DAERA - Building a Green Future - Behaviour Change and Public Attitudes to Climate Change in Northern Ireland UKRI Policy Fellowship
Lead Research Organisation:
Swansea University
Department Name: College of Human and Health Sciences
Abstract
Each fellowship will last up to 18 months to cover:
a 3-month inception phase for set up activity
a 12-month placement with the host organisation
an impact phase lasting up to 3 months
Fellows will co-design projects and activities with their host and produce analysis to inform government decision-making across a range of policy priorities. Fellows will also engage across the host organisation, building effective working relationships and supporting wider knowledge exchange with researchers.
This will be supported through their embedded role within the host organisation, including line management support.
a 3-month inception phase for set up activity
a 12-month placement with the host organisation
an impact phase lasting up to 3 months
Fellows will co-design projects and activities with their host and produce analysis to inform government decision-making across a range of policy priorities. Fellows will also engage across the host organisation, building effective working relationships and supporting wider knowledge exchange with researchers.
This will be supported through their embedded role within the host organisation, including line management support.
Publications
Steentjes K
(2024)
Raising alarm bells for a struggling sector: taking a new approach to improve the wellbeing of climate change professionals
in Frontiers in Psychology
| Description | Cross departmental survey on climate change and behaviours for civil servants NI |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| Impact | My input will lead to a clearer focus of the survey questions and more relevance to the users of this data. I also offered support in analysis and further development. |
| Description | Northern Irish sector leads working on climate change support |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | I presented the 5Es framework used by the Welsh government public engagement strategy and walked participants through the different aspects that are important to achieve real engagement and as a result improve influence of policy making on lifestyle choices and behaviours. |
| Description | Presentation at 4 Nations Green Choices and Public Engagement Working group. |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | The presentation helped to raise awareness across civil servants across the UK who work on similiar projects and I also shared the survey questions with the group. This will help supporting each other on survey design and dissemination |
| Description | Support development of DAERA internal Behaviour Change Hub |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | Civil servants across DAERA and also in other departments in Northern Ireland e.g. Deparment of Transport, expressed that the website is useful and access it regularly. This has contributed to broadening the limited understanding of how social and behavioural science can be useful for developing policies that are aimed to change lifestyles, attitudes or behaviours. |
| Description | Support internal Task and Finish group in DAERA |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | The Task and Finish Group report was distributed across DAERA and outlined the need to improve a) training of civil servants b) support for an internal team focusing on the use of social science within DAERA . My contribution was referenced in the internal report 'DAERA Social Science Requirement and Proposed Solutions' |
| Title | Public opinions on climate change and low carbon behaviours in Northern Ireland |
| Description | This survey data was collected in March 2024, through an DAERA internal commissioning process. I led on the questionnaire creation and interactions with the survey company, who collected the date. The survey was administered online with a sample of 1 000 respondents with a quota sample on region, age, gender and SEC to ensure the results will be representative of the Northern Irish public. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | The results were presented internally to sector leads within DAERA as well as the Department of Finance. I also gave a short presentation to representatives from the Nations Green Choices and Public Engagement Working group (Wales, Scotland, England). The results also helped to shape the ongoing fellowship focus and plan to collect more survey data specific to the agriculture sector. |
| Description | ACCESS (Advancing Capacity for Climate and Environmental Science) network |
| Organisation | University of Exeter |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The ACCESS programme aims to provide support for networking between climate/environmental science and its users, such as policy makers. I have developed links with the network to support their engagement with DAERA. - I commented on and supported their UK survey on public engagement with policy making, with particular focus on Northern Ireland oversampled. - I have engaged with their survey analysis to help identify Northern Irish specific trends in their results. - I attended advisory group meetings, and their annual Assembly in 2024 |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Access team gave me access to their UK wide dataset to let me explore the Northern Ireland data. They also invited me to their annual Assembly and advisory group meetings. |
| Impact | No outputs yet. |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Description | Ireland Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications |
| Organisation | Communications, Climate Action and Environments |
| Country | Ireland |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | We set up regular meetings between the Behaviour Change Team at DAERA (I am part of) and DECC in Ireland. The exchange of working in the space of evidence gathering, public engagement and behaviour change have been invaluable to both departments. Colleagues from DECC were also invited to my DAERA steering group meeting and the NI Chief's Executives' Forum in february 2023 and february 2024 |
| Collaborator Contribution | They attend regular meetings, presented at my DAERA steering group meeting and provided insights through their research efforts and programmes. |
| Impact | This connections resulted in my profile being more known across the Republic of Ireland. This results in me being invited by the EPA to evaluate grant proposals and influence to reserach landscape in Ireland that way. |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Northern Ireland Environment Link - Advisory group presentation and updates |
| Organisation | Northern Ireland Environment Link |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | I was PI for a previous projects with NIEL (NERC impact grant), supported their follow up survey from 2022, and included them in an unsuccesful grant proposal in 2023. This collaberation was refreshed at the start of my fellowship in 2024. In the last year, I have updated NIEL colleagues on my fellowship plan (as much as I was allowed to share) and exchanged relevant literature and reports. |
| Collaborator Contribution | NIEL invited me to speak at their advisory board meeting and we are having regular meetings to keep each other up-to-date on recent projects and funding opportunities. |
| Impact | Previous funding led to the RESILRISK Northern Ireland report but that was published prior to this award. there are no new outputs at this stage. |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Description | 18th April BBC Wales Radio interview on Net Zero |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | I was interviewed on BBC radio Wales about the recent extreme weather events and their effect on public support for net zero. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Tyndall Assembly presentation - Insight from UKRI policy fellowship (so far):Using behavioural science for net zero policy making (2024) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I was invited to speak at the annual Tyndall Assembly to talk about my UKRI policy fellowship and my experience working within the policy sector. The audiences consisted of climate change researchers from across the centre . This talk resulted in colleagues being more aware of the UKRI policy fellowship scheme and suggesting colleagues and projects working in Northern Ireland to connect to. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |