systems map. It will also provide an opportunity to work closely with the Welsh Government, gaining hands-on experience in policy research and development.
The closing date for applications is Thursday 14 November
Midlands Innovation Fellowship 2024
The Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology is launching two new fellowships. The fellowships are funded by Midlands Innovation and the scheme is open to PhD students studying a subject related to biology, life sciences and social sciences within certain institutions.
The two successful applicants will be based in UK Parliament for 13 weeks from April 2025, supporting its use of research evidence in scrutiny and decision-making.
The closing date for applications is Wednesday 27 November
Info
The COP biodiversity conference is underway in Colombia
Laura Thomas-Walters shares with us some of her recent work looking at behaviour change and nature conservation.
As part of the IUCN Behaviour Change Taskforce, Laura is one of the authors who have just published a review called Changing Human Behaviour to Conserve Biodiversity. See the article below this one for more details.
In Conversation Letters, in the Journal for Conservation Biology, Laura has also written a perspective piece titled Reframing conservation audiences from individuals to social beings. "We explore the role of conservation audiences as social beings with complex social relationships and networks. Framing individuals as members of social networks can help individuals recognize their potential to affect large-scale societal structures and empower them to contribute to systemic changes. Organizations can also leverage the power of social networks to amplify change and promote the message that people change the world through their social ties, thereby inspiring audiences
to further engage in conservation behaviours."
Changing Human Behaviour to Conserve Biodiversity
The IUCN SSC CEC Behaviour Change Task Force has just published it's compelling new review article in the journal Annual Review of Environment and Resources. Entitled “Changing Human Behaviour to Conserve Biodiversity”, the article is a comprehensive review of the most substantive work on behaviour change for biodiversity conservation across various threats, stakeholder groups, and communication strategies.
Key highlights of the article include:
- An exploration of how changing human actions can mitigate major threats to biodiversity, including pollution, climate change, invasive species, and human disturbances.
- Effective strategies for influencing different groups to adopt conservation-friendly behaviours.
- Identification of key gaps in the design and implementation of behaviour change interventions for biodiversity conservation.
An interview with Guy Shrubsole, environmental campaigner and author 'The Lie of the Land: who really cares for the countryside?'
ACCESS Co-Investigator Nick Kirsop-Taylor interviews author Guy Shrubsole about his career as an environmental campaigner and his latest book: The Lie of the Land: Who Really Cares for the Countryside?
"I’m fascinated by the politics of land and nature and have for a long time wanted the political left to care a lot more about nature. But also, for nature conservationists to care more about political economy, because a lot of nature writing sees itself as apolitical, but in doing so ultimately aligns itself with the status quo, which is a bit of a problem." Guy Shrubsole
Read the interview here in the Environmental Politics Journal
Good Nature: The New Science of How Nature Improves Our Health
This new book from ecologist Kathy Willis brings together recent scientific findings and shares the simple changes we can all make in our lives. “A book with applications to everything from which way we walk to work to choosing where our kids should go to school, Good Nature brings the latest scientific research into our homes and workplaces. It shows how nature can help reduce the costs of healthcare and how, by bringing nature into our towns and cities, we can create a better, happier and healthier environment for all.”
Achieving deep transport energy demand reductions in the United Kingdom
How low can we go? How can the UK achieve deep transport energy demand reductions while maintaining our quality of life?
These are questions we investigated in a major study, now published in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews.
