George W. Warren1, Harry Marshall2, Valentine Seymour1,3, Beth F. T. Brockett2, Ian Christie1, Theofanis Exadaktylos1, Nigel Gilbert1, Amelia Hadfield1, Sarah Hartley4, Christopher R. Jones3, Gary Kass1,5, Melissa R. Marselle1, Gurpreet Padda6, Rory A. Walshe7, Birgitta Gatersleben1
1 University of Surrey, 2 Forest Research, 3 University of Portsmouth, 4 University of Exeter, 5 Royal Holloway, University of London, 6 Marine Management Organisation, 7 Government Office for Science
July 2024
To cite this resource: Warren, G. W., Marshall, H., Seymour, V., Brockett, B. F. T., Christie, I., Exadaktylos, T., Gilbert, N., Hadfield, A., Hartley., S., Jones, C. R., Kass, G., Marselle, M. R., Padda, G., Walshe, R. A., & Gatersleben., B. (2024). Environmental Social Science kNowledge Exchange Map of Opportunities (ESS NEMO). Guildford, Surrey: ACCESS.
The work of ACCESS is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council [Grant: ES/W00805X/1]
Figure 1. ESS NEMO Landscape Map – a systems map of groups, organisations and individual actors that environmental social scientists could engage with in knowledge creation and/or exchange in the UK. Credit: Warren et al. (2024) / PRSM.
Figure 2. ESS NEMO Westminster Map – a systems map of groups, organisations and individual actors within the UK Government in Westminster that environmental social scientists could engage with in knowledge creation and/or exchange. Credit: Warren et al. (2024) / PRSM.
To cite this resource: Warren, G. W., Marshall, H., Seymour, V., Brockett, B. F. T., Christie, I., Exadaktylos, T., Gilbert, N., Hadfield, A., Hartley., S., Jones, C. R., Kass, G., Marselle, M. R., Padda, G., Walshe, R. A., & Gatersleben., B. (2024). Environmental Social Science kNowledge Exchange Map of Opportunities (ESS NEMO). Guildford, Surrey: ACCESS.
ESS NEMO was co-produced by 32 environmental social scientists and researchers. Many thanks to those named as co-authors, as well as those who wished to remain anonymous. Additional thanks to: Professor Harriet Bulkeley (University of Durham), Dr Jo Hamilton (University of Exeter), Dr Ruth Lamont (Natural England), and Helen Roberts (Met Office).
With special thanks to Professor Nigel Gilbert (University of Surrey), responsible for the Participatory System Mapper (PRSM) used to create these systems maps, and for his help creating the maps.
Criteria for inclusion in ESS NEMO
Strength of connections and relationships
How to use and navigate the map
How to explore the map, and zoom in and out
The Environmental Social Science kNowledge Exchange Map of Opportunities (ESS NEMO) is a package of systems maps [1] and associated documentation that show the groups, organisations and individual actors that environmental social scientists could engage with in knowledge creation and/or exchange in the UK. ESS NEMO is a tool that, among other rationales, aims to promote greater collaboration and trust between environmental social scientists, and with other groups that may not traditionally be included in ESS activities. Environmental Social Science (ESS) is defined as the systematic study of people and their social and their non-human physical environment (their habitat) (Gatersleben et al., forthcoming). The information presented in ESS NEMO reflects the situation as of 10th July 2024. It is acknowledged that the landscape is dynamic, and changes frequently over time.
Two systems maps have been created and are presented to illustrate ESS NEMO. We decided to create two maps to ensure usability and clarity of ESS NEMO, as well as to ensure enough depth and granularity when visualising the structure of the UK government in Westminster.
As such, throughout this document, specific information for each systems map has been clearly delineated. The term “ESS NEMO Landscape Map” (see Figure 1) refers to the broader, overall landscape map of opportunities for environmental social scientists. The term “ESS NEMO Westminster Map” (see Figure 2) refers to the visualisation of the UK Government in Westminster.
The overarching systems map, the ESS NEMO Landscape Map, maps the large overall landscape of entities that environmental social scientists could engage with in knowledge creation and/or exchange in the UK, across all sectors and groups.
The second systems map , the ESS NEMO Westminster Map, shows specific ministerial departments, arms-length bodies (ALBs), and other entities within the UK government in Westminster that may be potentially relevant to environmental social scientists desiring to undertake knowledge creation and/or exchange. The ESS NEMO Westminster Map is seen as a ‘map within a map’, or a ‘zoomed in’ version of the “UK Government in Westminster” knowledge exchange organisation group presented in the ESS NEMO Landscape Map.
