News, Jobs, Events, Opportunities and lots more...
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A quick round up of the latest news, jobs and opportunities
News
Introducing the NEW ACCESS Website!
The new ACCESS website has just gone live and I'm so delighted to share it with you.
ACCESS had outgrown our previous online home. Our old site had become slow and difficult to navigate, meaning it was less energy efficient that we would like. It also struggled to showcase and celebrate the many humans who make up ACCESS and the incredible work they are doing.
Our beautiful new site is more sustainable, more inclusive, more accessible, easier to navigate, and – like ACCESS – puts humans front and centre.
Do take a look and let us know what you think!
A very warm welcome to Jaya Gajparia, who joins the ACCESS Team as a Senior Research Fellow
Jaya will be working within the Guiding Principles team and across ACCESS to develop mechanisms for improving inclusivity and intersectionality across key ACCESS events.
Look out for more detail on this important initiative in the weeks to come...
Jaya Gajparia is an ACCESS Leadership
College Fellow and an independent scholar.
Read about Jaya and her work here.
This is the first of a new series of monthly updates from the ACCESS task force on Nature Recovery.
In this month’s news:
Many of the ACCESS Nature Recovery Task Force case studies have now been completed. The Task Force are now pulling out key themes and messages and drafting their final report.
The Task Force has planned a hybrid meeting at the University of Exeter in April, when the group will come together to refine this draft document.
For further information, please see the Task Force website and / or contact Michael Winter: d.m.winter@exeter.ac.uk or Steve Guilbert: s.guilbert3@exeter.ac.uk
Events
Visual Storytelling and Co-Designing Climate Communications with Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scientists
Thursday 12 March, 1-2pm, online
The Centre for Climate Communication and Data Science (C3DS) is hosting a webinar with speaker Arlene Birt from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to explore the use of creative methods in communicating climate science.
This seminar will draw on Arlene’s experience as an information design practitioner working within the science-focused environment of the IPCC, to explore how creativity can play a critical role in communicating complex climate knowledge.
Email c3ds@exeter.ac.uk to register.
A Wildlife Safari through Dartmoor’s varied Habitats (peppered with a touch of science).
Monday 23 March, 1-2pm, University of Exeter (Cornwall)
This talk by Charles Tyler (University of Exeter) will take you on photographic safari through some of the moors varied habitats and wonderful wildlife, much of which you may not have seen before, even if you frequent the moor. The narrative will largely draw on observations from Charles’s wanderings on the moor over a period of more than 2 decades, but- given the audience- it will also be peppered with some more learned scientific facts!
He will illustrate how his wanderings and observations have led to PhD research projects in Biosciences that have included harnessing citizen science to help support conservation of some of Dartmoor’s ground nesting birds, including his obsession - the Cuckoo!
Environmental Intelligence 2026 (EI26): Responsible AI and Data Science for a Sustainable Future
Monday 7 - Wednesday 9 September, University of Exeter
EI26 will invite contributions that explore how AI and data science can address environmental challenges of all kinds. Presentations are encouraged from academics, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers.
This is an interdisciplinary conference and they particularly welcome contributions focused on social sciences and humanities, alongside science and technology.
Training
Sports and Nature: Foundations for Action
Online, self-paced
Discover how sport can play a vital role in protecting and restoring nature in this free course. Learn about the deep connection between sport and the natural environment and gain practical knowledge to make a positive impact through your work.
Who should take this course?
People working in and/or collaborating with sport organisations, venues or events.
- People in the wider sport organisations’ ecosystem who are interested in understanding the relationship between sport organisations (venues, events, operations) and nature.
- Nature conservationists interested in the nature-sport relationship from sport organisations’ perspective.
- The course is particularly well suited for those who are new to the topic.
Funding
Pre-announcement: ESRC React Awards (pilot)
Apply for responsive funding to generate time-critical research to support policymakers and practitioners delivering frontline services in the UK.
You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funding and have a confirmed partnership with at least one public sector organisation that can action your outputs within six months.
ESRC will fund 80% of the project’s full economic cost (FEC). Awards can last up to six months and must start within a month of funding confirmation.
Pre-announcement: ESRC Connect Awards (pilot)
Apply for funding to connect with other researchers to scope, seed and grow emerging research fields and new areas of inquiry.
This pilot opportunity will support researchers to collaborate on novel, exploratory and high-risk ideas, building the foundations for future research and innovation.
Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) will fund 80% of the project’s full economic cost (FEC). Awards can last up to six months. Projects will be expected to start on 1 October 2026.
Jobs
Research Fellow, CAST (UK Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations), (University of Bath)
CAST are seeking an experienced Research Fellow to lead a programme of quantitative behavioural research to advance understanding of climate-relevant behaviour change and life choices.
The role will involve co-designing research with stakeholder partners, data collection and analysis, and disseminating findings to create impact.
This is a full-time post available for a fixed-term period of 48 months.
Deadline: Monday 16 March
LSE Fellow in the Social Science of Sustainability (up to 5 posts available), London School of Economics
The Global School of Sustainability (GSoS) is a major new interdisciplinary centre for sustainability research and impact at LSE. They are seeking to appoint up to five fixed-term LSE Fellows with expertise in the social science of sustainability.
During the two-year appointments, LSE Fellows in the Social Science of Sustainability will have the opportunity to develop their research trajectory and their portfolio of contributions to education and student experience.
Preference may be given to applicants whose research relates directly to one or more of the School's five key themes:
- creating sustainable finance and business
- generating sustainable economic growth and development
- mobilising political, legal and governance systems
- protecting and enhancing nature and biodiversity
- building sustainable societies and behaviours.
