Last Updated: May 2021
Our vision for research
The Department of Environment and Geography (DEG) at the University of York is aiming to be the most influential environmental department in the world by our 40th anniversary in 2032. Our overall departmental vision incorporates research, teaching and impact. Our specific vision for research is to 'carry out world-class research with relevance, reach and influence that provides the knowledge and drives the action needed, to define the best solutions for environmental challenges in the 21st century’.
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Our research aligns with the University’s strategic aims that champion research that has relevance and reach and produces lasting legacies. We will build on the positive and productive partnerships we have already and develop new ones. The mechanisms we identify in this document for carrying out research will allow us to be more ‘agile, able and aligned’. The principles that guide the University’s Strategic Plan encompass equality, diversity and inclusion; environmental sustainability; internationalism, and collaboration across multidisciplinary boundaries. Our research strategy incorporates all of these principles, as well as reflecting the University vision for us being a University for the public good through responding to society’s greatest challenges and to be a community of shared purpose. It also provides exciting and topical input for our teaching programmes, as well as the potential for future CPD programmes.
Global context
In 2015, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was launched to end poverty and to set the world on a path towards peace, prosperity and opportunity for all on a healthy planet1. Seventeen sustainable development goals (SDGs) were defined that required fundamental change in our economic, political, social and financial systems, alongside changes in our behaviour. A recent report shows that very few of the 2020 SDG targets have been achieved. Meeting the 2030 goals will be very challenging and recent events such as the COVID-19 pandemic have made matters even worse1. The 2020-21 pandemic has highlighted the need for transformative change to deal with environmental problems and the complex interconnections between environmental and social challenges. The Government’s UK Research and Development Roadmap stresses the need to ‘build a future which is greener, safer and healthier than before’ 2. Current global efforts lack the strength and ambition to deal with issues such as the climate emergency, biodiversity loss, safe water, air, soil and food, socio-spatial inequalities and human health. We need to address the big challenges, but underpin this effort with fundamental research that advances knowledge in specific areas, so that we are well placed to respond to the big issues as well as any future disruptions.
Our new research strategy has been designed in order to help us address some of the major environmental research challenges. Broadly, we need an inclusive approach that involves both physical and social understanding of systems, engages a range of stakeholders including in the design of research projects from the start (through co-design), and allows us to be inventive and to be innovative. This research strategy defines the challenges we will address, as well as the methods for doing so.
Who are we?
Formed in 1992, DEG has 29 ART staff members, 15 T&S staff members, and 24 post-doctoral staff (as of May 4th, 2021). We also have 60 registered Postgraduate Research students (with a further 15 writing-up/awaiting vivas), 53 taught postgraduate (MSc) and 490 undergraduate students (as of December 2020). We are supported by 8 technicians and 14 members of administrative support staff. Our research includes expertise in physical, natural and social sciences and we work with decision-makers and other stakeholders at international, national and local levels, to develop innovative solutions to the most important environmental challenges. We have strong partnerships within the City of York and the wider region and our research helps to provide the knowledge base to promote and deliver clean water, soil and air, enhance food and energy security, conserve terrestrial and marine ecosystems and identify wider nature-based solutions to enhance wellbeing. Underpinning much of our research is the need to address issues of poverty and equity and to better articulate the relationship between environment and society.
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As well as the research collaborations highlighted above, we have numerous connections with Departments across all three faculties within the University and with numerous Universities across the UK and internationally. We work closely with stakeholders in the city, across the region, as well as further afield. These include links with industrial partners, public bodies including local, national and international governments, policy makers, charitable organisations and NGOs.
Challenge-based research themes
The Department’s research base covers the spectrum from understanding the patterns and processes underlying physical geography and environmental science through ecology, economics and human geography to environmental policy. As such it spans scales from the micro to the global. We carry out the fundamental research that helps us to understand the causes and consequences of environmental change, use this knowledge to develop innovative solutions to environmental challenges, whilst engaging with stakeholders to provide credible, relevant and contextualised knowledge to support sustainable transformations and drive social change. Through these challenge areas, we acknowledge that commitments to environmental sustainability need to be matched with commitments around poverty, equity and justice.
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In terms of future challenges, we are looking to include a new area to deliver ‘Systems Transformations to move beyond net zero carbon’. This new challenge will build on research in the Department, including with our partners in SEI-Y, YESI and the IGDC, but consolidates it to address the global climate emergency and the need to go beyond carbon neutral futures. We also expect to be a driving force in the new Sustainability Entity, which will bring together researchers from across the University working on sustainability issues. The Department is also driving the creation of a new Built Environment Hub, which will provide a forum for interdisciplinary research in this area across the three faculties.
Challenge Area Research Groups (CARGs)
Our four challenge areas form our main research groups (CARGs) and are inclusive, benefit all career stages, and provide regular opportunities to interact with others. Members of the department (including PGRs, technical support and T&S staff) can join as many of the CARGs as they wish. All new staff and postgraduates are added to the most relevant CARG as part of their induction and everyone is expected to engage with at least one group. Each CARG leader sits on the Departmental Research Committee (DRC) and acts as a conduit between the two, reporting back to the DRC on CARG activities and vice versa. The CARGs will meet for an hour every 1-3 weeks during term time. Activities at CARG meetings may involve internal or external speakers, group discussions, workshops and training sessions, but their key purpose is to provide a strong and inclusive research community in the Department.