In addition to the maps, a list document of ESS NEMO has been made for further depth, and for lists of specific entities within various groupings presented in both systems maps. Furthermore, two case study examples of ways of using ESS NEMO are also presented.
The ESS NEMO Landscape Map includes:
ESS NEMO Westminster Map includes:
Alongside the systems maps, a list of the entities within broader groupings (ESS NEMO List) has been created to act as a reference document. This is to provide the reader with specific organisation names to contact for future potential engagement on ESS topics.
For some groups of entities, such as ‘Catapult Centres’, an exhaustive list is presented. For others, an indicative list is presented due to the scale of entities that could be defined as such. When this is the case, this is stated in the ‘Notes’ section of the ESS NEMO List.
Within the list document, entities within groupings and categorisations visualised in ESS NEMO are named and searchable to complement the visual nature of the map(s) with a structured source of information. Here, further information is presented about who entities may be funded by, whether they are a regulatory body, and who the Chief Scientific Adviser and Chief Analyst are. Notes on many entities and categories are also written, holding information about the role, responsibilities and/or activities of the entity and the definition of terms, and whether the list of entities is exhaustive or indicative.
Two case study examples of ways of using ESS NEMO have been developed. This is to provide the reader with, for example, inspiration for how the map could be used in their own organisation to identify gaps in entities included in knowledge creation or exchange activities.
Both case studies presented consist of mapping the entities involved in the creation of, or the user groups for, two projects using the ESS NEMO Landscape Map: (1) the UK National Ecosystem Assessment (UK NEA) (UK NEA, 2012), and (2) Government Office for Science Net Zero Society: Scenarios and Pathways report (Government Office for Science, 2023). The case studies presented here visualise who has and has not been involved in the project in a descriptive way, and offer learnings related to what kind of entities to include in future projects. The case studies provide inspiration for future uses of the map more generally and demonstrates how ESS NEMO could be used in practice. To see the ESS NEMO Case Studies, please see the links below:
There are many uses for ESS NEMO for those working in knowledge creation or exchange roles across the broad landscape of entities that may engage with ESS topics. In a general sense, both systems maps seek to visualise and illuminate the actors and organisations that ESS knowledge creators and/or brokers could engage with in the UK in a comprehensible and user-friendly way. Some specific purposes for ESS NEMO are presented below:
Information about entities in the map(s) was collected from official sources, including www.gov.uk, and has been co-produced by a range of environmental social scientists or researchers internal and external to ACCESS. These co-producers came from research institutions, different ministerial departments and ALBs of the UK government in Westminster. Overall, 32 individuals took part in the co-production process, between November 2023 and June 2024. The information was collected through formal and informal conversations, and as part of co-production interviews conducted. Primarily, those invited to participate in the co-production activities were from a convenience sample of individuals identifying as environmental social scientists or researchers who are part of the ACCESS Network. Specific groups were targeted, particularly those working in ALBs and other elements of the UK Government in Westminster, to allow for high levels of accuracy in these areas of ESS NEMO.
Following each conversation and/or interview, changes to map(s) were made, sent back to the participant for review, and then updated ahead of the next conversation/interview to create an iterative process. All changes to the map(s) and/or other documentation were logged and sent to participants to ensure clarity of changes made for review. All participants in the co-production of ESS NEMO had the option of co-authorship, acknowledgement of their input, or anonymity. At the same time, the map was iteratively developed by the central team within ACCESS based on publicly available information alongside the input of co-producers.
Alongside changes to the visualisations, co-producers offered suggestions for the types of entities, and specific entity names, that may belong in any of the groupings presented in either the ESS NEMO Landscape Map or the ESS NEMO Westminster Map, which shaped the ESS NEMO List. Suggestions also guided the core team’s search for any additional entities added to this document, as well as its structure.
Co-producers suggested potential case study examples of knowledge creation and/or exchange activities that included ESS that informed the ESS NEMO case studies. When selecting case studies, we also used the additional criterion of publicly available information of partners and/or user groups. The selection of the two case studies does not imply the extent or quality of inclusion of ESS in the examples, and solely denotes that ESS was included in the project.
