The stakeholders leaflet, “Living with Environmental Change”, issued in September 2007 describes LWEC’s drivers and aims. This leaflet is available in pdf format. Further information on the programme is given below:
Common Strategic Objectives
The partners agreed a set of Common Strategic Objectives for LWEC in March 2008 that provide a thematic focus around which research programmes are currently being designed. These are:
- To build effective mitigation, adaptation and resilience to climate change, including preparedness for changes to the intensity and frequency of extreme events, so that human health, well-being, and a healthy natural environment are ensured through use of sustainable and socially acceptable environmental management approaches and technologies.
- To assess the links and feedbacks between the natural environment, ecosystem services and human well-being; how these might continue to develop within environmental limits in the face of major environmental change; and how decision-making and local and national planning can take account of these links and feedbacks to help in the development of new social, environmental and economic opportunities.
- To promote human well-being, alleviate poverty and minimise waste by developing sustainable ecosystem management approaches for safe and secure food production and water supply.
- To protect human, plant and animal health by predicting how diseases, pests, hazards and other environmental factors will alter under forthcoming environmental change scenarios, assessing which sectors of society are most at risk and determining what management actions need to be taken.
- To make infrastructure, the built environment and transport systems resilient to environmental change and develop more sustainable, less energy-intensive systems and approaches that are socially acceptable, economically advantageous and more environmentally harmonious.
- To work with the diverse communities of the UK to understand how, on the basis of our various cultural backgrounds and belief systems, we live with our environment at present, how this is likely to alter as the environment changes, and how we might use this knowledge to develop thriving, cohesive and informed communities.
This version of the strategic objectives (10 March 2008) was produced following consultation amongst LWEC partners and may be subject to minor amendments following the next phase of work by the partners.
Links to other Cross-Council and multi-partner Research programmes
There is a strong expectation that LWEC will work closely with the Research Councils’ Energy Programme and the other programmes of work that are responding to major challenges facing the UK. More information on these programmes can be found at this link.
Who is involved so far?
The UK’s main funders of environmental research have joined forces, through the Environment Research Funders' Forum, to develop and implement the LWEC programme in an international context.
Research Councils UK
- Natural Environment Research Council
- Economic and Social Research Council
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
- Medical Research Council
- Arts and Humanities Research Council
Departments of State, Governments, and Agencies
- Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
- Department for International Development
- Department for Communities and Local Government
- Department for Transport
- Environment Agency
- Welsh Assembly Government
- Scottish Government
- Natural England
- Scottish Environment Protection Agency
Other bodies
- The Met Office
Funding Investment
Around 90% of the £1Bn investment will comprise planned and ongoing investments in environmental areas that will be progressively aligned by the partners working together, where necessary, towards delivering against the LWEC strategic objectives. Around 10% will be invested in new activities, designed and agreed by the partners, to enable the full suite of investments to deliver specified outputs and outcomes.
Director’s prime responsibility
The LWEC Director's prime responsibility, working with the partners as a Chef de Mission, will be to ensure that an overall body of work delivers the required cross-cutting outputs to enable the broad objectives of the programme to be met and the desired outcomes to be achieved. The scope of this body of work is expected to range beyond the current partnership and the Director will be responsible for identifying its components. Reporting to the Partners’ Board, this will be a highly autonomous role with responsibility to drive forward the future development of LWEC.
The Director will be responsible for bringing together the key funders and stakeholders in the UK’s environmental-change research and policy base, and beyond, to deliver the strategic objectives of the LWEC partnership. He/she will communicate LWEC’s priorities and impacts to many different kinds of audiences, and advise the Board on ways in which available resources can be apportioned through expanded partnership working to ensure LWEC delivers more than the sum of individual inputs would have achieved separately.
Key challenges will include:
- Facilitating the successful delivery of LWEC by establishing common criteria for the operation of its component programmes
- Delivering the Partners' Board strategic objectives and maximising LWEC’s impact on policy and practice by innovative and imaginative use of the Board’s brief.
Working closely with the management teams of the partner organisations, the Director will develop plans for extending partner, stakeholder and research community engagement so that appropriate programmes and activities can be devised that involve not only public sector organisations, but also business, NGOs and the public as appropriate. They will also build links with national and international coordination mechanisms.
More information about Living With Environmental Change can be found at http://www.lwec.org.uk.
The post holder will be employed by NERC with the expectation of being hosted within a suitable organisation.