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Government And Research Councils Establish Centre To Tackle Environmental Risk

   

NEWS RELEASE

Ref: 400/08
Date: 29 December 2008

A new centre dedicated to helping the Government understand natural and environmental risk has started work.

The collaborative Centre of Excellence in Understanding and Managing Natural and Environmental Risk is based at Cranfield University and will provide world-leading evidence and expertise on environmental risks such as flooding, animal and plant disease, and adapting to climate change.

The centre will work closely with Defra to assess the probabilities and impacts of these risks and feed this improved information into Defra’s policy development.  It will also develop and communicate best practice across organisations involved in environmental risk management.

The centre is one of the first activities to be accredited under the new Living With Environmental Change (LWEC) programme.  LWEC is an exciting new research initiative, with participation from all major government funders, such as research councils and government departments. It aims to provide decision makers with the best natural and social science information to address climate change, and the management of ecosystems and biodiversity focusing on: food and water; animal, plant and human health; transportation and the built environment.

Professor Robert Watson, Chief Scientific Adviser for Defra said:

“Scientific information plays a vital role in finding solutions to the challenges of climate change, natural disasters, and animal diseases. This new centre will be at the forefront of finding ways to assess the risks of issues like flooding and animal and plant diseases and will improve Defra's ability to compare different types of risk and their impacts.

“I am delighted to be working with Professor Pollard and Cranfield University on this exciting project.  The centre will be a major asset not only to Defra but to the research councils and other government departments, and will ensure that state-of-the-art risk knowledge is incorporated in decision-making.”

Professor Simon Pollard, Head of Head of Sustainable Systems at Cranfield University, who will lead the work of the centre said:

“Our focus will be in stimulating the good practice in risk management already within Defra, and assisting Defra colleagues with the strategic appraisal of risks across a very wide risk portfolio.  The centre’s role will be to develop the tools and techniques to do this, and to provide leading-edge thinking on the sound prioritisation of environmental risks.” 

Notes to Editors

  1. The Centre is being jointly funded by Defra, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) for 3 years to the value of £1.2million.  All partners are contributing £300,000 over three years.
  1. Academics from the Centre will work with Defra’s policy teams tackling a range of difficult risk problems: handling uncertainty in risk, assessing probability and describing the range of economic, environmental and social impacts that these risks can cause.
  1. The Centre’s work will be guided by an international Strategic Advisory Board.  The first meeting of the Board is planned for February 2009, which will agree the forward work plan of the Centre.  The decision to establish the Centre reflects advice from Defra’s Science Advisory Council (SAC), which provides independent advice on the Department’s science strategy. The SAC’s Risk sub-group (SAC-R) reported in April 2007 on its review of Defra’s ability to compare risks, particularly across different policy areas.
  1. For further information about the Science Advisory Council and the risk sub group: www.defra.gov.uk/science/how/sac/subgroups/sac-r.htm
  1. For further information about Professor Simon Pollard and Cranfield University:
    www.cranfield.ac.uk/
    www.cranfield.ac.uk/sas/aboutus/staff/pollards.jsp?id=redirect

    2. Cranfield University is a wholly postgraduate institution with a worldwide reputation for excellence and expertise in aerospace, automotive, defence, engineering, environment and water, health, management and manufacturing.  The University is made up of the following Schools: Cranfield Health, School of Management, School of Applied Sciences, School of Engineering, and The Defence College of Management and Technology at Shrivenham.

  2. For more information about LWEC:
    www.nerc.ac.uk/research/programmes/lwec/

End

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Page published: 29 December 2008