ESS NEMO has been developed with the integration of the ACCESS Guiding Principles of Environmental Sustainability (ES), Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), and Knowledge Co-Production (KCP) (Barr et al., 2024). The ACCESS Guiding Principles have been integrated into the method of data collection itself (KCP), care taken to ensure a disciplinary, sectoral and socio-demographic diversity of co-producers (EDI), and the avoidance of travel for data collection through online discussions (ES). The project received ethical approval from the Research Integrity and Governance Office at the University of Surrey (Ref: FHMS 22-23 013 EGA Amend 2).
Within government, non-ministerial departments, executive agencies, executive non-departmental public bodies and advisory non-departmental bodies are also referred to as ‘Arms-length bodies’, or ALBs (see Government Office for Science, 2024). This group of entities may be referred to as such in the ESS NEMO List, or in subsequent written outputs associated with ESS NEMO.
ESS NEMO includes bodies, organisations, groups and/or individuals that:
The reason for these criteria is to ensure that relevant entities for ESS knowledge exchange opportunities or entities supportive of or creating ESS are included that allow for use of the map that could lead to more honed targeting of ESS knowledge exchange activities or partnerships.
Other than for Chief Scientific Advisers, Chief Analysts, and select groups such as Influencers, both ESS NEMO knowledge exchange maps and associated ESS NEMO List document do not show individuals within relevant organisations. ESS NEMO is a representation of the current landscape of entities in the UK with whom environmental social scientists and researchers could engage in knowledge exchange and/or creation. Information displayed about entities in additional notes is based on official communications of roles, responsibilities and relationships.
ESS NEMO is bounded geographically, focusing specifically on UK-based entities, and only includes international entities, such as Intergovernmental Organisations, that have a particular focus on UK-related activities or where the UK is a partner.
To allow for greater clarity and legibility, ESS NEMO does not show all relationships between all entities outlined in the maps. For the ESS NEMO Landscape Map, connections are made between higher-level knowledge exchange organisation groups for the most part, rather than specific sub-groups or entities. This has been decided to ensure clarity and due to the difficulty of visualising all linkages between all actors engaged in ESS knowledge exchange. For the ESS NEMO Westminster Map, only public and official linkages are shown. Strength of connection between entities is not displayed in either map. Distance between Knowledge Exchange Organisation Groups, organisational sub-categories and/or specific UK Government in Westminster entities displayed on the map has no relation to their geographical proximity or relationship.
The ESS NEMO Westminster Map is focused specifically on the UK government in Westminster. Names of entities with responsibilities in the devolved nations of the UK may appear, but only those which are entities within the UK government in Westminster are included in this map. Specific connections with devolved entities, and responsibilities within devolved administrations, are noted in the ESS NEMO List, and within the notes linked to the relevant entity’s node. Please see the ESS NEMO List document for details on entities within devolved administrations.
Overall, ESS NEMO is an attempt to outline the vast, diverse and complex plethora of entities engaged in ESS knowledge exchange generally, and policy-relevant knowledge exchange more specifically. In ESS NEMO, strength of connection between entities is not assessed.
ESS NEMO is based predominantly on publicly available information, as well as signposting and knowledge from co-producers. As such, there may be incorrect, outdated or unintuitive structures to ministerial departments presented within the UK government in Westminster, for example. In addition, for many knowledge exchange organisation groups the lists of entities are not exhaustive, and information is as accurate as possible in the eyes of the authors as of 10 July 2024.
Though this showcases a current and up-to-date list of entities and maps the typology of entities currently engaged in ESS knowledge exchange, we are acutely aware of the pace at which the landscape is constantly changing, and how quickly new entities or organisations may emerge, or ones represented on the map may change name, remit, or cease to exist.
The map(s) have been generated by the Work Package 1 team within ACCESS, co-produced with a range of experts both within the ACCESS network and outside, coming from different sectors and disciplines. ESS NEMO can be used as a source of inspiration for future mapping and visualisation activities, and this will be of greater use in the long-term due to changes over time that may otherwise reduce accuracy of ESS NEMO itself. ESS NEMO has been produced to be used not only as a reference document but also as a starting point for future research and visualisation by other researchers.
