Project overview
- Project Member: Dr Pete Barbrook-Johnson
- External collaborators: A large team led by the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford: https://www.agile-initiative.ox.ac.uk/
- Project name: The Agile Initiative
About the project:
The Agile Initiative at the University of Oxford was established in February 2022 with a major £10 million grant from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). Effective policy and world-class science are both needed to prevent catastrophic environmental degradation on a global scale, yet science and policy often operate in different worlds and to different timelines. Agile aims to address this challenge.
The Agile Initiative is:
- Delivering solution-oriented science through a new model of interdisciplinary research. Groups of researchers from across the Oxford and beyond work with stakeholders and partners (including government at all levels, industry partners, NGOs and local communities) in rapid “Sprint” projects to address a time-critical research question identified by policymakers.
- Building a critical mass of interdisciplinary researchers capable of working within this model. Agile offers training, career development, community-building and collective learning on the Sprint model.
- Contributing to a research culture shift in how impactful, interdisciplinary research is funded and delivered at the University of Oxford and more widely. By collating evidence and learning, Agile will use its findings to influence institutional policies and practices.
Dr Pete Barbrook-Johnson is leading evaluation efforts in Agile, conducting extensive research on the programme itself to understand what is new, what is working (or not) for whom, and what it means for individual researchers and institutions.