greenREACTIONS project launched!

We were thrilled to commence our greenREACTIONS project this week.  The Royal Society of Chemistry-funded project will see 20 sustainability-minded researchers trained in science communication, leading to at least three public dialogue events in the new year.

This specialist training will be provided by Simon Watt in February; probably best known as a presenter on the BAFTA-winning series Inside Nature’s Giants, Simon has biologist roots, however has since started his own company “Ready Steady Science!”, which brings science (and humour) to schools, museums, theatres and festivals (http://www.readysteadyscience.com/).

We are also very fortunate to work on this project with Environmental Sociologist Dr. Thomas Roberts (University of Surrey), who has extensive experience in evaluating the effectiveness of public engagement exercises (http://www.surrey.ac.uk/sociology/people/thomas_roberts/).  Thomas will help us to understand the impact of our dialogues, perhaps also changing the way we view our research…

At our launch meeting(s), we were delighted to bring together participants from the Departments of Archaeology, Biology, Chemistry, Economics, Education, Environment, Management, Politics and the Stockholm Environment Institute!  Over some beautiful tea and cake, we each presented 3-minute overviews of our research, in order to identify possible themes; the plan is for three researchers to introduce their research at each event.  A number of overarching connections between the disciplines were made, highlighting the value of greenSTEMS in revealing such links and connecting early career researchers.

A huge thank you to Jennie Dodson, Ian Ingram, Giulia Paggiola and Thomas Roberts for co-ordinating this project!

Pete presenting his work on monitoring ozone pollution

Some group chat identifying possible themes

– contributed by Emily Johnston