Our Projects

Build Back Together: a human-centered design thinking approach to smart flood risk management

Build back Together is a ‘place-based’, solution-focussed, knowledge coproduction project which involves different community actors to create an innovative platform to promote smart risk management solutions. Led by Dr Namrata Bhattacharya Mis, the key aim is to engage local communities in tackling wicked problems such as flooding in smaller communities in the UK. Five workshops were organised in three locations (Aston Hayes, Cheshire; Kirklees, Yorkshire and Aston Ingham, Herefordshire) involving local councils, flood groups and members of the community through a coordinated process of design thinking. The community led solutions were implemented which are now owned and maintained by the locals promoting long term sustainability beyond project timeline. Dissemination through conferences, websites, various social media avenues improved networking and snowballed interest among other similarly affected communities stimulating opportunities to develop best practice portfolio demonstrating power of community led solutions.

Aston Ingham community consultation Workshop (April 2023)

Working with Aston Ingham Flood Group (March 2023)

Design Thinking Workshops involving representatives of local stakeholders - Chester and Kirklees (May 2022)

Local Lockdown Life and Home Grown Green

Building on their longitudinal research into the impacts of COVID-19 lockdowns on household consumption, Drs Katharine Welsh and Rebecca Collins have recently used their findings to develop a simple app-based game to ‘nudge’ users into re-engaging with pro-environmental habits.  Entitled ‘Home Grown Green’, the game prompts users to record a range of everyday household behaviours and awards points and badges for the ‘greenest’ actions.  The app was beta tested with a group of 20 study participants, who played the game for 30 days before providing feedback on its impact via surveys and interviews.  Katharine and Rebecca hope to run a scaled up second trial in 2024. 

(home grown green logo)

Partnerships for Animal Welfare and Conservation

Dr Lindsay Murray has worked with Chester Zoo for over 30 years, since studying the chimpanzee group for her own PhD at Cambridge. Students conduct projects at both undergraduate and postgraduate level on a variety of topics involving many species.  Some of their findings have been used by the zoo – for example, to inform the installation of privacy features in tiger and mandrill habitats, and by introducing innovative monitoring methods with rapid visual results to examine chimpanzee social networks – in this way, the university and the zoo can work in partnership with mutual benefit.  One current PhD student is a Conservation Scholar at the zoo in the area of elephant personality and welfare and works closely with both the keepers and the Science Department.

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