Partnerships

Working with you

The ACCE DTP combines the world-class academic strengths of the Universities of Liverpool, Sheffield and York and the unique scientific expertise of the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and the Natural History Museum. ACCE works collaboratively with organisations outside of higher education for student training, and placements. This is so that ACCE graduates are rounded experts, who have the skills to contribute to the future of environmental research. We aim to create projects that are contemporary and applied, that solve problems and build knowledge. For this, working with our valued partners is vital.

If you are interested to work with our academic experts and our talented students and become an ACCE Partner, there are a number of ways you can be involved, one is to be a partner on a Highlight topics project as a co-supervisor.

We ran ‘Partnership Building’ online workshops in 2020 and 2021 as a requirement for applications for this, these have now been completed. You must have engaged with the workshops to apply with an academic lead institution. If you have missed the workshops and would like more information, please find contact details at the bottom of this page.

For reference and information, the 2021 Highlight topic areas are detailed below:

Nature’s contribution to quality of life

Some of the socio-economic benefits of nature have been the subject of intensive research since, e.g. the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment, but others remain under-researched. This topic would focus on research that helps our end-users to realise co-benefits from work that restores nature and work that improves health, social justice and equality. In a UK context this may focus on areas of multiple deprivation e.g. as highlighted in the recent Marmot review (https://www.health.org.uk/publications/reports/the-marmot-review-10-years-on). In an international context it may focus on those Sustainable Development Goals that are not to do with “provisioning services”: good health and wellbeing; quality education; gender equality; reduced inequalities; peace, justice and strong institutions.

Pests on the horizon

Global change is already contributing to the spread of pests and pathogens into new geographic regions, and to acceleration in their economic and societal costs. A particularly difficult issue for end-users is to scan the horizon for species that are not known to act as pests or pathogens, but may rapidly switch due to a change in climate, land-use, crop distributions or trade routes. For example, the Asian long-horned tick is unexpectedly spreading across the Americas, with potentially devastating effects on livestock farming and native wildlife (https://www.fauna-flora.org/news/horizon-scan-identifies-top-conservation-issues-2020). 

Managing soils sustainably

The UK government’s 25 Year Environment Plan states that England’s soils must be managed sustainably by 2030, and steps must be taken towards restoring the UK’s soils (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/state-of-the-environment/summary-state-of-the-environment-soil ). Soil conservation is also a pressing issue globally. This topic would focus on the biological communities of soils – soil biotic communities are crucial to soil ecosystem functions, and end-users may need new ways of using community properties as indicators of soil health, or intervening in the community to assist with soil restoration.

Our Partnerships Officer is Jesamine Hughes, based at the University of Sheffield. Jes will be happy to answer any questions you may have about the Step by Step Partnership Building workshops and any other aspects of becoming an ACCE partner.

Jesamine.Hughes@sheffield.ac.uk

Please download the Partner Guide document below for full information on ways to become an ACCE partner.

Partner Guide

If you are an academic supervisor you may want to contact members of our management board here.

ACCE partners and supporters

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