Training and Events

From novice to expert, here is a range of training and development resources, including secondments, mentoring and networking events.

Some of these resources are aimed at social scientists, whilst others are for audiences without formal social science training, who wish to use social science in their everyday roles.

Key areas include;

Climate and environmental social science
How to translate research into policy
How to successfully co-produce work with different stakeholders

We regularly post information about training and career development opportunities from other organisations and projects here and in our newsletter.

We also host our own training and development activities. Regular updates are provided here about the annual ACCESS summer schools for Early Career Researchers, the ACCESS Leadership College, ACCESS Assemblies, webinars and events.

We are keen to provide and signpost to high quality training and development opportunities to those early in their social science careers.

Sarah Golding, ACCESS Knowledge Exchange Fellow and Early Career Researcher talks about the importance of training to increase social science competency and capacity so we can solve big world problems like climate change and the biodiversity crisis.

ACCESS Assemblies

The Annual Assembly is a key event in the ACCESS calendar. It has three primary aims:

To encourage new thinking about the contribution of the social sciences to tackle environmental problems
To increase connections and network building across boundaries (e.g. career stage, discipline, sector)
To embed the ACCESS Guiding Principles, in terms of ensuring the event integrates Knowledge Co-Production, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, and Environmental Sustainability

The Assembly welcomes Environmental Social Scientists across academia, policy, civil society and the third sector. We also extend our invitation to others who are interested in collaborating with ESS, e.g. Climate Scientists.

ACCESS Assembly 2026 will run from Wednesday 18 to Thursday 19 June. We are currently planning the event. Look out for updates here.

ACCESS Assembly 2025

At this year’s ACCESS Assembly, we discussed place-sensitive just transitions and effective interdisciplinarity.

Read more

ACCESS Assembly 2024

Last year’s Assembly explored the ways we can have impactful knowledge exchange across different sectors. We discussed how we might then start to influence policy.

Break out session at the ACCESS Assembly

Exeter University welcomed social scientists from across academia, public and private sectors from Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England. The aim over the two days to get together and spark new ideas and networks.

The main aim of the two days was to bring together the ACCESS network. Inviting university expert researchers and ACCESS partners to start thinking about how we might deliver some of the project’s aims.

This was just one of the questions we asked ourselves before organising our first ACCESS Annual Assembly in 2022. Since then we have been evaluating our larger events and we are keen to share our findings.

Early in the planning for the Assembly, we decided we wanted to welcome in-person and online visitors. It was important for us to:

Invite people from various disciplines and champion the benefits of collaboration and co-production.
Be inclusive and offer equally enriching experiences and networking opportunities to those in the room and those sitting at their desktop.
Experiment and move away from the conference norm of short presentation slots and parallel sessions over lunch to something more relaxed that would allow people to think, ask questions and connect with others.
Incorporate our Guiding Principles (EDI, Environmental Sustainability and Knowledge Coproduction)

From planning to evaluation, the report focuses on venue hire, accommodation, event programme, audio & visual technology, networking opportunities and how to incorporate our Guiding Principles.

Guidance for Planning and Hosting a Successful Hybrid Event -Reflections from the ACCESS Annual Assembly 2022 PDF

ACCESS Assembly 2022 Event Evaluation Report Online

ACCESS Assembly 2023 Event Evaluation Report PDF

ACCESS Assembly 2024 Event Evaluation Report Online

Webinars

Discover our series of webinars addressing practical topics in environmental social science. With a wide range of speakers, the webinars focus around the 5 core areas of work within ACCESS.

Placement Schemes

Placement schemes can offer important development and networking experiences for environmental social scientists, especially in helping researchers understand more about policy development and delivery.

A woman standing by a post-it-note board with others sat round a table

Mentoring

Mentoring can be an important mechanism for people development. It can bring fresh perspectives to research and practice, and offer a space to reflect and develop.

Two people sitting on a sofa having a conversation

Leadership College

The ACCESS Leadership College is a cohort of 20 emerging leaders working in Environmental Social Science.

It is a diverse group of people from academia, business, charities and the public sector all coming together for 4 annual residential retreats. The College provides opportunities for the group to network and learn from each other and from experts across ACCESS and beyond.

