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New Director for LWEC programme

25 July 2008

Issued by the Natural Environment Research Council on behalf of the Living With Environmental Change Programme Partners

Director appointed to take up the challenges of Living With Environmental Change

Living With Environmental Change (LWEC) is an unprecedented partnership of 17 research, business and policy-making organisations working together to find ways for society and individual people to adapt to the environmental changes that we face now and in the future.

The partnership today announced the appointment of a Director for this ambitious UK programme. Professor Andrew Watkinson, who is currently Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and a Professor in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia, will take up the post during September.

Chairman of the LWEC Partners Board, Lord Selborne, said, "I am delighted that Andrew has agreed to join us. His extensive environmental research background and experience of running a major research centre, working at both national and international levels, will give LWEC the leadership it needs to deal with the huge range of environmental challenges that are already starting to affect people in the UK and across the world."

The LWEC programme will address environmental change in the short and medium-term at both the regional and global scale. A key objective is to provide the evidence-base which policy-makers and people need to make timely decisions that will enable us to prepare for the predicted changes and to manage the economic impacts.

Professor Watkinson's current research focuses on interdisciplinary aspects of climate change, ecology and coastal zone management, with particular emphasis on how science informs policy. He trained as an ecologist at York and the University of Wales, Bangor before moving to the University of East Anglia. He was presented in 2003 with the Marsh Award for Ecology by the British Ecological Society and is a visiting Professor at Fudan University in Shanghai. He is also currently Chair of the NERC/ESRC/DFID advisory committee on Ecosystem Services and Poverty Alleviation, an initiative that will form part of the LWEC programme, and has already worked with most of the LWEC partners.

Professor Watkinson said, "Society is facing a range of challenges including climate change, population growth, globalisation and technological change. What I hope is that LWEC will play a vital part in securing the future wellbeing of the people and economy of the UK by providing the evidence base to inform policy debate and people's choices. I have no doubt that leading this partnership will itself be very challenging, but I am eager to start driving it forward."

His appointment will run initially for five years and his office will be hosted by the University of East Anglia during that period.

Further information

NERC Press Office
Natural Environment Research Council
Polaris House, North Star Avenue
Swindon, SN2 1EU
Tel: 01793 411561
Mob: 07917 557215

Notes

1. Living with Environmental Change was launched on 18 July 2008. It will transform how researchers, government and the public interact to tackle the key environmental challenges: climate change; loss of biodiversity; the availability of sustainable water and food supplies; preparing for and managing extreme events; protecting people, animals and plants from disease; and alleviating poverty in developing countries. The programme is an acknowledgement from researchers and policy-makers that climate change is only one part of a much bigger challenge: global environmental change caused by rapid economic and population growth.

2. The LWEC partners are:
Research Councils UK

Natural Environment Research Council
Economic & Social Research Council
Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council
Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council
Medical Research Council
Arts & Humanities Research Council

The research councils all receive funding from the Science Budget, through the Department of Innovation, Skills & Universities.

Departments of State, Governments and related Agencies

Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
Department for International Development
Department for Communities & Local Government
Department for Transport
Welsh Assembly Government
Scottish Government
Local Government Association
Environment Agency
Scottish Environment Protection Agency
Natural England
Met Office

3. The University of East Anglia (UEA) is an internationally renowned university based in a campus that provides top quality academic, social and cultural facilities to over 13,000 students. It already hosts the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and will now also host the LWEC Director's Office.

Press release: 37/08