A Relu/SUE workshop, London (27 Oct 2010)

I went yesterday to a workshop organised by Relu (Rural Economy and Land Use Programme) and EPSRC (SUE Programme) on crossing the divide between 'urban and rural research'. The day focused on the interdisciplinarity and research practice that both programmes embarked upon and had an interesting networking section around lunchtime where questions were asked on specific projects summarised by A2 posters. The CLUES poster earned a great deal of interest from both the Relu and SUE research communities - interestingly, many Relu teams thought that our topic is worth investigating in a rural context too. So, watch out this space! or...bear this in mind when you start thinking about your next proposal! Three projects are worth investigating further by CLUES:

1. ReVISIONS SUE2 (led by Cambridge University) models scenarios to 2050 around three main areas: Planning/Policy, Economic growth (or not!) and Infrastructure/ Technology. This project started in 2008 and is due to complete in March 2012.
2. Urban Futures SUE1 (led by Pr Chris Rogers at Manchester University) developed four scenarios called Policy Reform, Market Forces, Fortress World and New Sustainability Paradigm.
3. IDCOP SUE1(led by Southampton University) focused on the refurbishment of the urban existing stock (mainly in multi-occupancy and medium to high rise buildings) in terms of energy efficiency and technology innovation.

Catalina Turcu, UCL