The CASCADE Webinar Series
Friday 21st March 2025, 1pm - 2pm GMT
In CASCADE’s opening webinar, we heard from the highly successful Eklipse project, which aims to bridge the gap between policy and knowledge on biodiversity in Europe. The webinar began with a presentation from Nils Bunnefeld, Professor of Biological and Environmental Sciences at the University of Stirling, and co-chair of Eklipse. This was followed by a Q&A exploring how to improve linkages between academia and policy, and how to design and implement effective knowledge exchange.
You can watch the recording on YouTube below.
Friday 4th April 2025, 1pm - 2pm BST
In CASCADE's second webinar, we heard from Sophie Benbow, Marine Director at Fauna & Flora; Chair of Defra's OCEAN Expert Committee, and Ifesinachi Okafor-Yarwood, Lecturer in Sustainable Futures at University of St Andrews; PEW Marine Fellow. Sophie and Ife presented on current and future trends in ocean governance, followed by a Q&A.
You can watch the recording on YouTube below.
Friday 2nd May 2025, 1pm - 2pm BST
In CASCADE’s third webinar, David Cooper and Vin Fleming presented on their experiences working in international biodiversity policy, and shared their views on how evidence can feed into policy processes.
You can watch the recording on YouTube below.
Friday 16th May 2025, 1pm - 2pm BST
In CASCADE’s fourth webinar, we explored academic-policy engagement initiatives, how evidence and knowledge needs are articulated and acted on by governments, and the effectiveness of different knowledge exchange mechanisms. We were joined by Kathryn Oliver, Professor of Evidence and Policy at LSHTM and Fellow of UK Government Office for Science, and Laura Meagher, Independent Consultant and Principal of the Technology Development Group.
You can watch the recording on YouTube below.
Friday 30th May 2025, 1pm - 2pm BST
This webinar explored some of the big questions in spatial planning that have arisen in response to the new Global Biodiversity Framework targets. Countries have committed through Target 1 to using participatory, integrated biodiversity inclusive spatial planning and through Target 3 to conserve at least 30% of their land and sea by 2030. We heard from Bob Smith (Director), Sam Aizlewood (PhD candidate), and Thomas Pienkowski (Research Fellow) from the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, University of Kent. Thomas Pienkowski discussed the opportunities and challenges for scaling area-based conservation beyond protected areas, which requires understand motives and barriers faced by a diverse set of societal actors. Sam Aizlewood then explored how systematic conservation planning could be used to identify where to focus rewilding efforts, and the implications rewilding may have for food security and managing priority habitats.
You can watch the recording on YouTube below.
Friday 13th June 2025, 1pm - 2pm BST
In this webinar, we were joined by Sarah Chaytor, Co-chair of Universities Policy Engagement Network (UPEN) & Director of Research Strategy and Policy at UCL, and Rob Brown, CASCADE Knowledge Exchange Manager (plus other members of the CASCADE team). The webinar reflected on the insights gained from UPEN and CASCADE’s work in the science to policy space, and explored what knowledge exchange and policy-relevant research could look like in the future. Sarah and Rob's short presentations were followed by a panel discussion and an interactive Q&A session. The webinar was chaired by Philip Stephens, Professor in the Department of Biosciences at Durham University.
You can watch the recording on YouTube below.
