CEP LEADING EU SENSE-MAKING WORKSHOPS ON EMERGING ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

CEP TO LEAD FOUR SENSE-MAKING WORKSHOPS AS PART OF OUR ROLE AS SECRETARIAT FOR THE EU FORESIGHT SYSTEM FOR THE DETECTION OF EMERGING ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES (FORENV)

In our role of providing the secretariat for the EU Commission’s new EU Foresight System for the detection of emerging environmental issues (FORENV), CEP will be moderating four sense-making workshops.  The workshops will be held between the 29th January and 5th February 2020 in Copenhagen (Denmark), Ispra (Italy), and in Brussels (Belgium), and will bring together approximately 40 experts from the Commission, EU Member States, research institutions and the third sector.

The workshops are being organised as part of the second annual cycle of FORENV, which is running from September 2019 – September 2020, and is focusing on the topic ‘Emerging innovations in the Green economy of the future’.  Across the workshops almost 200 ‘weak signals’ of change related to this topic will be discussed, clustered and prioritised.  Each session will be run in a participatory way to engage and draw on the knowledge of participants.  CEP have led the organisation of the workshops and will be moderating them with support from our partners Cranfield University, Milieu Ltd and representatives of the European Commission.

Drawing on the workshop outcomes, up to 10 priority emerging issues will be proposed for further consideration in the next steps of the FORENV system.

For further information please contact Owen White (Technical Director) or Paula Orr (Technical Director).

CEP’s Ric Eales visiting the 'Engage with Strathclyde' Event

CEP’s Ric Eales will be at the ‘Engage with Strathclyde’ event this week as part of his role as a Visiting Professor at the University

Ric Eales, CEP’s Managing Director, will be at the Engage with Strathclyde event this week – the University of Strathclyde’s flagship programme of events taking place over one week (29th April – 3rd May 2019).  The event is an opportunity for industry, the public and third sector to find out more about the University’s world leading research and how they can collaborate in a variety of ways.

Ric will be attending in his capacity as a Visiting Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Strathclyde.  He will in particular be visiting an event Showcasing Projects with Industry - Protecting and Enhancing the Environment.  He will also be meeting with students to discuss career opportunities in environmental consultancy.

For more information contacts Ric Eales r.eales@cep.co.uk / ric.eales@strath.ac.uk

CEP leading EU sense-making workshops on emerging environmental issues

CEP to lead four sense-making workshops as part of our role as secretariat for the EU Foresight System for the detection of emerging environmental issues (FORENV)

In our role of providing the secretariat for the EU Commission’s new EU Foresight System for the detection of emerging environmental issues (FORENV), CEP will be moderating four sense-making workshops.  The workshops will be held between the 11th and 17th January 2019 in Ispra (Italy), Copenhagen (Denmark) and two in Brussels (Belgium), and will bring together 40 experts from the Commission, EU Member States and research institutions.

The workshops are being organised as part of the first annual cycle of FORENV, which is running from September 2018 – September 2019, and is focusing on the topic ‘Emerging issues at the environment-social interface’.  Across the workshops almost 200 ‘weak signals’ of change related to this topic will be discussed, clustered and prioritised.  Each session will be run in a participatory way to engage and draw on the knowledge of participants.  CEP have led the organisation of the workshops and will be moderating them with support from our partners Cranfield University, Milieu Ltd and representatives of the European Commission.

Drawing on the workshop outcomes, up to 10 priority emerging issues will be proposed for further consideration in the next steps of the FORENV system.

For further information please contact Owen White (Technical Director) or Paula Orr (Technical Director).

CEP Supporting Our Bright Future Evaluation

CEP support workshop with steering group on Our Bright Future evaluation

CEP supported project lead ERS in delivering a workshop to members of the Our Bright Future Programme’s Steering Group, as part of the programme evaluation. Our Bright Future is a five year Big Lottery funded programme supporting 31 youth and environment projects across the UK.

The purpose of the session was to draw upon the views and insight of the steering group for the upcoming mid-term programme evaluation in 2019. The themes explored in the workshop, led by ERS, included a discussion on the programme outcomes, external factors influencing the programme, and programme objectives required to achieve the aspired programme legacy.

The workshop was held in the London Welsh Centre in North London on 24th October. Please contact Izzy Cotton for more information.

