UK researchers together with partners in Brazil, Pakistan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt and South Africa hosted interdisciplinary climate action virtual workshops, supported by British Council Researcher Links Climate Challenge Workshop Grants.
About the Researcher Links Climate Challenge Workshops
Complex problems such as climate change cannot be addressed from the perspective of one discipline alone.
In November 2020 the British Council launched the Researcher Links Climate Challenge (RLCC) Workshop Grants funding call, providing financial support to researchers from different disciplines in the UK and partner countries to host virtual climate action research workshops.
This call is one of many activities the British Council is delivering in the run up to COP26 (the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties) which takes place in Glasgow in November 2021.
The RLCC Workshops will address development challenges caused by climate change,.and are to align with the priority areas for COP26: Adaptation and Resilience, Nature, Energy Transition, Clean Road Transport, and Finance.
The three overarching themes of the workshops are to:
- Support international development-relevant research on climate change
- Contribute to capacity building of early career researchers
- Establish new research links or significantly develop existing links, with the potential for longer term sustainability
Participating early career researchers from the UK and partner countries will have the opportunity to submit joint proposals to unlock further funding in form of individual challenge prizes which can be used to implement research ideas and generate development-related impact after the workshop.
The Researcher Links Climate Challenge Workshops
11 workshop proposals were awarded grants in the RLCC funding call in 2020. The workshops are scheduled to take place in 2021 in the lead up to COP26.
Brazil
Empowering traditional communities in the Brazilian coastal zone to adapt to the climate crisis
The Manchester Metropolitan University and Federal University of Alagoas (Universidade Federal de Alagoas)
Sustainable and healthy food environment for children: the potential of school meals
Brunel University London and Instituto Goncalo Moniz, Fiocruz Bahia
Egypt
Climate resilience of micro, small and medium industrial workplaces in Egypt: A future-fit approach to retrofit
UCL IEDE, BSEER, University College London (UCL) and American University in Cairo
Indonesia
Delivering a battery revolution - reducing the drivers of climate change in Indonesia
Queen Mary University of London and BATAN National Nuclear Energy Agency
Indonesia-UK Workshop on reduction of climate change impact on flood risk in urban areas
University of Greenwich and Universitas Indonesia
Addressing marine plastic waste as a climate change adaptation priority in Indonesia
Bangor University and Centre of Sustainable Energy and Resources Management (CSERM), Universitas Nasional (UNAS)
Pakistan
Delivering a sustainable energy transition for Pakistan
University of Glasgow and Lahore University of Management Sciences
Read about the workshop in a Q&A with the workshop coordinators
Development of climate change resilience in Pakistan through Textile Circular Economy (TEXONOMY)
Northumbria University and Lahore University of Management Sciences
South Africa
Investigating the effects of climate change on malaria for urgent action to combat climate change with reference to COP26 priorities
University of Liverpool and University of Pretoria
Transforming policy and practice towards agroecological transitions for resilient and just food and farming systems in a changing climate
Centre for Agroecology, Water & Resilience (CAWR), Coventry University and Department of Environmental and Geographical Science, University of Cape Town (UCT)
Vietnam
Community integration with weather-related hazard adaption and mitigation in Vietnam
British Geological Survey and Vietnam Institute of Geosciences and Mineral Resources
"The British Council is delighted to support these 11 Researcher Links Climate Challenge Workshops, bringing together researchers from the UK and partner countries to tackle development issues caused by climate change. We look forward to following these virtual workshops as they progress, as well as to learn about their outcomes in the lead up to COP26."
Dr Stephanie Renforth, Senior Consultant Science, British Council