1. Working successfully across disciplines
Experience from the Sustainable Uplands project
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Rural Economy and
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Land
Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
2. Plan
1. Sustainable Uplands: an interdisciplinary research project
2. How I learned to work across disciplines
3. Lessons
4. Conclusions
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Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
4. • £1.1M RELU/LWEC & ESRC funded project helping
people anticipate and adapt to future change across
UK peatlands since 2005
• Almost £1M co-funding from research users
• Interdisciplinary team
of 25 people from 5
Universities & 2 NGOs
• Combined models & with
local knowledge
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Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
9. Impact
• Findings featured prominently in evidence gathering
initiatives used to inform policy:
– National Ecosystem Assessment
– EFRA Inquiry on Farming in the Uplands
– CRC’s Inquiry on the Future of England’s Uplands
– IUCN Commission of Inquiry on Peatlands
– Government Office for Science’s Foresight Land Use
Futures project
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Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
10. Impact
• Contributed to policy processes:
– Inputting evidence to a review, best practice guidelines
and Action Plan re: Payment for Ecosystem Services as
part of DEFRA’s Natural Environment White Paper
– Working with DEFRA to develop UK Peatland Carbon Code
to facilitate private investment in peatland restoration
– Ranked no. 1 opportunity for business in the natural
environment by Ecosystem Markets Taskforce and
recommended to BIS, DEFRA & DECC Secretaries of State
• Used by water companies to justify using land
management to reduce water treatment costs
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Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
12. Lessons
“ My eureka moment would have stayed by
the toilets in the Chemistry building at
Leeds University, without the collaboration
& trust of researchers from many
disciplines and the inter-professional
”
network of Moors for the Future…
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Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
13. 1. Build trust
• Take your time – draw on your networks
• Work with people you get on with
– Personality
– How you view knowledge
– Values and beliefs
• More important than
expertise and seniority
(to a point)
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Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
14. 2. Communicate
• Invest in internal communication
– Not just about putting the right people in the room
– Need to build capacity: understand each other’s
language & approach
• The result: you’re communicating with
each other, not just talking at each
other
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Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
15. 3. Facilitate
• Who is conducting?
• Establish clear roles & manage power
• The power of good facilitation
• Expect conflict & failure
(its how you deal with it
that matters)
• The result: you achieve
what you set out to do
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Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
16. 4. Deliver tangible outcomes
• Different team members will want different
outcomes: make room for as many as you can
• Quick wins (papers re: preliminary findings)
• Delivering outcomes: follow-on funding & legacy
• The result: a team & impacts that last
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Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
18. Conclusion
“ Working successfully between disciplines
and with stakeholders is all about investing
in relationships – it is about communicating
effectively with each other and fostering
trust, so you can deliver outcomes that
”
matter to people
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Rural Economy and
Land Use Programme
