Summary and highlights from Climate Crisis sandpits

Over the last few weeks, we’ve hosted three research sandpits on Food Security, Climate Governance, and Sustainable Aviation to support prospective applicants interested in our pump-priming call. Many thanks to all who joined and supported these events. Your engagement ensured the sessions were energising and productive. We've reflected on the sandpits and have got a lot to celebrate:

• 91 UCL colleagues took part across three conversation-packed afternoons
• 10 different faculties were represented (plus other UCL teams)
• Exciting project ideas were generated for our Pump-Priming Call and other opportunities
• New cross-faculty collaborations were formed and existing networks were grown

Here's a quick summary of what was discussed ...

Sustainable Aviation

People, Environment and Economics - these were the three themes that conversations worked through, surfacing a range of knowledge gaps and potential research areas to improve aviation sustainability - and not just in terms of decarbonising flights. Topics such as how to assess child health near airports, the equity dimensions of airport worker livelihoods and different ways of modelling lifestyle choices around travel provided a rounded picture of this topic. Colleagues considered the behavioural changes needed (from passengers, to manufacturers, to airline CEOs) to make the sector a healthy, productive industry which we can support in its journey to reducing negative effects on the planet - something that UCL's new Centre for Sustainable Aviation will be working on. 

Food Security

The vast scope of this topic became clear at this sandpit as we heard about UCL research ranging from cellular agriculture, to the key relationships between food and water security, to the need to reduce food inequalities globally. Those interested in the interlinkages between global health and food security connected with those working on policy-making and participatory approaches to decision-making about food from the local and national levels. Biodiversity - and how it is impacted by agriculture and global supply chains while providing critical services to food production - also came out as a key area of interest. 

Collaborations between experts in modelling, supply chains, biology, anthropology, remote sensing, education, agricultural policy, consumer behaviour, regulation, nutrition, and many more areas, could work to address the research gaps highlighted in this session. Participants also discussed different approaches to co-producing the knowledge needed to inform policy discussions from the local to the global level. Dean of Life Sciences, Professor Gail Taylor, has been championing this issue at UCL and it was fantastic to have her chairing the discussion. 

Climate Governance

Our final sandpit, and what a great turnout! We started with five broad topics (Accountability & Leadership, Regulation & Policy, Climate Justice & Equity, Data & Communication, Sustainable Urban & Sectoral Transformation) but saw trends emerge around the different scales of governance and raising questions around where responsibility lies for different interventions. Some particularly interesting questions were put forward; What capabilities can we use at UCL to support climate leadership? What kinds of data and information is needed to inform climate governance and what forms of knowledge have been undervalued or under-utilised to date? How can we change values and practices for the better? Can tools, such as AI, help with analysing and improving policies across the globe? How much should leaders be looking to create a new vision of the future compared to improving the system we currently live in? 

From problems of waste management in Karachi to Citizens Assemblies in the MENA region to policies that could support net zero goals for schools in London, participants grappled with questions such as how to design institutions that are both effective and equitable in addressing the climate challenge. Professor Mark Pelling, from the Department of Risk and Disaster Reduction, helped to set the scene and bring the various strands together and we are grateful for his support in serving as strategic lead for this Climate Crisis theme.    

We're already seeing exciting follow-on discussions and collaborations and look forward to working more with our growing network in UCL. If you’d like to get in touch about any of this, please email Max Gillingham.

Don't forget to get applications in for our Pump-Priming call by 17 January 2025! Click here to apply.

Recapping on our UCL Grand Challenge Climate Crisis Sandpits: Summary and Highlights