News, Jobs, Events, Funding Opportunities and lots more...
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Quick round up of this week's news, jobs and events
News
This week the team starts the process of sorting and reviewing the 75 applications we received for ACCESS Flex Fund Round 2. Joining our Peer Review team are 41 Environmental Social Science volunteers who work in a wide variety of different sectors.
Part of the review looks at how each project has incorporated ACCESS's three guiding principles - Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Environmental Sustainability and Co-Production. Below is a short film with Kate Burningham, one of the ACCESS leads, who with others, has developed the principles.
Join Patrick next Thursday to hear about how we can decarbonise society in a fair way.
Events & Training
Tuesday 7 to Friday 10 May, Washington D.C and online
Members of the Global Young Academy (GYA) – distinguished early- to mid-career scientists (ECRs) and scholars from around the world – will convene in Washington, D.C.
Together with the meeting’s hosts, the New Voices in Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, the GYA will hold an International Conference of Young Scientists on the topic “Transformative and Inclusive Science for a Sustainable Future”, from 8-9 May 2024 and bring together 150+ young scientists from more than 70 countries to engage with U.S.-based social science and STEM leaders.
Walking the Talk: changing lifestyles for a changing climate
Wednesday 15 May at 6.30pm, Exeter
Have you ever been to A Pint of Science event? Join Stewart Barr for a pint at the Mermaid in Exeter and find out about sustainable lifestyles.
We frequently receive messages encouraging us to make different choices to reduce our carbon footprints, but most lifestyles remain carbon intensive. Using travel as an example, this talk applies social science research to explain why changing our behaviours is so difficult and explores how we can promote more sustainable lifestyles.
The event also includes other University speakers and partners talking about peatlands and soil carbon storage.
Civic Universities for a Civil Society: (Un)Learning Habits of Impact, Engagement, and Action for Change
Thursday 16 May, University of Birmingham City-REDI Seminar, online
Join Professor Helen Jarvis from Newcastle University for an online seminar about community organising as a place-based theory and method of civic university engagement.
Future Fibres Network+ Launch
Wednesday 22 May, Design Museum, London
Join the NERC funded multi-partner Future Fibres network which aims to bring environmental sciences to the heart of the fashion and textiles sector. Hear about the launch of their £1 million funding call to support multi-disciplinary research projects, prototypes, feasibility studies, knowledge exchange visits, educational activities and much more in the sustainable fashion and textiles sector. Read more and Register here
Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) in energy Conference
Tuesday 11 June, London and online
Energy UK, Energy Institute (EI), Energy Networks Association (ENA) and Ofgem are hosting the industry’s flagship Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Conference on 11 June 2024.
This one-day, hybrid conference will bring together leading professionals from across the energy industry to provide a platform in which everyone is welcome to share knowledge, experiences, and good practice to drive lasting change in the sector and beyond.
Transport: bridging the gap between research evidence and political/public action
Tuesday 10 September, 1 to 2pm Online
The Campaign for Social Science from the Academy of Social Sciences invites Dr Matthew Niblett of the Independent Transport Commission (chair), Professor Charles Musselwhite of the Research Centre for Transport and Mobility (CeTrAM) at Aberystwyth University, Dr Siobhan Campbell FAcSS of WSP UK and Professor Iain Docherty FAcSS of the University of Stirling, to discuss how politicians can understand and shape public opinion to deliver the potential carbon, health and social benefits that can come from reduced car use, as well as what needs to happen at a population and at an individual level.
Jobs
PhD studentships in financial decision-making at the University of Bath
As part of a new Centre for Doctoral Training in Green Industrial Futures, they are advertising various funded PhD studentships.
Several will be based at the University of Bath (UK), and one of the projects would suit an environmental psychologist interested in exploring sustainable financial decision-making by firms and/or consumers.
The project involves tackling one of the major issues which hampers progress on Net Zero for SMEs: lack of data on emissions and energy use. Project Perseus is an industry-led initiative which is seeking to overcome this barrier. The project will involve a programme of work alongside Perseus, with wide potential for researching the financial, organisational, behavioural, technical and policy challenges.
Closing date for applications is Monday 27 May
Research Assistant or Fellow in Society and Global Hydrogen Energy Systems with Cranfield University
The role will be to contribute to designing and assessing the effectiveness of alternative governance measures and strategies to accelerate the social acceptability and uptake of net zero hydrogen technologies and systems (H2NZ) and support a just energy transition.
Closing date for applications is Wednesday 29 May
A fully funded PhD opportunity working at the Universitat Autonoma Barcelona on adults' mental health and nature
This PhD position is designed so the PhD researcher will be able to learn, get trained, and get supported and network with both:
- MSCA-COFUND doctoral programme TOUCH (Towards the next generation of excellent young doctoral researchers on mental health by developing an intersectoral & transdisciplinary approach)
- HEurope GreenME project consortium (Advancing Greencare in Europe: an integrated multi-scalar approach for the expansion of nature-based therapies to improve Mental health Equity).
Closing date for applications is Sunday 30 June
Funding
UKRI Metascience research grants
The Metascience Grants Programme (Up to £300k) funds cutting-edge research into more effective ways of conducting and supporting Research and Development (R&D). All projects must have the potential to inform science policy, R&D funding practices, or practice within research-performing organisations.
