Prof. Lauren Andres awarded funding with Prof Mark Pelling through UCL's Grand Challenge

Image credit: Photo by Jonas on Unsplash

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Prof. Mark Pelling who is the project lead, with Prof. Lauren Andres as the co-lead have been awarded £74,545.71 for their project titled "CADENCE: Consequences of Adaptation for DEmocratic AdvaNCE". This project is part of UCL's Grand Challenge of Climate Crisis pump-priming funding initiative, which aims to support interdisciplinary research in climate governance, food security, and sustainable aviation.

The two-year CADENCE project falls under the Climate Governance category and represents a collaboration between Prof. Andres from the Bartlett School of Planning and Prof. Pelling from the Department for Risk and Disaster Reduction. Their research will explore the relationship between climate change adaptation strategies and their impact on democratic processes.

This funding aligns with growing recognition that climate adaptation and democratic governance are interconnected. Effective climate adaptation requires transparent, accountable, and inclusive practices, which are also fundamental to environmental democracy. The project will investigate how adaptation efforts can potentially strengthen democratic institutions and practices, creating a virtuous circle between climate resilience and democratic governance.

By examining the consequences of adaptation for democratic advancement, Andres and Pelling's work will bring valuable insights to the emerging field of climate-resilient development, potentially informing future policy and program design in both climate adaptation and democracy support initiatives.

Coordinated by the interdisciplinary Department of Risk and Disaster Reduction, CADANCE draws together four UCL faculties (MAPS, Engineering, Built Environment and SHS) and one external academic partner (Leeds Beckett University) to integrate expertise on climate adaptation, political theory and local democratic practice, urban planning policy processes with engineering and climate impact science.