Dr Sophus zu Ermgassen wins NERC Early Career Impact Award

The NERC Impact Awards go to researchers whose work has had a significant impact on either the economy, society or the environment. At the ceremony on 29th November 2023, Dr Sophus zu Ermgassen was announced the winner of the Early Career Impact award for his work on biodiversity.

Dr Sophus zu Ermgassen is a researcher in the Biology department and the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery. He also contributed to research on the Agile sprint which ran from 2022-2023: How do we account for biodiversity?

This Sprint aimed to identify just and actionable pathways to Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), working directly with HM Treasury and Defra to operationalise HM Treasury Green Book guidance on biodiversity. The Sprint team tackled three interlinked issues: how to quantifiably measure changes in biodiversity under BNG; how to reconcile commitments to invest in biodiversity improvement with the economic and social welfare of people most affected by these investments; how to deliver sustained, socially just, welfare improvements together with biodiversity gains at the landscape level through spatial modelling and an exploration of scenarios for BNG.

Dr zu Ermgassen is an ecological economist who, alongside his work at the University of Oxford, sits on Natural England’s Biodiversity Net Gain Monitoring and Evaluation expert advisory group, as well as the UK Treasury’s Biodiversity Economics Working Group.

You can view the video featuring Dr zu Ermgassen and his colleagues, below:

As well as a feature Dr zu Ermgassen was recently in on Sky News: