Online attendees: Please note online sessions start and finish at slightly different times to allow for a welcome and a conclusion facilitated by our online facilitators. We will send out your online programme and Zoom link a couple of weeks before the event.
ACCESS Assembly 2026 – Programme
Wednesday 17 June – Day 1
12-12.50pm
Atrium, Xfi
Registration & Lunch
Vegan/vegetarian buffet
12.55-1.10pm
Henderson Lecture Theatre, Xfi
Welcome and Introduction
Patrick will introduce this year’s Assembly, share highlights from Year 4 of ACCESS and preview what’s yet to come in the final months of the ACCESS project.
- Patrick Devine-Wright (ACCESS Director, University of Exeter)
1.10-2.30pm
Henderson Lecture Theatre, Xfi
Session 1 – Negotiating the boundary between research and policy: lessons from ACCESS
Presentations from the three ACCESS Task Forces – on net zero, nature recovery, and adaptation and resilience – and the ACCESS Policy and Practice Working Group, followed by discussion and Q&A.
Presentations
- Karen Bickerstaff (University of Exeter) – Net Zero Task Force Lead
Making a Net Zero Society – Follow the social science - Michael Winter OBE (University of Exeter) – Nature Recovery Task Force Lead
Implementing Nature Recovery in the UK: What can Social Science offer?
- Rory Walshe (Government Office for Science) & Irene Lorenzoni (University of East Anglia) – Adaptation & Resilience Task Force Leads
Climate change adaptation and resilience to natural hazards - Hazel Napier (British Geological Survey), Helen Roberts (Met Office) & Jo Hamilton (University of Exeter)
The ACCESS Policy and Practice Working Group
Discussants
- Carrie Heitmeyer (Government Office for Science)
- Neil Adger (University of Exeter)
- Melissa Wang (Greenpeace Research Laboratories, Bioscience, University of Exeter)
Chair
- Susan Owens OBE (University of Cambridge)
2.35-2.45pm
Comfort Break
2.45-3.45pm
Henderson Lecture Theatre, Xfi
Session 2 – Negotiating disciplinary and sectoral boundaries: lessons from ACCESS
Presentations on two ACCESS projects followed by discussion and Q&A
Presentations
- Ethny Childs (Head of Communities & Partnerships, Institution of Environmental Sciences)
Environmental Social Science in interdisciplinary working - Beth Brockett (Senior Social Scientist, Forest Research )
Mainstreaming of Social Sciences in Environment Policy and Practice Discussants (MOSSEPP)
Discussants
- Nicky Dean (Editorial Director – Earth, Environment, and Social Sciences Nature Journals, Nature Portfolio)
- Emily Cox (Head of Research and Evaluation, Centre for Sustainable Energy)
- Karishma Jain (Teaching Professor of Sustainability and Innovation, Dept of Physics, University of Cambridge)
Chair
- Birgitta Gatersleben (ACCESS Co-Director, University of Surrey)
3.45-4.15pm
Atrium, Xfi
Tea & Coffee Break
4.15-4.45pm
Henderson Lecture Theatre, Xfi
Keynote Session
Julian Agyeman (Tufts University)
Chair:
- Patrick Devine-Wright (ACCESS Director, University of Exeter)
4.50-5.30pm
TBC
Session 3: Dialogues on how we grow leadership capacity in Environmental Social Science
This session will be led by some of the ACCESS Leadership College Fellows, including:
- Mandi Bissett (Independent Scholar)
- Pam Buchan (University of Exeter)
5.30-5.35pm
Henderson Lecture Theatre, Xfi
Wrap Up
Birgitta Gatersleben (ACCESS Co-Director, University of Surrey)
6.45–10.30pm
6.45–7.30pm
7.30–9.pm
9.15-10.30pm
Woodbridge Room, Reed Hall
Conference Evening
Pre-dinner Drinks
Conference Dinner – Hot vegan/vegetarian buffet
Ceilidh (optional) –With music & calling from The Dartmoor Pixie Band
Thursday 18 June – Day 2
9-9.15am
Henderson Lecture Theatre,
Xfi
Welcome back
Birgitta Gatersleben (ACCESS Co-Director, University of Surrey)
9.15-10.15am
Henderson Lecture Theatre
& Break-out rooms, Xfi
ACCESS Flex Fund Project Update 1
Presentations from two ACCESS Flex Fund projects followed by Q&A
Presentations
- Sarah Parry (University of Edinburgh) & Lynn Cassells (Co-owner Lynbreck Croft)
Building sustainability on a Foundation of Care & Socioecological Care: A repository for our research outputs - Sarah Hartley & Rory Murphy (University of Exeter)
The Social and Environmental Impacts of Data Centres
Chair
- Birgitta Gatersleben (ACCESS Co-Director, University of Surrey)
10.15-10.45am
Atrium, Xfi
Tea & Coffee Break
10.45-12.15pm
Henderson Lecture Theatre,
Xfi
Session 4 – Ecomodernism: Contradictions, Pluralities, Disruptive Possibilities and Decolonial Futures
An introduction to the Advisory Community to ACCESS on Intersectionality (ACAI), followed by a presentation and conversational panel.
Introduction to ACAI
ACAI members
- Jaya Gajparia (University of Exeter, ACCESS Senior Research Fellow & Independent Scholar)
- Zarina Ahmad (University of Manchester & Co-Director of the Women’s Environmental Network)
- Nawang Choden (Cambridge Conservation Initiative)
- Lorraine Dongo (ACU (The Association of Commonwealth Universities) & Race on the Agenda (ROTA))
- Andre Kpodonu (Co-Director of Seeding Reparations)
- Viji Kuppan (University of Leicester & Loughborough University)
- Chamindra Weerawardhana (Independent Scholar & Activist)
Presentation – Foundations for Deep Community Building
- Chamindra Weerawardhana (Independent Scholar & Activist)
Conversation Panel
- Beth Collier (Wild in the City)
- Zarina Ahmad (Women’s Environment Network & University of Manchester)
- Gurpreet Padda (Marine Management Organisation)
- Leon Sealey-Huggins (Senior Campaigner Global Climate Justice and Just Transitions; Assistant Professor in Global Sustainable Development at University of Warwick)
Chair
- Andre Kpodonu (Seeding Reparations CIC)
12.15-1.15pm
Atrium, Xfi
Lunch
Vegetarian/vegan buffet
1.15-2.15pm
Henderson Lecture Theatre
& Break-out rooms, Xfi
ACCESS Flex Fund Project Update 2
Presentations from two ACCESS Flex Fund projects followed by Q&A
Presentations
- Davide Pettinato (University of Cambridge, Centre of Islamic Studies) & Mohammed Fezzan Azam (Cambridge Central Mosque)
British Muslims and pro-environmental values, self-identities and personal norms - Matilda Becker & Rosalind Chaston (Oxford Net Zero, University of Oxford)
Developing equitable climate standards: learnings from youth engagement and governance assessments
Unlocking the Power of Youth to develop equity in net-zero governance
Chair
- Birgitta Gatersleben (ACCESS Co-Director, University of Surrey)
2.15-2.30pm
Comfort break
2.30-3pm
Henderson Lecture Theatre
Keynote Session: Spanning national boundaries: International perspectives on environmental social science
Yacob Mulugetta (African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC), based at UCL)
Chair
- Patrick Devine-Wright (ACCESS Director, University of Exeter)
3-3.45pm
Henderson Lecture Theatre
Session 5 – International Panel Discussion
- Julie McArthur (Royal Roads University, Canada)
- Members of the Taiwanese delegation
- Saurabh Arora (University of Sussex)
- Further panelist TBC
Chair
- Patrick Devine-Wright (ACCESS Director, University of Exeter)
3.45-4pm
Henderson Lecture Theatre,
Xfi
Reflections & Closing Remarks
Patrick Devine-Wright (ACCESS Director) & Birgitta Gatersleben (ACCESS Co-Director)
Go back to the main Assembly 2026 information page
