Natural Resources Wales Workshop

Last Thursday, Sustainable Places hosted a workshop with Natural Resources Waless (NRW) entitled Progressing the Evidence Interface: a series of pilot workshops between Natural Resources Wales and their academic partners in Wales.

Professor Terry Marsden, Director of the Sustainable Places Research Institute, Cardiff University and Kathryn Monk, the Principal Advisor for Science at NRW were chosen by Senior Managers within Higher Education Institutions in Wales to look in to evidence development and provision. Thursdays workshop was the first of 3 pilot workshops between academic researchers and partners in NRW which aims to develop more collaboration. The workshop facilitated discussions on improving the science/policy evidence interface and provided a platform for engagement.

The workshop consisted of 3 case studies from academics from the Sustainable Places Research Institute. Dr Crispin Cooper, a Research Associate spoke about network analysis and highlighted his projects such as modelling cycle flows, flow of pedestrians and effects of access to natural recreational space on mental health. Dr Sian Griffiths from the School of Biosciences spoke about DURESS project which has worked closely with NRW to collect date on freshwater ecosystems and investigated the contribution made by biodiversity to the sustainability of ecosystem services. Professor Nick Pidgeon, the final academic speaker who spoke about his research on public views to climate change. Nick discussed his work on public views on climate change and advising government such as the all-party parliamentary climate change group (APPCCG) and how his work led to the creation of the UK Committee on Climate Change.

There were also 2 presentations from those working on evidence based work in NRW. Vicky Greest an advisor in flood risk management in flood risk strategy at NRW discussed her work on the Water Framework Directive and Research & Development and identifying evidence needs. Alun Attwood the Evidence Reporting Manager at Natural Resources Wales highlighted the challenges they face in terms of the way they collect and interpret evidence.