Metascience is a rapidly expanding research field, both in the UK and globally, and this funding opportunity is designed to encourage international collaborative projects that accelerate the growth of the field. Metascience draws on a wide range of disciplinary expertise to understand how research is funded and conducted and how these practices can be enhanced or improved.
Opportunities
ESRC postdoctoral fellowships
Apply for a postdoctoral fellowship to develop:
- publications
- networks
- research skills
- professional skills
The duration of this award is up to one year full-time, or up to two years part-time. Fellowships must start on 1 October 2024.
Closing date for applications is Thursday 16 May
Open call for the Frontiers of Knowledge Awards
The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards recognize fundamental contributions in a broad array of areas of scientific knowledge, technology, humanities and artistic creation.
Last year in the Social Science and Humanities category the award went to Elke Weber for her research on environmental decision-making and the factors that motivate action against climate change
Submission deadline is Sunday 30 June
Call for Applications from DAERA Directed Agri-Food & Biosciences Institute (AFBI) Research Work Programme
The 2024 Department of Agriculture, Environment & Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland (DAERA) Directed AFBI Research Work Programme (DDARWP) call for applications aims to engage researchers in addressing research and development needs across 5 thematic areas;
- Theme 1 – Climate
- Theme 2 – Sustainable and Resilient Food Systems
- Theme 3 – One Health
- Theme 4 – Natural Environment
- Theme 5 – Rural Affairs
The mission of the DAERA Research and Development Operational Strategy 2022 is to get the best R&D (informed, influential science from high quality impartial scientists ); at the best value; and make the best use of it to support the achievement of the DAERA purpose.
Submissions deadline is Friday 21 June
Info
Valuing the health benefits of nature-based recreational physical activity in England
A new paper was led by Dr James Grellier estimates that physical activity in nature prevents almost 13,000 cases of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) a year in England and avoided healthcare and societal costs of more than £100m.
Using the Natural England Monitor of Engagement with the Natural Environment (MENE) data set, they estimated how many cases of six NCDs—major depressive disorder, type 2 diabetes, ischaemic heart disease, ischaemic stroke, colon cancer, and breast cancer—are prevented through nature-based recreational physical activity.
A longitudinal analysis of judgement approaches to sustainability paradoxes
This research carried out by ACCESS Leadership College Fellow Susann Power, Maria Laura Di Domenico and Graham Miller investigates how tourism executives heuristically navigate sustainable tourism paradoxes at a time of unprecedented global change.
They do so longitudinally by applying a ‘then’ and ‘now’ perspective and structural narrative analysis to in-depth interview data collected in 2014 and again in 2022, posing the same questions to the same 12 world-wide renowned sustainable tourism executives. The research provides an original investigation of the paradox-mindset needed to grapple with complex challenges of carbon-creation in travel, competing stakeholder needs and how to manage growth with finite resources.
New Research on Neurodiversity in the Energy Sector: Making Sure all EDI Initiatives Succeed
"You may be wondering: Why focus on neurodiversity in the energy sector? Neurominority thinking strengths, such as creativity, are crucial for meeting net-zero carbon by 2050. However, our previous research suggests that neurodivergent individuals often encounter challenges in their career progression due to inflexible career paths, HR policies and practices, and the approach of line managers." Dr Vanda Papafilippou in a recent UK Energy Research Centre Blog
Size of the Prize: How Flexible Heat and Transport Demand can be a Foundation of the Future Energy System
"The size of the prize is clear: we need to rethink how consumers are incentivised to shift demand in line with variable supply. Supporting the rollout of low-carbon technologies is fundamental, with notable benefits early on in the transition. To ensure these are used flexibly, market redesign is key: work is underway to introduce half hourly settlement and some form of locational price signals, but the government can go further. A consumer-focused strategy to scale demand flexibility would help to focus efforts, including capacity targets akin to those for generation, following the example of California and Ireland." Andy Hackett, Policy Manager at Centre for Net Zero
Concordat for the Environmental Sustainability of Research and Innovation Practice
The UK research and innovation (R&I) sector co-developed a voluntary environmental sustainability concordat. The concordat aims for signatories to work individually and collectively to ensure the future design and practice of UK research and innovation is environmentally sustainable.
The key areas of focus include leadership and system change, sustainable infrastructure, sustainable procurement, emissions from business and academic travel, collaborations and partnerships, and environmental impact and reporting data.
Are you familiar with Generative AI and Large Language Models such as Chat-GPT? Interested in their implications for social research?
A new paper in Science Direct looks at the implications for online social research in the digital era. The research team, Emily Cox, Fiona Shirani and Paul Rouse, made an unexpected discovery that participants in focus groups and public surveys, on different topics, appeared to be using Generative AI to construct their responses.
How widespread could this phenomenon be? And therefore, how can we be sure that our participants are responding in a voice which is “genuinely theirs”?
‘I can still swing a spade’: a qualitative exploratory study of gardening groups for people with dementia
Community gardening groups can bring multiple benefits for people living with dementia and their care partners, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Exeter and Natural England (Ruth Lamont, ACCESS Leadership College Fellow).
People with dementia, their family members, and group leads, were interviewed about their experiences as part of the research, which looked at the impact of community gardening groups. Individuals reported that taking part in these groups helped people living with dementia to engage and connect with others and provided cognitive and sensory stimulation, as well as opportunities for exercise and access to freshly grown produce.