The first retreat had a focus on Health, Wellbeing and the Environment. Find out more about the first Leadership College retreat from Saffron O’Neill, ACCESS Leader Successful first ACCESS Leadership College retreat

The second retreat was held in April 2024. Richard Bridge, Head of Monitoring & Evaluation in the Trees and Forestry Division at Defra, reflects on their second meet up.

The third retreat, in April 2025, featured keynotes from Prof. Michael Winter OBE, head of the ACCESS Nature Recovery Task Force, and Dr Gemma Harper OBE, Chief Executive of the JNCC. Watch Gemma talk about the Leadership College, or see her full interview here.

Our next Leadership College is due to take place in April 2026.

ACCESS Leadership College Fellows, Beth Collier and some of the ACCES Project team at Dartington Hall

Project: Advancing Leadership in Environmental Social Science Through Reflective Practice

Members of the ACCESS Leadership College have just started work on a new project, led by Jaya Gajparia and Richard Bridge. The project will explore how leadership development could look within Environmental Social Science, enabling new ideas, approaches, and practices to emerge through collaboration and reflection.

Walking & Working in Nature – Leadership College Blog Series

Five ACCESS Leadership College Fellows – Jaya Gajparia, Susi Power, Mandi Bissett, Helen Roberts, and Jennifer Rudd – shared their very different experiences of walking and working in nature through this blog series.

Find the introductory post and links to all five pieces here.

Picture of the back of a white woman walking in the woods

Meet some of the Leadership College Fellows

Pamela Buchan

Rebecca Windemer

Lewis Winks

Susann Power

Helen Roberts

Richard Bridge

Leadership College Fellows

Elysia Barker Davies
Kent Wildlife Trust

Sarah Bell
University of Exeter

Mandi Bisset
Independent Climate Action Researcher

Richard Bridge
Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs

Pamela Buchan
University of Exeter

Emma Claydon
Department for Energy Security & Net Zero

Laura De Vito
University of West England

Jaya Gajparia
Independent Scholar

Anika Haque
University of York

Becki Jepson
Nifty Sustainability CIC

Helen Kendall
Natural England

Ruth Lamont
Natural England

Laurie Laybourn
Institute for Public Policy Research & Chatham House

Susann Power
Ulster University

Helen Roberts
Met Office

Jennifer Rudd
Swansea University

Stephanie Weir
Scottish Government

Caryl Williams
Welsh Government

Rebecca Windemer
Regen

Lewis Winks
Lestari Environmental Education Consultancy

Summer schools

The ACCESS summer schools provide relaxed and friendly environments for PhD students and Early Career Researchers to;

Meet and discuss their research with experts in the field and their peers, working together on issues of environment and climate change.
Receive interactive training in communicating climate and environmental social science for impact beyond academia (e.g., with policymakers, media, and publics)
Gain insights into career paths for environmental social scientists post-PhD.

The most recent ACCESS Summer School was held in September 2025

This year’s Summer School was held on 22-24 September at the beautiful Cumberland Lodge.

Read the 3-day programme here.

ACCESS Summer School September 2023

The second residential summer school took place at Dartington Hall, Devon, UK from Tuesday 12 to Thursday 14 September 2023, focused on the ACCESS Guiding Principles.

Summer school
Blog post written by ACCESS Knowledge Exchange Fellow, George Warren. Eye-opening and thought-provoking: This year’s ACCESS Summer School

ACCESS Summer/Winter School January 2023

The school was held at Cumberland Lodge. The three days , focused on the theme of Communicating Climate and Environment Social Science for Impact Beyond Academia.

Winter school
Blog post written by ACCESS Knowledge Exchange Fellow, Sarah Golding. What happened at the ACCESS Winter School 2023?
ACCESS Winter School 2023 Reflections report

Systems Mapping for Environmental Domains

This workshop was held on Tuesday 12 November 2024, at the University of Surrey and was led by Dr Pete Barbrook-Johnson (University of Oxford) and Dr Alexandra Penn (University of Surrey / Defra).