Learning lessons for evaluating complexity across the nexus

CECAN (the Centre for Evaluation of Complexity across the Nexus, based at the University of Surrey, has published the final report of CEP's meta-evaluation study of 23 selected evaluation projects we have undertaken relating to Nexus issues – water, environment, food, energy - over the last 10 years.  

The full report  - Learning lessons for evaluating complexity across the nexus: a meta-evaluation of CEP projects - is available here.

We evaluated the evaluation approaches and findings from a range of case studies – national and EU policy level down to programme level policy interventions and other initiatives – and sought to address three aims:
1.    To learn the lessons from past policy evaluations; 
2.    To understand the factors that support or inhibit (barriers or enablers to) successful evaluations: and
3.    To explore the value of different types of approaches and methods used for evaluating complexity

An important finding was the extent to which the contexts for evaluations at the EU level and UK levels differ: a very strong policy cycle exists for EU evaluations, which creates a more rigid framework for monitoring and evaluation, compared to the much greater degree of policy flux in the UK, and the resulting need for greater flexibility in the way in which evaluations are undertaken, and hence the greater utility of qualitative data collection and analysis methods.

Consequently the use or influence of evaluations in policy making differs considerably – there is much more instrumental (direct) use of EU evaluations compared to more conceptual or process (indirect) use of UK evaluations.

For further information contact Dr Bill Sheate or Dr Clare Twigger-Ross 

The key findings from the study are summarised in the infographic below:

Environmental Psychology conference presentations available

Photo credit: 'Two trees' by Jan Tik on Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Environmental Psychology conference presentations available

Dr Clare Twigger-Ross gave a keynote lecture at the British Environmental Psychology conference hosted by the University of Surrey, Sept 21 – 22nd 2016.  The theme of the conference was Healthy and sustainable places: Providing evidence based solutions to real world problems and it was attended by a mixture of researchers, academics and practitioners from a range of disciplines.  The conference shows that the field of environmental psychology in the UK is vibrant, energetic and has much to offer in relation to current real world issues of sustainability and place-making.

A reflection on the conference, presented by Sara Grenni of SUSPLACE, can be found in her blog post here.

A link to all the presentations can be found here.

CEP at FloodRISK Conference 2016

Photo credit: Flooded River Severn by muffinn on Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

CEP at European Conference on Flood Risk Management

CEP has contributed two papers to FloodRisk 2016, the 3rd European Conference on Flood Risk Management, which will be shown in Lyon on 19 and 20 October.  The papers are co-authored by Clare Twigger-Ross, Paula Orr, Katya Brooks and Rolands Sadauskis and draw on evidence from CEP’s evaluation of the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) Flood resilience Community Pathfinders (2013-15).

Dr Clare Twigger-Ross’s presentation on ‘Citizen Involvement in Flood Risk Government: Flood groups and networks’ will be shown on Wednesday 19 October, as part of the session on Disaster Management and Recovery.  A presentation by Paula Orr entitled ‘Pieces of kit are not enough: Flood infrastructure and community resilience’ will be shown on Thursday 20 October, in the session on Vulnerability and Societal Resilience.

After the conference, the presentations will be available on CEP’s website.

CECAN official launch event and workshop

Photo credit:'knot' by Lindsey Turner on Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

CECAN official launch event and 2-day Complexity in Evaluation Workshop

The 'Centre for the Evaluation of Complexity Across the Nexus' (CECAN), a £3 million research centre hosted by the University of Surrey, is being officially launched at the CECAN Event: Policy Evaluation for A Complex World, taking place on 13th September in London. A panel discussion will encourage debate on the Nexus policy areas at the heart of the Centre's work, and raise critical questions around complexity, evaluation methodologies, and 'what works in practice'. CEP will attend as part of CECAN's coalition of experts and leading UK bodies who will be developing new ways to measure the effectiveness of domestic policies across the energy, environment, water and food Nexus.

Following the launch event, on the 15th & 16th September, a 2 Day Residential 'Complexity in Evaluation' Workshop will take place in Surrey. The workshop will combine participatory design and collaborative problem solving with information and ideas exchange between CECAN and partners. Dr Clare Twigger-Ross and Dr Bill Sheate from CEP will be attending the workshop.

For more information and to sign up to the events please see CECAN's event webpage.

EU publishes SEA Directive Effectiveness study

CEP a contributing author TO European Commission Study on the effectiveness of the SEA Directive (Directive 2001/42/EC)

An important review study of the SEA Directive, to which CEP contributed, was published recently by the European Union.  The objective of the Study concerning the preparation of the report on the application and effectiveness of the SEA Directive (Directive 2001/42/EC) was to provide the Commission with information on Member States’ progress and challenges experienced in the application of the Council Directive 2001/42/EC (‘SEA Directive’) on the assessment of the effects of certain plans and programmes on the environment for the period 2007-2014.

The study analysed the practical implementation of the SEA Directive across all 28 Member States and then evaluated the performance of the legislation to understand how environmental considerations have been integrated into planning processes and the extent to which the SEA Directive contributes to achieving better and more coherent planning.  The study found that the SEA Directive has brought about some significant benefits to strategic planning, while also making recommendations that could further improve its efficiency, effectiveness and coherence into the future.

Dr Bill Sheate and Ric Eales from CEP contributed to the study as expert advisors, in association with Milieu Ltd, Brussels.

CEP runs training course on ecosystem services and environmental assessment

Photo credit: http://photoeverywhere.co.uk/britain/manchester/slides/52-mintownhall1.htm

CEP WILL BE DELIVERING A SECOND ONE-DAY TRAINING WORKSHOP ON INCORPORATING ECOSYSTEM SERVICES INTO ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT in Manchester

Dr Bill Sheate and Dr Peter Phillips will deliver a second one-day training course on Incorporating ecosystem services into environmental assessment in Manchester on 29 June 2016, on behalf of the Ecosystems Knowledge Network (EKN).  The course is being run at Manchester Metropolitan University's Business School, having previously delivered a very successful event in London in May. Just a few places are still available; booking is available online here.

Ecosystem services and environmental assessment training delivered by CEP

Photo courtesy of Edvard Glücksman

CEP delivers one-day training workshop on Incorporating ecosystem services into environmental assessment

Dr Bill Sheate and Dr Peter Phillips delivered a very successful one-day training course in London on 24 May 2016 on Incorporating ecosystem services into environmental assessment, on behalf of the Ecosystems Knowledge Network (EKN).  The course is being run again in Manchester on 29 June 2016, at Manchester Metropolitan University's Business School - just a few places are still available; booking is available online here.

Comments from some of the participants at the London training:

“Grateful for an excellent day’s training with @EcosystemsNet in London”

“Very informative. Trainers very knowledgeable and approachable”

“Really useful, informative day”

EC publishes CEP's report on Public perceptions of environmental risks

European Commission publishes CEP's report on Public perceptions of environmental risks

The European Commission's Environment Directorate-General (DG Environment) has published Survey on public perceptions of environmental risks, a report of research conducted by CEP with partners at the University of A Coruña (Spain), the University of Latvia, Oikos (Slovenia), Sapienza University of Rome (Italy) and the West University of Timisoara (Romania).

This ambitious, Europe-wide project aimed to understand the differences between public perception and scientific assessment of environmental risks and the main factors influencing the evolution of public perceptions in Europe. The project used a mixed methodology research approach, including a survey of experts and focus groups with members of the public. 

While the issues of concern to members of the public were generally similar to the top risks identified by experts, in some cases the assessments differed widely.  This was the case with waste, which was of concern to public participants but not ranked highly by experts. The focus group discussions showed that while factors such as the proximity and scale of environmental risks do affect the way that lay people perceive these risks, their perceptions are also influenced by collective cultural, institutional and socio-political factors, including social values and the degree of trust in authorities. It was also clear that across Europe lay people are using multiple sources of information to develop their understanding of what are often complex environmental issues.

The full report can be downloaded here.

CEP PART OF THE PROJECT TEAM EVALUATING COMPLEXITY ACROSS THE NEXUS

CEP part of project team for the ESRC Centre for the Evaluation of Complexity across the Nexus

CEP is part of the  consortium of leading UK bodies who have initiated a new national research hub to develop new ways to measure the effectiveness of domestic policies on energy, water, environment and food (the ‘nexus’), and how they affect wider society.

The focus of the Centre for the Evaluation of Complexity Across the Nexus (CECAN) is to pioneer, test and promote evaluation approaches and methods across the nexus where complexity (e.g. of the issues and governance) presents a challenge to policy interventions, and so contribute to more effective policy-making.

CEP's Dr Clare Twigger-Ross and Dr Bill Sheate are members of the project team.

For more information see the ESRC press release.