Multidisciplinary Research:
Multidisciplinarity is critical to programme delivery and is embedded both in the CDT’s training and research environments. We aim to facilitate multidisciplinarity and cross-sectoral engagement at different stages of the programme through:
Recruitment of PhD candidates with motivation and strong potential for multidisciplinary thinking. Establishment of supervisory teams that span partner institutions, disciplines and sectors (e.g. with the need to include supervisors representing different but complementary research areas, from at least two institutions, and an industrial supervisor). Facilitation of multidisciplinarity via CDT-wide networking events promoting the cross-fertilisation of ideas, approaches and methods.
Cohort training events such as Induction and Cross skills training familiarising RED-ALERT scholars with a range of disciplinary approaches and technologies (e.g. biosensors, omics, models, remote sensing, law and policy).
Co-Creation Hubs:
Our Co-creation Project Hubs run annually to produce research for our project-led studentships. A minimum of 3 students will start at each UK Living Lab every year which are affiliated with each of our higher education institutions, helping to create a truly integrated programme. Project Hubs will operate within and across the 4 UK Living Labs and link with our Global Living Labs.
Key Functions of our Co-Creation Hubs are:
- To set the scene for multidisciplinary challenges
- Establish key research questions
- Build interdisciplinary teams
- Design individual, independent but complementary PhD projects
- Enable interdisciplinary flow of ideas/ output to deliver the best outcomes for our research, integrated training programme and ultimately impact.
Red-ALERT research is structured around 5 themes:
Theme 1: Water Fingerprinting with cutting-edge omics technology and EcoTox tools for integrated environmental exposure assessment for people and ecosystems.
Theme 2: Environmental Sensor development for low-cost, real-time water analysis, coupled with IoW frameworks to provide direct and transparent data access from distributed sensors as autonomous real-time systems.
Theme 3: One Health Modelling to facilitate the transformation of ’big data’ into fit-for-purpose tools for environmental and public health decision makers.
Theme 4: Ecosystem Services & Socioecological Systems to enable linkages between human and ecological systems.
Theme 5: Co-creation of One Health field systems with stakeholders for rapid technology adoption.
Our 5 themes span 4 cross-cutting areas: molecules, genes, organisms and ecosystems and 3 key skills areas (a) modelling and handling of large data sets for environmental system analysis and linkage with ecosystem function and services at a variety of temporal / spatial scales; (b) environmental legislation and water policy; (c) fieldwork and data acquisition.