Deadline: Thursday 12 March, 11.59pm
PhD studentships
CAST PhD studentship, University of Bath
Understanding and addressing public resistance to ambitious climate policies
This PhD will assess the prevalence of discourses of delay and waning public support for specific climate mitigation and adaptation policies. It will also investigate the factors behind these trends, and test interventions to rebuild trust and promote climate-positive attitudes and behaviours.
The studentship provides a unique opportunity to spend 2 years in Brussels on a competitive salary, working at the research-policy interface.
Primary supervisors: Lorraine Whitmarsh & Sam Hampton
Deadline: Wednesday 18 March
CAST PhD studentship, University of East Anglia
Environmental Change Agents in hybrid and remote work environments: an investigation of how digital workplaces affect coalition building and sustainability culture diffusion
This studentship will examine how individuals within organisations can be developed as effective sustainability change agents. The research will explore both the external pressures and internal motivational forces that shape pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours, and the practical strategies change agents use to secure stakeholder buy-in and connect internal activities to external standards. This may include exploring how digital tools, green apps or AI-enabled interventions can support or hinder these efforts.
Primary supervisor: Jun Hwa Cheah
Deadline: Monday 20 April
PhD Studentship, University of East Anglia
Mobilising Community-based Climate Action Through Co-designed Sports and Wellbeing Interventions
This studentship aims to explore how group/social identities (e.g. sports fans) can be leveraged to encourage low-carbon, climate-resilient behaviours examining how cultural activities such as sport can support climate awareness and action.
This project will adopt a place-based approach. Through collaboration with grassroots organisations and/or professional clubs, it will co-design and pilot interventions that embed synergistic adaptation-mitigation behaviours into sports club routines. It will examine how to foster adoption of sustainable practices that align with sport/wellbeing motivations, make climate action visible and socially rewarding, and address the ‘climate silence’ (Wise et al., 2025) identified amongst sports communities.
Supervisor: Irene Lorenzoni
Deadline: Thursday 16 April
Opportunities
Council for Nature Conservation and the Countryside (CNCC) Chair and Member Vacancies
The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) is seeking to appoint a new Chair and up to 18 members to the Council for Nature Conservation and the Countryside (CNCC).
The CNCC provides independent, specialist advice to the Department (DAERA) on matters affecting the countryside and nature conservation and Areas of Special Scientific Interest (ASSIs) with due regard to matters affecting agriculture, forestry and inland fisheries.
Deadline: Thursday 5 March, 12 noon.
UKRI Transition to a Circular Futures Survey
UKRI is seeking community input to better understand how human-centred transdisciplinary research could position the UK for a successful transition to a circular economy.
They are looking for insights from across academia, industry, and policy on how a successful transition to a circular economy relates to cultural and social change built on economic and technological development.
Closing date: Friday 20 March
Call for contributions: Nordic Geographers Meeting
22-25 June, Reykjavík, Iceland
Session: Renewables in restless times: Uneven energy transitions
This session seeks presentations covering a broad range of topics. The contributions could relate to general theory and/or particular cases. They could take the form of local case studies of renewable energy projects, policy making and/or planning processes for renewables, or the shifting geopolitics of energy.
Session organisers: Karl Benediktsson, Geography, University of Iceland: kben@hi.is & Foday Sheku Dumbuya, PhD candidate, University of Iceland: foday@hi.is
Deadline: 23 March
Call for contributions: Beyond the mind: Organising for eco-embodied scholarship
Saturday 6 - Monday 8 June, Hazel Hill Wood, Wiltshire
Academic life is often experienced from the neck up – even when studying ecological crises. We gather in air-conditioned rooms under fluorescent light, where PowerPoint slides dominate. We learn – implicitly and explicitly – to leave parts of ourselves at the door: our emotions, intuitions, relations, and vulnerabilities. This way, our bodies and inner lives become disciplined into absence, disconnected from the people and places, domination and resistance, human and more-than-human entanglements.
This conference asks: What kind of scholarship becomes possible when we step outside –to write, think, discuss, and gather with wind, soil, river, and fire?
Contributions and research presentations may be experimental and need not follow traditional paper structures. You may propose a session, performance, workshop, or artistic contribution, which could take the form of performance, poetry, storytelling, movement, visual art, collective ritual, song, or reading.
Deadline for abstracts: 31 March
Info
What's funny about climate change?
A recent Channel 4 report covers a new wave of comedians who are using comedy to talk about climate change.
Among them is Matt Winning – lecturer in the Economics of Sustainability (UCL) by day, climate stand-up comic by night.
Winning believes that comedy can cut through where data cannot:
"I think people think of climate change of being very earnest and environmental... it's not, it's about people... the way we talk about [climate change] is always so far away from peoples day to day lives..."
Recent research from Climate Outreach shows an appetite for different approaches to communicating about the environment, with the majority of British people wanting to see climate change mentioned more frequently in the arts and entertainment.
Hairdressers as everyday influencers on climate change and sustainability
Two research projects have explored the influence that hairdressers have with clients about climate and sustainability.
Briony Latter (CAST, Cardiff University) and Sam Hampton's (University of Oxford) GoZero project looked at hairdressers' engagement and conversations with clients about climate change and sustainability, and what influence that relationship has.
Denise Baden and Stephanie Hodgson's (University of Southampton) Mirror Talkers project was an intervention to test if tips about sustainable haircare on mirrors could prompt conversations about these practices and reduce the impact of hair routines.
Their recent paper in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, finds that "hairdressers are a prime example of ‘everyday influencers’ on climate change, but their potential has not been fully realised."
Are you on the ACCESS Network database?
ACCESS aims to make social science expertise more accessible. We have created a publicly available, searchable database (The ACCESS Network) of social scientists and experts working in the fields of climate and environment.
Join the ACCESS Network to share your research and start making connections with other environmental social scientists.
