The Agile Initiative Summer School
10
Jul
We are delighted that the first Agile Summer School is fully booked, and we look forward to welcoming the interdisciplinary researchers to this five day event.
Contributors, drawn from academic and practitioner communities, will share their expertise and experiences during the Summer School, enabling participants to build connections across disciplines and the science-policy landscape, and learn what is involved in designing rapid interdisciplinary research to meet urgent environmental policy needs. Participants will develop the skills needed to connect research with policy in practical group exercises throughout the core programme.
The core programme, developed within the context and conceptual framework of the Agile Initiative, will be delivered on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, with Monday for arrival and welcome, and Friday for wrap-up and departure. Bed and breakfast style accommodation at Keble College is included in the programme cost, with a college dinner on the Wednesday evening. Core programme activities and networking opportunities will also take place at Keble College.
TABLE OF PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS BY DAY
Monday 10 July | Arrivals and welcome |
Afternoon | Welcome from the Agile Initiative Summer School team: What to expect, what you will learn, and practical information. |
Tuesday 11 July | Core programme day one: ‘Science into policy: setting the scene’ – an overview of UK local, regional and national environmental policy and legislature, and approaches for situating science in policy development. Key learning objectives: –Understanding ‘science into policy’ at scale –What this means for decision makers and policy at different scales –How to put this into practice. |
Morning | Introductory session: What do we mean by ‘science into policy’?
Panel discussion introduced and led by Sir Charles Godfray: Overview of UK scales of policy and legislature, and implications for situating science into policy Facilitated group activity: Science into policy at different scales |
Afternoon | Panel discussion introduced and led by Dame Sarah Whatmore: Getting science into policy – decision makers’ perspectives
Training workshop: Writing a policy brief Facilitated group activity: Pulling together learning from the day – reflecting back on science into policy at scale in the context of decision makers’ perspectives |
Wednesday 12 July | Core programme day two: ‘Experiences of policy-oriented research’ – sharing learning from the Agile Initiative and other major environmental research programmes on connecting across the science-policy divide and influencing public discourse. Key learning objectives: –Exploring how policy-oriented academic research is designed, carried out and delivered –Understanding of the relationship between research, public policy, and public discourse –Perspectives and lessons learned from other NERC Changing the Environment programmes. |
Morning | Workshop led by Agile Initiative Sprint researchers: Agile Sprint learning on policy-oriented research
Session led by Professor Sam Fankhauser, Oxford Net Zero: The intersection of research and public policy |
Afternoon | Training workshop: How to connect across the divide – influencing public discourse
Insights from other NERC Changing the Environment programmes |
Thursday 13 July | Core programme day three: ‘Practice’ – an exercise on delivering a rapid-response policy-driven research project to respond to policy needs in an ‘Agile’ fashion. Key learning objectives: –Gaining an understanding of the Agile model –Putting the previous days’ learning into practice when designing an Agile Sprint –Presenting and giving feedback on Sprint designs. |
Morning | Presentation by Professor Nathalie Seddon, Agile Initiative Director: What drives the Agile model? What does this mean for Sprint design?
Facilitated group activity part 1: Designing a Sprint |
Afternoon | Facilitated group activity part 2: Presentations and feedback on Sprint design exercise
Workshop led by Agile Initiative Sprint researchers: What Sprint leads might do differently in hindsight – focusing on how the Sprint research, policy windows, outputs and outcomes are factored in |
Friday 14 July | Wrap-up and departures. Key learning objectives: –Reviewing key learning outcomes from the Summer School –Reflections on career pathways within the environmental policy and research space |
Morning | Plenary by the Agile Summer School team: Discussion of participants’ learning and reflections from the Summer School programme, and how this year’s programme has helped participants to reflect on their research and career destinations |
Afternoon | Optional field trip to FarmEd |