NERC Freshwater Quality Champions: understanding changes in quality of UK freshwaters

Deterioration in UK freshwater quality and associated effects on ecosystem services along with compounding effects of climate change and the cost-of-living crisis means research is urgently required to transform our understanding of the sources, pathways and processing of river water pollution and how mixtures of contaminants influence river ecosystems. The UK Freshwater Quality Programme champions will help build an interdisciplinary community of practice that includes researchers, practitioners, and policymakers, capable of delivering impactful frontier research on the major sources, pathways, transformations, and interactions of pollutants in freshwaters, and how these processes impact on freshwater ecosystems. The champions will achieve this by ensuring synthesis across the research projects that are funded within the programme and more widely and enhance stakeholder engagement to ensure the programme fulfils its aim and objectives. To achieve effective integration and coordination of the programme, develop interdisciplinary capability and stakeholder engagement, and maximise impact, we propose a range of activities to build on the research and knowledge exchange within the individually funded projects. These activities will enable and inform the development of better plans for adaptation, mitigation and detection of risks associated with declining river quality, now and in the future.