SoGE holds inaugural Engagement and Impact Award Ceremony

The winner of the Main Award was a team led by Dr Sam Hampton from across ECI and TSU for Pathways to a Zero Carbon Oxfordshire. The aim of the research and engagement was to position Oxfordshire as a leading region for decarbonisation policy and action, and the county is now recognised as a centre of excellence in low carbon transitions, and has attracted significant investment including from Innovate UK. The review panel praised the long-term nature of the engagement, along with the diversity of impact channels, the strong relationships with stakeholders and the robust evidence from those stakeholders.

Honourable mentions in this category went to Dr Fiona McConnell and Dr Liam Saddington for their Model UNPO General Assembly and the Oxford Seascape Ecology Lab, led by Dr Lisa Wedding for their work on Blue Carbon.

Winner of the Early Career Researcher Award was Dr Saskia Nowicki for the Water Learning Partnership, an initiative whose early gestation was supported by the SoGE inspiration Fund in 2016 to co-develop learning resources and activities for use in secondary schools and environment clubs in Kenya. The project has since been expanded into Cameroon and in 2022 to Rwanda. The panel were particularly impressed by the strength of the co-production with in-country teams and the way in which the team had used the challenges of Covid travel restrictions as an opportunity to link different communities together and further enrich the learning experience.

Honourable mentions were given to Dr Anna Murgatroyd for her work on the National Systems Simulation Modelling Project and to Brian O'Callaghan for his work on green economic recovery from COVID-19.