The research areas identified in this document rely on a wide range of research tools and approaches, spanning disciplines across the sciences and social sciences. This section is not an exhaustive list of the tools and approaches of interest to Defra. It identifies some areas of particular relevance and change, which will be important in addressing the challenges faced by Defra and represented throughout this document.
Societies demand resource from the environment and shape that environment. The social science of human-nature interactions is of fundamental importance to Defra.
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This question was published as part of the set of ARIs in this document:
On 23 March, the UK went into lockdown in response to the Covid-19 threat. As a result, people's engagement with natural environments may have changed significantly which is likely to have had significant impact on their...
Funded by: COVID
Lead research organisation: University of Surrey
The project aims to understand changes in nature engagement and wellbeing during and after lockdown, which directly addresses the question about how the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced people's engagement with and value of environmental systems.
In order to make informed strategy for the good of UK citizens and to implement it through well-founded and informed policy, the policy-makers need evidence. They need to know what is known in an area and what has yet to...
Funded by: NERC
Lead research organisation: NERC CEH (Up to 30.11.2019)
The project focuses on nature-based solutions and their benefits and disbenefits across policy domains, which partially addresses the question about opportunities to secure environmental objectives in the longer term.
As societies grapple with issues such as climate change and species loss, and following a widespread loss of faith in the notion of "sustainable development", reframing debates about what constitutes a sustaina...
Funded by: ESRC
Lead research organisation: Swansea University
The project explores interdisciplinary approaches to socioecological transformation and the role of emotion, imagination, and creativity, which is not directly relevant to the question about the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on people's engagement with and value of environmental systems.