Announcing the new Sprints

In Autumn 2024 we ran a call for Sprints. In the first half of this year, potential Sprints spent time co-creating with policy partners, stakeholders, and us. We are pleased to be able to announce this new set of five Sprint research projects. Each Sprint will have its own page in time, for now here’s a run down on what you can expect to see from Agile in the next 12 months:

How can curriculum designers provide better Net Zero education for the next generation?

Led by Professor Steve Puttick (Department of Education), partnered with the Department for Education and the David Ross Multi-Academy Trust 

This Sprint aims to transform education policies and practices to empower curriculum designers in delivering high-quality Net Zero education for the next generation. Through targeted case studies, the project will uncover key challenges, opportunities and priorities in Net Zero education. By leveraging Oxford’s world-leading interdisciplinary expertise, these case studies will be critically analysed, generating insights from cutting-edge climate research to evaluate teaching resources and approaches, and co-construct highly usable guidance through the Oxford Net Zero Education Framework.

How can policy driven research prevent childhood sexual abuse driven by climate disasters in sub-Saharan Africa?

Led by Professor Lucie Cluver (Department of Social Policy & Intervention), partnered the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action and To Zero 

This Sprint aims to provide evidence on the links between climate hazards and childhood sexual abuse, and to convey these findings in sector-accessible outputs which will stimulate solution-focused policies that protect children in sub-Saharan Africa.
 

How can we fireproof the Amazon?

Led by Dr Erika Berenguer (School of Geography), partnered with the Institute of Amazonian Research, MapBiomas Fire, the Brazilian Environment Ministry, and Emprapa Amazonia Oriental in Belem 

This Sprint aims to address the Amazon’s increasing susceptibility to fires and urgent need for fireproofing. While both deforestation and climate change have been the focus of numerous research efforts and policy initiatives, forest fires have been much more neglected, especially by policy makers. This Sprint will conduct research in this crucial area, and enable decision makers to use the outputs of this new research to develop policies and practices required to fireproof the Amazon.
 

How can we deliver effective and equitable place-based environmental governance?

Led by Dr Mark Hirons (School of Geography), partnered with Natural Resources Wales

This Sprint aims to produce research that equips key actors associated with Welsh Area Statements – including Natural Resources Wales (NRW) staff, end users, and Welsh Government leaders – to engage meaningfully with the area statement process. The goal is to ensure that updated Area Statements are effectively integrated in the new Natural Resources Policy, and able to be meaningfully implemented on the ground, addressing persistent delivery challenges.

How can we assess the macroeconomic and inequality impacts of Carbon Budgets?

Led by Professor Doyne Farmer (Institute for New Economic Thinking; Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment), partnered with DESNZ 

This Sprint aims to develop new methods to assess macroeconomic impacts of carbon budgets, and the impacts of carbon budgets on people with different levels of income and wealth. Methods will be designed so as to be readily transferrable to other countries and regions. It will provide provisional analysis in time to influence the Seventh Carbon Budget and allow macroeconomic and inequality goals to be considered when the government decides how emissions reductions are allocated between sectors of the economy, including how individual mitigation policies in the Carbon Budget Delivery Plan (DESNZ, 2023) are implemented.