12 févr. 2015
00:00
Bidders Event for the Centre for Evaluating Complexity across the Energy-Environment-Food Nexus, London/UK
The Economic and Social Research Council is planning a call with funding partners Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), Environment Agency (EA) and Food Standards Agency (FSA) for a new research centre to address the challenges associated with evaluating complexity. A meeting with funders in London will take place on 12 Feb 2015 for focused discussion and consortium building surrounding this forthcoming funding opportunity.
The overarching aim of the Centre will be to pioneer, test and promote innovative and inclusive methods to analyse evaluations across the energy-environment-food nexus where complexity presents an integral challenge to policy interventions.
A complex policy or system is comprised of many influencing factors, for example social (cultural, economic, political, psychological), physical and environmental (climate, carbon, landâ€use, biogeochemical cycles, water, flora/fauna). There can be multiple, complex interactions between these different factors. Within this context of interâ€related factors, there is often overlaid multiple policies and interventions. Taken together, it can be difficult to understand and disentangle the individual impacts of specific policies and interventions and the interrelationships with policies and interventions in related areas.
Four core requirements for the centre have been identified as:
-Leadership: The centre will provide leadership, across UK academia, independent research agencies, government and internationally; pioneering the approaches developed and their application in practice.
-Methodology development: The centre will provide a methodological hub, driving forward internationally important methodological development in the evaluation of complexity, with a particular focus on the energy-environment-food nexus areas. The centre will build on existing methods in natural, physical and social systems and devise new approaches where appropriate to develop credible solutions.
-Methods application: Methodological innovations will be tested in practice across energy, environment and food policy areas to understand their strengths and weaknesses and to allow development and refinement. The centre will also develop a series of case studies to show maximum impact of their practical application. In future it is hoped that the work can be extended to other policy areas where similar problems are faced.
-Capacity building: The centre will foster and develop a new generation of evaluators, skilled in the broader research application of these methods and at maximising the international impact of this work.