Double NERC success for MUI

This week NERC announced awards for eight two-year research projects with two based in MUI.

Two colleagues from the Manchester Urban Institute (MUI) have each been awarded over £320,000 funding for two-year research projects placing human-environment interactions at the heart of achieving the United Nations (UN) Global Goals.

The funding is part of a multilateral call between the UK, India, China, Japan and Sweden, which resulted in a collective £4.3 million funding for eight two-year research projects, with MUI being awarded two of these projects.

Dr Joe Ravetz, Research Fellow, is leading on ‘Pericene (Peri-urbanisation and climate-environment change)’. Along with fellow SEED colleagues Nuno Pinto, Jeremy Carter and Angela Connelly, Joe will also be working with researchers in Sweden and India.Dr Deljana Iossafiva, Senior Lecturer in Urban Studies, is working with colleagues from the UK, China and Japan on ‘SASSI (A Systems Approach to Sustainable Sanitation Challenges in Urbanising China)’.

The funding is part of the Natural Environment Research Council’s (NERC) Towards a Sustainable Earth (TaSE) research programme.

NERC Executive Chair, Professor Duncan Wingham, said: “Realising the ambitions of the UN Sustainable Development Goals to end poverty, hunger and inequality across the globe, while preserving and maintaining our environmental resources, is key to ensuring future wellbeing and prosperity in both developed and developing countries.

“These multi-disciplinary projects will bring together researchers from five countries to help us understand the complex relationships between people and the environment, leading the global effort on finding comprehensive solutions to global challenges.”

We are also anticipating a third announcement in the next few days. Watch this space!

More information

• See the NERC announcement here