Climate Change and Sustainable Futures Retreat
| Date | 28-29 June 2011 |
|---|---|
| Time | 10.00 on 28th - 16.00 on 29th |
| Location | Dartington Hall, Totnes |
This two-day residential retreat was an opportunity for Climate Change and Sustainable Futures (CCSF) researchers to come together in the beautiful surroundings of Dartington Hall, away from the usual distractions, to find out more about each other's research and work in groups to develop innovative project ideas; it was jointly funded by Bridging the Gaps and the CCSF theme.
An external facilitator (Hannah Devine-Wright from Placewise) guided the 20 participants through a series of activities including analysis of the group's social networks and speed dating. Discussion about the benefits and barriers to collaborating across disciplines followed, with the help of a presentation about how social and natural scientists view each other's work by Tim Kurz and Hugo Lambert.
As research ideas occurred to people, they were posted on the 'ideas wall' (more accurately 'ideas door'!) and later grouped into initial areas for discussion groups.
Animated group discussions continued throughout the second day of the Retreat, culminating with the four remaining ideas being pitched to the 'dragons' den'. After some suitably tough questioning, the 'dragons' (David Butler, Peter Cox and Tim Quine) decided to allocate pump-priming funding to three of the projects:
| Title | Investigators | Amount awarded |
|---|---|---|
| G360: 360 degree assessment of geoengineering | Jim Haywood, Patrick Devine-Wright, Pierre Friedlingstein, Keith Hyams, Duncan Russel, Hywel Williams | £6,680 |
| Developing an interdisciplinary strategy to drastically reduce UK carbon emissions through behaviour change. | Tim Kurz, Duncan Russel, Hugo Lambert, Charles Abraham, Sarah Ward, David Coley, Pierre Friedlingstein, Patrick Devine-Wright, Keith Hyams | £5,000 |
| Climate and land use interaction modelling for ecosystem and societal scenarios (CLIMESS) | Stephen Sitch, Luiz Aragao, Pierre Friedlingstein, Iain Hartley, Keith Hyams, Duncan Russel, Frank Van Veen, Sarah Ward, Hywel Williams. | £7,000 |
The Dragons' Den!
Each group was given two weeks following the Retreat to work up their ideas for submission on a BTG application form for final approval by the Panel Chair.
Presentations from the Retreat can be downloaded by University of Exeter staff:
Hannah's slides from CCSF Retreat