If you are interested in developing the map further, or adapting it for your own sector, discipline or focus, you can request a downloadable, editable copy of either the ESS NEMO Landscape Map or the ESS NEMO Westminster Map from the ACCESS team by emailing info@accessnetwork.uk. You are free to edit the downloadable copy as you wish, within the Creative Commons licence. The downloadable copy is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). This license allows others to share, copy, distribute, and transmit the work, as well as to adapt the work and make commercial use of it, as long as they attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor. For more information about the CC BY 4.0 license, please visit Creative Commons website. The suggested citation is below:
Warren, G. W., Marshall, H., Seymour, V., Brockett, B., Christie, I., Exadaktylos, T., Gilbert, N., Hadfield, A., Hartley., S., Jones, C., Kass, G., Marselle, M., Padda, G., Walshe, R., & Gatersleben., B. (2024). Environmental Social Science kNowledge Exchange Map of Opportunities (ESS NEMO). Guildford, Surrey: ACCESS.
The map(s) have been developed using the Participatory System Mapper (PRSM) software (version 2.3 available at https://prsm.uk, accessed 10th July 2024), created by Nigel Gilbert from the University of Surrey. A full user manual on how to operate the software can be found here: Introduction | PRSM. Below is a guide to how to undertake specific actions when exploring the map:
To explore the map, click and drag with your mouse. You can click the ‘+’ or ‘-’ buttons next to ‘Zoom’ in the bottom right of the map to zoom in or out, or you can use the scroll button on your mouse.
To view information related to a specific group, sub-group or entity represented by a bubble, either square or round, clicking on the entity will bring up further relevant information about it in a note. To close this, click away from the entity to a blank space within the map. To find a particular node, you can use the search bar in the top right-hand side of the map. Please be aware that the relevant information text contained within notes for each group, sub-group or entity is not searchable, but is findable in the ESS NEMO List. You can also search the ESS NEMO List for specific entities and further information.
Two case study examples of ways of using ESS NEMO have been developed. Both consist of using the ESS NEMO Landscape Map as a template for mapping the entities involved in the creation of two transdisciplinary research and knowledge exchange projects.
The two case studies presented are the UK National Ecosystem Assessment (see UK NEA, 2012) and the Government Office for Science Net Zero Society: Scenarios and Pathways report (see Government Office for Science, 2023). The organisational groupings of the entities involved are highlighted in colour, and links between organisations involved in these projects are also presented in red. Organisation groupings not included in the case study examples are greyed out, and their connections are black. The ESS NEMO Case Studies are presented below:
Barbrook-Johnson, P., & Penn, A. S. (2022). Systems Mapping: How to build and use causal models of systems. Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-01919-7
Barr, S., Burningham, K., Golding, S., Guilbert, S., Hartley, S. (2023) ACCESS Guiding Principles V4, March 2023. Exeter: ACCESS.
Cabinet Office (2016). Public Bodies Handbook – Part 1. Classification Of Public Bodies: Guidance For Departments. Cabinet Office, HM Government. Available: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/519571/Classification-of-Public_Bodies-Guidance-for-Departments.pdf.
Cabinet Office (2024). Public bodies. Cabinet Office, HM Government. Available: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/public-bodies-reform#what-is-a-public-body.
Gatersleben, B. et al. (forthcoming). Environmental Social Science: What is it and why do we need it? Guildford: ACCESS.
Government Office for Science (2021). Code of Practice for Scientific Advisory Committees and Councils: CoPSAC 2021. Government Office for Science, HM Government. Available: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/scientific-advisory-committees-code-of-practice/code-of-practice-for-scientific-advisory-committees-and-councils-copsac-2021.
Government Office for Science (2023). Net zero society: scenarios and pathways. Government Office for Science, HM Government. Available: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/642d85fcfbe620000c17dd71/Net_Zero_Society_Report_2023.pdf.
Government Office for Science (2024). Map of Scientific Advisory Committees / Councils and Arm’s Length Bodies associated with government departments. Government Office for Science, HM Government. Available: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/scientific-advisory-committees-code-of-practice/map-of-scientific-advisory-committees-councils-and-arms-length-bodies-associated-with-government-departments#map-maintenance.
Stroh, D. P. (2015). Systems thinking for social change: A practical guide to solving complex problems, avoiding unintended consequences, and achieving lasting results. Chelsea Green Publishing.
UK NEA (2012). Who was involved? UK National Ecosystem Assessment. Available: http://uknea.unep-wcmc.org/About/WhosInvolved/tabid/63/Default.aspx.
Williams, B., & Hummelbrunner, R. (2010). Systems concepts in action: a practitioner’s toolkit. Stanford University Press.
[1] A systems map is a visualisation of entities, interconnections, and relationships within a bounded system that allow for better understanding of the system’s contents and functioning (Barbrook-Johnson & Penn, 2022; Stroh, 2015; Williams & Hummelbrunner, 2010).