Centre for Environmental Change and Human Resilience 

John S Rowan

Welcome to the first CECHR update of 2012. The past year has seen some major changes in the organisation, not least the creation of the James Hutton Institute (JHI) through the merger of the Scottish Crop Research Institute and the Macaulay Land Use Institute. The new institute is one of the Scottish Government's main research providers in environmental, crop and food science and with over 600 scientists and support staff it is one of the biggest of its kind in Europe. Looking ahead this provides even greater scope for collaboration across our strengths in plant sciences, civil engineering and soil and water management - and to extend our reach into new areas like climate change and food security as embodied by exciting recent appointments including Dr Anna Moss and Professor Terry Dawson (both School of the Environment).

External income generation is a key indicator of CECHR's progress. Funding from Research Councils is especially welcomed and successes have included awards from NERC to Mike Bonell (UNSECO) for work on Changing Water Cycles in India and to both Andrew Allan (UNESCO) and Terry Dawson (Environment) for Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) Projects. Colin Reid (Law) achieved success from AHRC to fund research into privatisation and biodiversity, whilst Alan MacDonald (History) is working on climate change in Early Modern Scotland with support from the Leverhulme Trust. Three new externally funded Studentships (Sophie Sherriff, Teagasc; Oana Iacob, ClimateXChange and Craig Baxter, JHI/UoD) bring the complement of PhD Students in the XCECHR Graduate School to 14. The productive potential of this vibrant and creative research community is also now being realised as the flow of publications in high quality journals begins to grow. We are also building stakeholder engagement through representation in the Scottish Government's new 'Centres of Expertise' e.g. Prof Chris Spray (UNSECO) has been appointed to the Steering Group of the Centre for Research Expertise on Water (CREW), whilst I have been appointed to the Directorate of the Centre for Expertise on Climate Change (now called the ClimateXChange). Stakeholder engagement is also at the heart of the Scottish Funding Council supported Scottish Universities Industry Innovation Network for Food and Drink.

CECHR exists as a vehicle to help deliver the University's vision for excellence and impact. Its focus is to promote more sustainable and equitable food16 food, water16 water, energy16 energy and health16 health futures. We welcome your engagement with the academic programme of lectures and workshops, highlights of which are likely to include a contribution to the Global Futures Lecture Series by Professor Iain Gordon (Chief Executive of the James Hutton Institute) and an exhibition by Jean Duncan (Artist in Residence) in the University's Lamb Gallery (February -April). Please don't hesitate to get in touch with ideas or suggestions about moving the agenda forwards in 2012 and beyond.

We welcome collaboration with academic partners, policy makers, NGOs and local communities. Our interests and expertise span local, national and international research agendas seeking to build resilience and increase societal well-being.

John Rowan
Director CECHR

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