Pioneering research institute to celebrate 10th anniversary
The anniversary event will be held at the Xfi building, part of the University of Exeter Business School
Researchers, policymakers and business leaders will gather in Exeter next week for the 10th anniversary of a world leading research centre committed to tackling the most urgent environmental and economic challenges.
The Land, Environment, Economics and Policy Institute (LEEP), part of the University of Exeter Business School, was founded on the principle that the central challenges of the 21st century, including food security, climate change, and biodiversity loss, are united by how we use land.
It develops research and tools that deepen our understanding of how nature supports society, collaborates with government, businesses and organisations such as the National Trust and Forestry England and is a pioneer in projects that integrate economics, environmental and data science.
The LEEP@10: A Decade of Impact, A Future of Change event on Thursday 10th September will feature talks, panels and interactive discussions with key figures from government, business and research that will celebrate past successes, highlight LEEP’s latest cutting-edge work as well as showcasing some of the ideas that will shape its future
A keynote will be delivered by Emma Campbell, Director of Analysis and Chief Economist at Defra.
Previewing the event, LEEP Co-Director Prof. Ian Bateman said that “LEEP has pioneered the bringing together of natural, physical, economic and social science to tackle those existential challenges facing humanity now and increasingly through this century”.
“Over the past ten years LEEP has redefined the research frontier, always focussing on turning academic excellence into practical real-world tools allowing business and government to bring the environment into their decision making”.
LEEP projects from the past 10 years include the development of tools such as ORVAL and NEVO, which help policy-makers understand and quantify the benefits people derive from the natural environment and assess how changes in land use could affect those benefits.
LEEP also hosts the Dragon Capital Chair in Biodiversity Economics, a major and unique initiative that focuses on reducing the impact of economic activities on biodiversity.
LEEP plays an active role in the South West region, and was a leading research partner in the South West Partnership for Environmental and Economic Prosperity (SWEEP), which helped government, policymakers, businesses and civil society to factor in nature in their investments and decision making.
Other key projects include: a collaboration with the National Trust and Forestry England that explores the economic relationship between natural environments and heritage sites; and a project in which researchers are examining 600 years of agricultural records – from the Middle Ages to the Victorian era – to form the basis of a guide on land use for UK agriculture now and in the future and, uniting land and sea environments, a pioneering initiative on how farming prawns indoors on UK farmland could create a thriving, more sustainable seafood industry.
LEEP is also home to NetZeroPlus, an interdisciplinary research project that examines the planned expansion of UK woodlands as part of the Government’s commitment to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The LEEP@10 event will be immediately followed by the NZ+ Live: From Evidence to Action in UK Woodlands NZ+ Live: From Evidence to Action in UK Woodlands conference on 11th September, again hosted at the University of Exeter.
Find out more about LEEP@10: A Decade of Impact, A Future of Change here.
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