Dan Osborn

1

• Dan Osborn
• RCUK
• Priority Theme Leader for LWEC

2
Key global challenges
Technological change
Population growth
Globalisation
Food, water and energy security
Climate change
Urbanisation
Biodiversity loss
Poverty alleviation
Infectious diseases
3

• The LWEC partnership brings together 20 UK
  organisations funding, undertaking and using
  environmental research.
• To accelerate the delivery of research on
  environmental change into policy and business by
  aligning research, policy and business needs
  through a process by which research is
  co-designed and co-produced.
• To provide government and business with
  foresight, knowledge and tools for UK leadership
  in mitigating, adapting to and capitalising on
  environmental change

4
(No Transcript)
5
Delivering science to policy
Source Ian Crute
Source NRC 1996
Source Maggie Gill
6
LWEC Objectives

• To predict the impacts of climate change and to
  promote sustainable solutions through mitigation
  and adaptation
• To manage ecosystem services for human
  well-being and to protect the natural environment
  as it changes
• To promote human well-being, alleviate poverty
  and minimise waste by ensuring a sustainable
  supply of food and water
• To protect human, plant and animal health from
  diseases, pests and environmental hazards
• To make infrastructure, the built environment
  and transport systems resilient to environmental
  change
• To understand how people respond to a changing
  environment and develop thriving, cohesive and
  informed communities

7
A. Climate change

8
B. Ecosystems and ecosystem services
9
C. Promoting human well-being (ESPA)
Programme Development Goal To identify how
sustainably managed ecosystems can contribute to
poverty reduction and well-being improvements by
enhancing the flow and benefits of ecosystem
services
Programme Science Goal To provide the sound
science that is necessary to ensure the
sustainable delivery of ecosystem goods and
services such that they contribute to shared
growth in developing countries and deliver
improved welfare and reduced poverty
10
D. Protecting plant, animal and human health
Infectious diseases
- Avian Influenza - Foot and Mouth - Bluetongue -
Bovine TB
- Malaria - Swine flu - AIDS - MRSA
11
D. Making the built environment and
infrastructure more resilient
Population
Assets
AVOID
Source Robert Nicholls
12
E. Making the built environment and
infrastructure more resilient
ARCC
13
F. People and Communities
Centre on Sustainable Behaviours
Centre for Environmental Risk
14
LWEC Activities
Workshops Sandpits Quantifying
Uncertainty Valuing Ecosystem Services Biodiversit
y Scoping Studies
Centres Environmental risk Sustainable
behaviours Climate economics Environment and
Health Tyndall Centre
Programmes Ecosystem Services for Poverty
Alleviation Environment and Human Health National
Ecosystem Assessment Changing Water Cycle Ocean
Acidification Joint Climate Research Programme
Strategies Knowledge Exchange Public
Engagement International
15
New Upcoming in LWEC since December 2008 PB
Other engagement actions (RCUK)
Bristol Festival of Nature
Activities
Action research
NERC TAPs Round II
UK TRC
Bangladesh capacity building
ERFF, TSB, KTNs Business Secondees
LWEC Evolution and Progress study
Transport Research Centre
Land-based renewables
Climate Change fellowships
Pollinators
Climate Impacts Adaptation
Virtual Observatory Plus
Synthesis of ES Seminar Series
Natural Hazzards
RELU/ LWEC
Defra Strategic Evidence Fund
Environment Health Infectious Non-infectious
AVOID
Soil-water Crop Pests and Diseases
Behaviours Centre
NEW Programmes Centres
UPCOMING Programmes
16
LWEC Programmes and Accreditation
Common aims and objectives
Variable geometry
Flexible inputs
17
Sample LWEC outcomes Making vulnerable people,
places and infrastructure more resilient to
environmental change

• Better flood risk management through improved
  predictive capability, knowledge of the water
  cycle and targeting of investment in
  infrastructure, health and social care
• Increased capacity to plan for storm impacts and
  manage heat waves based on predictive climate
  science and a knowledge of social and economic
  costs of damage to infrastructure, ill-health and
  mortality
• More knowledge of new and emerging diseases, when
  they might arrive, who is susceptible to them and
  how to manage them
• More sustainable agricultural systems producing
  more nutritious food with less environmental
  impact
• Stakeholder and public engagement in a
  research-informed dialogue about the benefits and
  risks of solutions leading to faster societal
  uptake of new technologies

18
LWEC Communications
NERC and TSB
LWEC and Partners
ESRC
19

• is helping to maximize the policy impact of
  scientific advances
• is providing solutions to the challenge of
  environmental change
• aims to produce world class science that meets
  the needs of society