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Up and Running the First Annual Report of the Environment and Sustainability Institute up and Running Contents Director’S Overview ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY INSTITUTE Up and running The first Annual Report of the Environment and Sustainability Institute Up and running Contents Director’s overview The Environment and Sustainability Institute (ESI) is a Director’s overview 1 Welcome to the first Annual new, interdisciplinary research facility that works in a Report of the Environment new, different and – we think – better way, and our More than two years, less than one page 2 and Sustainability Institute Annual Report reflects this. (ESI). For some people the Institute seems to have been Our research – introduction 4 – 5 We’d like it to be the kind of Annual Report that is easy part of their landscape for a Clean energy 6 – 7 to read; the kind you’d rather take with you than leave good while; the idea for such a behind. Living landscapes 8 – 9 venture emerged some eight years ago. Some became aware of the Institute as it came People and sustainable communities 10 – 11 So it’s smaller and shorter than you might be used to. into physical being and recruited staff, or from the media attention surrounding its launch. For others, it came to We have plenty to say and much progress to report, Working with business 12 – 13 but because we don’t want to make this an over-long their attention as our research and business engagement repository of every last detail of our existence to date, Case study one 14 – 15 activities gathered pace, and the first products were we intend to give you an overview of what we’ve been Case study two 16 – 17 published and publicised. A key challenge for us now is doing as well as directions to where you can learn more. to convey to all of these groups the breadth and depth The Creative Exchange Programme 18 of the projects, collaborations and partnerships that are The University of Exeter’s Environment and Sustainability Institute taking place. The ESI has grown, and continues to grow, (ESI) is an interdisciplinary centre leading cutting-edge research very rapidly. In any one sensibly-sized document we can into solutions to problems of environmental change. Based on the Interdisciplinary working 19 University’s Penryn Campus, near Falmouth, our world-class work therefore only give a taste of what is happening. We hope is enhancing people’s lives by improving their relationships with the that you enjoy this sample, and will come back for more. environment. Our building 20 Professor Kevin J Gaston The ESI has been funded by the European Regional Development A future in Cornwall, a future for Cornwall 21 Fund Convergence Programme (£22.9m) and the South West Director of the Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter. Regional Development Agency (£6.6m), with significant support from the Higher Education Funding Council for England. www.exeter.ac.uk/esi/research World-class answers to environmental questions 1 Up and running More than two years, less than one page The ESI was officially opened by the schoolchildren of During this time, our researchers were part of a collaborative Cornwall on 23 April 2013, although our diverse team of project awarded by the Chartered Institution of Water and academics, postgraduates, research fellows, professionals, Environment Management Living Wetlands Award. Our knowledge exchange experts and support staff were already director, Professor Kevin J Gaston, received the British working well before we officially opened. A year later, we Ecological Society’s Marsh Award for Ecology and joined held our first Environment and Sustainability Day, which the board of the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Nature also heavily featured young people; this is an important and Partnership. In collaboration with the RSPB, our gannet-cam recurrent theme, and one we return to on page 21. news story made headlines around the world, as did our research on the decline in the numbers of European birds. Although annual reports typically look back at the past ESI researchers contributed to the prestigious World Social 12 months, ours encompasses a much longer timespan; Science Report and our Solar Research team was recognised the flexible and often-changing worlds of research, funding, with a combined award in the Outstanding Impact in Sustainable reporting, and business engagement don’t always conform Futures category of the University of Exeter’s Impact Awards. neatly to the passage of months and years. Our review We also welcomed politicians of various persuasions to the stretches from when our research and engagement efforts building, and hosted a significant ceremony when the were just getting under way, right into the final quarter of 2014. Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Growth Deal was signed. The year in numbers 1st place in Eco £16 million, 25 academics, Building of the Year our external research 32 researchers and in the Michelmores/ income, as of the 45 PhD students Western Morning News end of in the building at Property Awards November 2014 the time of writing 02 www.exeter.ac.uk/esi/research World-class answers to environmental questions 3 Up and running Our research Introduction Clean technologies Living landscapes People and sustainable Much of our research is embedded within Cornwall and “The complex Our research into clean technologies Our research into the natural communities the Isles of Scilly, but its impact is far wider and has practical natural world combines two distinct strands: environment encompasses This research includes studies into applications, nationally and internationally. Projects based in renewable energy and sustainable biodiversity, ecological processes, behavioural change, environmental and around the county bring direct benefits to participating around us is the mining and minerals resourcing. agriculture, remote sensing, economics, law, public policy, businesses, stakeholders and communities, but their findings life support system Both involve close collaboration conservation biology, diseases, and governance and regulation. are of direct relevance elsewhere in the UK as well as upon which humans with colleagues within the and land and marine management. Our focus on social science and around the world. University’s Camborne School A number of recent and ongoing sustainability helps to inform the depend. There are of Mines and the College of studies are delivered in conjunction transition from resource-intensive Our approach is interdisciplinary, drawing on the expertise many threats to this system, and to Engineering, Mathematics and with researchers based within the economic growth to resilient, of a diverse team of leading researchers from a wide range alleviate these we need to know the Physical Sciences. n University’s College for Life and environmentally sustainable of disciplines, working in collaboration with partners from Environmental Sciences. n economies. Our researchers work across the region. We are finding important solutions to causes, symptoms and cures. This can closely with those within the challenging problems by bridging traditional academic only be achieved by bridging traditional University’s Colleges of Life and boundaries. disciplines and by combining empirical Environmental Sciences, and Social Science and International Studies. n Everything we do is linked by a common thread of working and modelling work, and a range of together and thinking differently. Our researchers tackle an qualitative and quantitative approaches.” extensive range of topics in looking for solutions to problems of environmental change: some solutions are technological, Dr IIya Maclean others might relate to land-use, sometimes they depend on Lecturer in Natural Environment Over the following pages, brief examples of research within each theme a change in human behaviour. Most involve combinations of give an insight into, and snapshot of, some of the pioneering research we’ve all three. This is why our research spans three interrelated undertaken since opening. A wider range and larger number of examples themes: clean technologies, living landscapes, and people can be found on our website’s Research section: www.exeter.ac.uk/esi/ and sustainable communities. research 04 www.exeter.ac.uk/esi/research World-class answers to environmental questions 5 Up and running Clean technologies Technological innovations SUNTRAP SUPERGEN Thermal energy created by solar- are an important aspect of Solar Challenge to-electrical conversion can also be Biomining mine wastes many solutions to problems This four-year project sees ESI used to enhance the efficiency of Our researchers, in particular Dr Chris Bryan, are investigating how microbial of environmental change, researchers – led by Professor Tapas co-generation plants or displace fossil populations such as bacteria can be used to recover polluting, but often valuable, from managing the ecological Mallick – joining forces forces with fuel combustion. metals from ores and mining wastes. impacts of the Cornish mining colleagues from the Universities of industry, to developing new Glasgow, Heriot-Watt, Manchester Various industrial partners will be Because Cornwall has a rich and varied mining history, this project has a strong cutting-edge technologies, and Cardiff; it aims to reduce the cost able to commercialise the new local focus. Mining wastes in the county date predominantly from the 18th and including solar and tidal energy. of electrical and thermal solar energy technology arising from this project; 19th centuries, when mineral processing methods were less effective. generation in order to make it more it will be suited equally to domestic The clean technologies theme widely and abundantly available. use or utility-scale power plants. n The bacteria which occur naturally in mine wastes cause metals like arsenic, is a fast-growing area of our cadmium and lead to leach out, creating significant pollution. The team is currently research, with additional The technical processes that the ESI examining this phenomenon within a few miles of the Penryn Campus, in what used appointments during 2013 to team hopes will make this possible to be Cornwall’s mining heartland. They aim to find out what concentrations of our award-winning solar team.
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