Ecoprojects
The Executive offered the Centre for Human Ecology (CHE) a 3-year Sustainable Action Grant of £5,000 per year as a contribution to Ecoprojects, a web-based service to match students needing research projects, as part of their university/ college course, with environmental organisations and government agencies who have projects/ investigations to offer. The project award of £5000 per annum for 3 years enabled the salary funding of the part-time project manager, in addition to a small travel expenses budget.
CHE was aware of highly motivated, skilled undergraduate and postgraduate students keen to work in areas of applied research which address real problems in need of practical solutions.
The project developed existing Ecoprojects work by adding sustainability issues to an existing environmental constituency base. CHE worked with NGOs and government bodies such as Reforesting Scotland, the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust, Scottish Natural Heritage, the National Trust for Scotland and the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management.
CHE sought to broaden the number and range of projects available to students, and the range of organisations involved, including industry, increasing industrial and academic involvement in sustainability and environmental justice issues in Scotland - covering biodiversity, conservation, waste, energy, transport, community land, environmental education and ecotourism. CHE promoted EcoProjects through newsletters, as well as by displays and leaflets at conferences and workshops.
In 2005-06 CHE were successful in attracting an additional 11 organisations including Linthouse Housing Association, the Game Conservancy, Woodhead and Windyhills Community Trust, and the Soil Association. The projects represented a very broad range of enquiry including biodiversity, access to green space, education, community environment resources, and renewable energy.
Twelve organisations offered 47 projects in 2003-04, 18 organisations offered 53 projects in 2004-05 and 29 organizations offered 52 projects in 2005-06. Student uptake was 13 in 2004-05 and 9 in 2005-06. (Some organizations listed one main project plus "also additional projects". The figures therefore underestimated the total projects available.)
In 2005-06 four organizations withdrew their projects due to lack of adequate resources to supervise and support a student. This was particularly the case for small NGOs where although they had good projects, they did not have sufficient staff hours and finance.
Although the number of projects available revealed a steady progress providing good opportunities for students, there was a decline in uptake, despite increased project opportunity, and more university staff and key contacts being sent information. It may be that organisations did not feed project uptake information back, but other changes could have been taking place.
Discussion with university staff and project providers highlighted several factors. To some extent EcoProjects may have become a victim of its own success - many NGOs (and other organisations) had built up relationships with specific university staff/ departments and recruited students directly. This was of benefit to both parties since they both had a better idea of each others' needs, and could build on the experience of working together. In addition, maintaining and nurturing a specific department/ NGO link enabled continuity on a research programme that could enhance the contribution of students on long-term projects. The lack of student uptake needed to be addressed, but required detailed analysis to understand the cause, and the necessary remedial action.
The overriding factor for success in terms of student uptake was someone dedicated to close liaison with university departments but there was not the resource for this.
Assessment of the value of the work undertaken was planned, identifying how specific projects contributed to sustainable development.
In its last few months this project was managed by Thirdwave.
Contacts
Centre for Human Ecology www.che.ac.uk and Thirdwave www.thirdwave.org.uk