Strategy

NERC public dialogue: contemporary issues of environmental science

NERC conducted a public dialogue in 2022 to 2023 to understand where public input has the most potential to shape environmental science research agendas.

From:
NERC
Published:

Documents

Summary report: what matters when we think about environmental science? (PDF)

, 2 MB

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Details

The dialogue involved 82 people from diverse groups and was co-produced with the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) strategy and programme generation staff, environmental science researchers and the public.

The purpose was to understand where public input has the most potential to shape environmental science research agendas.

The dialogue set out to gain a better understanding of:

  • what dialogue participants prioritise and have most interest in in relation to contemporary issues in environmental science
  • the rationale between these priorities and interests
  • how diverse publics can be involved in NERC decision making

The resulting dialogue report sets out recommendations from a public participant perspective. The most significant overarching priority identified was climate change, and action to ensure society can live sustainably by prioritising the health of our planet.

The dialogue will now play a role in informing the delivery of NERC’s remit within UK Research and Innovation to sustain world-class environmental science. This will be done by using the evidence from the dialogue to drive forward the development of a new NERC public engagement strategy, together with informing future strategic research.

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