Latest News
3 year Funded Eco-Innovation Phds open for application
Graduates have until 4th June to apply for one of 50 exclusive industry-based three year funded PhDs from the Centre for Global Eco-innovation, a partnership between Lancaster University, the University of Liverpool and international commercialisation consultancy Inventya Ltd.
Animal Disease Research Misses the Human Perspective
Animal disease research concentrates too much on the behaviour of micro organisms while ignoring the role played by human beings; we need to take more account of the human dimension if the work of scientists is to be translated effectively into policy, according to scientists at Lancaster and Liverpool universities.
Tropical Ecology Research Group - Tropical Festival - A Shiny Success
A group of PhD students from Lancaster Environment Centre's Tropical Research Group recently organized a vibrant and colourful Tropical Festival in The Gregson Community Centre in Lancaster.
20th Annual GIS Research UK (GISRUK) Conference
Over 160 delegates from 14 countries including the USA, China, Japan and New Zealand attended the 20th annual GIS Research UK (GISRUK) conference held at Lancaster University between 11th and 13th April 2012.
£100,000 Eco Innovation opportunities for ambitious businesses in the North West
Businesses have until Monday 11 June to register for funded research and development from a new Centre for Global Eco Innovation in the North West.
LEC wins Queen's Anniversary Prize for University
The development of water saving techniques for agriculture which have helped farmers in some of the driest regions of the world , has won Lancaster University a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education. It is the third time the University has received one of these prestigious awards.
The Prizes, announced on the 18th November, highlight world-class work taking place in higher and further education, in Lancaster’s case its contribution to one of the biggest challenges facing humankind - feeding seven billion people against a background of climate change. The prize winning research has been developed by a Lancaster team of plant biologists, led by Distinguished Professor Bill Davies in the Lancaster Environment Centre, who have shown how the signals that roots in drying soil send to the shoots can help plants cope more successfully with drought and produce better yield. This new understanding of how plants reacts to stress has now been exploited with the agriculture industry by the group working in collaboration with researchers around the world. Water saving approaches to irrigation and to the management of crop production have resulted in significant water saving and better crop production in regions of the world which suffer water scarcity. This means increased profitability for farmers and better conditions for people living in challenging environments which are becoming even more challenging as the climate changes.
Lancaster science has been used to develop new systems to grow cereals in North China, grape vines and top fruit in Australia and in viticulture and vegetable production around the Mediterranean and in the USA. New water saving techniques have also been developed with the UK horticultural and agricultural industries. The Lancaster team has trained a large number of research biologists who work around the world on projects aimed at contributing to food security. The prize also recognises the teams work with industry in passing on new knowledge through training programmes and partnerships run through the University’s specialist environmental business centre, the first of its kind in the UK.
Lancaster University’s Vice Chancellor Professor Paul Wellings said: “The Lancaster Environment Centre is working at the forefront of science and is helping to provide real solutions to the challenges of climate change . We are absolutely delighted that this exceptional contribution has received such prestigious recognition." This research also won the coveted Times Higher Research Project of the Year 2009.
Upcoming Events
Developing guidelines for good practice in involving stakeholders when coping with uncertainty in managing catchment change
Wednesday 23rd May 2012, 1000-1600
LEC Training Room 2
This workshop will draw out some of the key learning points regarding the nature, significance and handling of uncertainty in catchment management decision-making drawing on experiences in Ryedale, Loweswater and the Demonstration Test Catchments (DTCs). We will attempt to translate these into clear and practical messages for the catchment management community to serve as guidance on 'coping with uncertainty in decision-making'.
(In)determinate Subjects: Indeterminacy & Justice
Speakers include: Myra Hird (Queens), Rebecca Ellis (Lancaster University), Claire Waterton
Friday 22nd June 2012, 1000-1800
FASS Meeting Room 2
Increasing attention has been given to exploring how to account for entities that are both between time and between natures, such as subject/objects, forms of biotic, technoscientific and inhuman life. This conversation will ask: In what ways can indeterminate entities be observed within (and in excess of) the material/practical conditions of their emergence? How do these conditions create different kinds of responsibility(and new vocabularies which trouble and expand the contours of 'responsibility') which we may not have yet anticipated? How can we imagine alternative forms of accounting that apprehend the ontological and temporal conditions of precarity and justice? By exploring these and further questions we
Catchment Change Network International Conference: Stakeholders, next generation models, and risk in managing catchment change
Monday 25th - Wednesday 27th June 2012
Lancaster University Management School
Over the last three years the Catchment Change Network (CCN) has organised a programme of workshops and meetings to discuss and develop guidelines for incorporating risk and uncertainty into the management of catchment change in the areas of flood risk, water scarcity and diffuse pollution. This final international conference will present the progress that has been made in that time in both the CCN and other projects. A particular focus will be on the research needs in both modelling the impacts of change at scales of implementation and on stakeholder involvement in the management process. Keynote speakers include Eric Wood (Princeton), Jay Famiglietti (UC Irvine), Thorsten Wagener (Penn State and Bristol), with others still to be confirmed.