Special Interest Groups (SPIGs)
In order to facilitate interdisciplinary working and to respond to opportunities for emerging topics, grant applications, high impact papers (e.g. likely to be good for REF) etc., we will develop a system that allows SPIGs to form as needed. We expect SPIGs to contain members from across at least 2 or more of our 4 CARGs as well as from other UoY Departments, centres and external stakeholders where necessary. The benefit of these SPIGs is that they can be formed quickly as and when needed, generate a clear deliverable (such as a grant proposal, a publication, a policy initiative or an industry commitment) and then be disbanded when no longer needed (we envisage 3-18 month lifetimes typically). This will allow us to adapt to changes in the external research environment, as new staff join, or new challenges arise. The SPIGs can be suggested by anyone in the Department (including technicians, ECRs and PGRs) and will run on the principles of equality and diversity. We expect these groups to generate high impact and help us work towards our goal of becoming the most influential environment department by 2032.
Evolution of challenge areas and SPIGs
This document presents a starting point for future research in the Department. We will review the challenge areas regularly (every 2-3 years) and ensure they are still relevant. We fully expect that the challenge areas will change over time and this may be driven by a SPIG that grows to become a new challenge area. Others may become less relevant or staff changes may lead us to refocus. The challenge areas are also purposefully interdisciplinary. We expect that over time, some CARG members will move between challenge areas, some will be involved with more than one or even all of the challenge areas, whilst others will stay in the same area.
Research goals and impact
We have defined research goals to be achieved over the next 12 months, 24 months, 5 years and by 2032. These goals will be assessed annually by DRC/DMT to check we are still on track for our 2032 vision to be achieved. They will be updated each year until a new strategy is written. The basis for these research goals can be found beneath the table and note that these apply to core Department only.
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*Metrics will be used at a departmental level and will consider individual circumstances, such as career stage, FTE, career breaks etc. The metrics will not be used to evaluate staff performance on an individual basis.
Information used to derive goals
Strategy Development and Implementation: the new research groups and methods for facilitating the SPIGs will be in place by the start of the 21/22 academic year. Metrics will be finalised for each of the sub-categories in the table by this point, such as through work by DRC. After 12 months, we will review how the strategy/metrics are working and revise if needed. After 5 years we expect to have improved our league table positions, with further improvements by 2032. We are currently 26th out of 72 for Geography and Environmental Science in the complete University guide, scoring 70% for research quality and 73% for research intensity. By 2032, we aim to have improved these metrics to >80% and >85% respectively (University of Cambridge Earth Science is currently 82% and 100% in these metrics respectively). In terms of the QS2021 rankings, we sit between positions 101-150 (improved from 2020 when we were ranked 151-200). For QS2021, key competitors are at positions 29 (Leeds), Exeter (43), UEA (44) and Lancaster (67). Therefore by 2032, we aim to move into the top 50.
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By the end of the next academic year, we will aim to have all ART staff with 30% research time based on efficiencies mainly to teaching and assessment activities (at the moment, staff are guaranteed 24%). We will support staff-buyout on grants in a more meaningful way than we have been able to in the past, through an increased number of T&S staff that can support those with major grant successes. By the end of 2025, we would expect all ART staff who are, on average, meeting departmental minimum research expectations to have at least 40% research time (subject to individual circumstances). Note that the departmental research expectations will continue ti be regularly reviewed to ensure they reflect the external funding environment. In addition, by 2032, we would have an exemplar mentorship scheme and thriving PhD and ECR communities
Future growth
We are planning future investments of ca. 10-12 ART staff in the next 7-8 years, which will serve three goals. Firstly, they are aimed at building on existing strengths; we will further develop critical mass in pharmaceutical fate, air pollution, tropical ecology and management, green and blue spaces to enhance well-being and food security. Secondly, new investment (a further 3-4 members of ART staff) will enhance our capacity to conduct challenge-based research and we aim to recruit staff in areas such as climate modelling, coastal management and agritechnology. Thirdly, we will also move into new areas, for example future energy systems, or moving beyond net zero carbon. We will recruit a further 3-4 ART staff in key emerging areas over the next 7-8 years. These new investments will be paid for through increased research income.
We aim to support our existing research groups by investing in 5 members of T and S staff by the end of academic year 22/23, to alleviate some of the teaching responsibilities of existing ART staff. We will also be increasing administrative and technical support by 2 and 1 FTE respectively over the next 2 years. These measures will free up more time for our existing staff to undertake more research, and also allow us to better support sabbaticals and concentrated blocks of time for research activity, e.g. proposal and paper writing.
References
- https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2020/The-Sustainable-Development-Goals-Report-2020.pdf
- HM Government UK Research and Development Roadmap https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/896799/UK_Research_and_Development_Roadmap.pdf
Appendix 1
Development of this strategy
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- February 2020: the Departmental Research Committee (DRC) Identified three key ways to improve research in the department: free up research time (mainly to be achieved through teaching and administrative efficiencies); rebrand our research themes for higher visibility and more effective interdisciplinary working; work towards increasing the departmental income from successful research grants
- June 2020: DRC meeting to start to identify new research themes.
- September 2020: Three workshops facilitated by Rachel Curwen with ~ 20 internal and external participants. These explored the key areas to work on which were (i) research themes, (ii) cohering activities and (iii) engagement (and governance).
- October-December 2020: Based on the September workshops, a small Creative Working Group (CWG) was formed to work on the three areas identified above, including PhD, ECR and ART staff. Three sub-groups with 3-4 people in each developed the three strands through a series of whole-group workshops and sub-group tasks between meetings.
- November 2020: DRC commented on some preliminary ideas from the CWG.
- December 2020: Draft plans introduced at staff meeting on 1st December 2020. Staff invited to contribute to a survey on the draft plan and focus group sessions held. Feedback used to further develop the plan.
- January 2021: Draft research strategy available.
- April 2021: revised strategy available.
May 2021: Research strategy approved and adopted.