In category: News

Our fifth and final ACCESS Assembly was held on Wednesday 17 and Thursday 18 June 2026 at the University of Exeter’s Streatham Campus. We enjoyed keynotes from Prof. Julian Agyeman (Tufts, USA) and Prof. Yacob Mulugetta (UCL, African Institute for Sustainable Energy and Systems Analysis), an international discussion panel with Prof. Julie MacArthur (Royal Roads, […]

This short film, which premiered at the ACCESS Assembly, introduces the ACCESS Nature Recovery Task Force. This group of leading academic and nature agency social scientists who have been looking at how the social sciences can be more effectively deployed to reconfigure land use and land management policy and practice in the UK to deliver […]

This ACCESS-funded project, conducted by the Centre for Climate Communication and Data Science (C3DS) in collaboration with the Environment Agency, examined media coverage of bathing water discourse in online UK newspapers. The project provided insight into media narratives, debates and discourses surrounding outdoor swimming, with a particular focus on water-based risk, pollution and water quality. […]

If you’re interested in bringing together people from diverse sectors to work, learn and grow as emerging leaders, watch our new video about the ACCESS Leadership College. It features Leadership College Director, Professor Saffron O’Neill (University of Exeter) and our Leadership College Fellows, and follows our final College retreat in South Devon in April 2026. […]

ACCESS would like to extend our congratulations to Dr Carrie Heitmeyer who has been awarded an MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours List 2026, for Services to Social Science.  Carrie is Head of Social Science at the Government Office for Science, and a member of ACCESS’s Policy and Practice Working Group and Adaptation and Resilience […]

We brought together around 160 environmental social scientists (and guests from outside ESS), from across academia, policy and the third sector for two days of thinking, connecting and network building. This year’s Assembly had a stronger emphasis on international perspectives and intersectionality. We sought to champion and explore what social science can look like across […]

As an interdisciplinary environmental social scientist, Patrick will share his energy research findings, taking a place-based approach to understanding social dimensions of low carbon energy transitions, specifically the siting of controversial large-scale infrastructures such as grid powerlines, drawing on the concept of spatial imaginaries. Secondly, he will talk about the research/policy agenda, sharing insights about […]

Last month, ACCESS supported the Governing Sustainable Futures project alongside The British Academy and The Green Futures Network in organising a conference that brought together decision makers, community organisations, academics and many others to explore the challenge of ‘How Can we Disagree Better over Sustainable Futures’. This write-up from Governing Sustainable Futures lead Rebecca Sandover (University of […]

Writing can be a gloriously fun, creative and joyful activity. It can also be challenging, frustrating and daunting.   Like many other professional writers, academics can struggle to find the time for regular engagement with the writing process. And it is a process.   Writing a journal article, stakeholder report, policy summary (or blog for your project […]

Birgitta’s election recognises the work that she is doing to increase the visibility, use and impact of social science to tackle our most urgent environmental problems. The Academy’s Fellowship comprises 1,700 leading social scientists from academia, the public, private and third sectors.  Academy Fellows are elected for excellence in their fields and for their substantial contributions to […]