Maximising the impact of NERC research: facilitating knowledge exchange between the UK atmospheric science community and Defra.

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Air quality is a significant public health issue in the UK and globally; the United Nations Environment Programme called air pollution the World's Worst Environmental Health Risk (1), with 3.7 million deaths worldwide attributed to degraded air quality in 2012 (2). In 2013, the Public Health Outcomes Framework for England included an indicator of mortality associated with air pollution, further demonstrating its recognised importance as a major environmental risk to health. It is essential, therefore that effective mechanisms are developed to ensure that the high quality air pollution research carried out by the Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC), the UK's largest funder of independent environmental science research, is appropriately communicated to and informed by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) who are the government department responsible for this issue. While there are existing processes to facilitate the communication of air pollution research to Defra, mounting evidence of the costs of air pollution on UK public health strongly favour an increasing scale of interactions between research and policy. With continuing pressure to deliver scientific evidence for policy more efficiently, there is both the need and opportunity to improve the use of existing mechanisms and to develop new channels and tools for more effective communication of research to policy and the reciprocal transfer of evidence needs from Defra to the research community. This fellowship will facilitate effective communication between the UK atmospheric science research community and Defra's Atmosphere and Industrial Emissions Team (AIE), extending existing mechanisms to develop longer-term and more sustainable working relationships between these two groups and increasing the potential for impact from NERC air quality research in UK government, public policy and Europe.The primary aim is to promote co-production of research and to increase awareness of the evidence needs of policy to provide increased policy impact from NERC science. The activities focus around getting NERC atmospheric researchers and Defra's Atmosphere and Industrial Emissions team together in situations that facilitate knowledge exchange, discussion of research priorities and opportunities, and relationship building, without creating unnecessary burdens on time or resources. As part of the NERC National Centre for Atmospheric Science programme of meetings, fora will be organised for researchers and policy-makers to discuss policy relevant atmospheric science and the future of research in these crucial areas of science. Workshops and dedicated sessions will also be organised at key meetings and conferences and seminars will be delivered at UK universities that carry out NERC air pollution research. An effective mechanism already used by Defra to synthesise the vast and complex research base for air quality is the Air Quality Expert Group (AQEG). AQEG are an Expert Committee that provides independent scientific advice on air quality to Defra and the Devolved Administrations. The fellowship will aim to increase the visibility of AQEG and its outputs to maximise the value of this resource for communicating air quality evidence to policy-makers. This fellowship aims to provide greater awareness from the NERC community of Defra's air quality evidence needs and an improvement in Defra's access to the high quality research being carried out by NERC. Through this work effective networks can be built and maintained enabling long-term knowledge exchange across the policy-science interface maximising the UK's ability to produce cutting-edge air quality research with policy relevance and to realise the potential benefit for society.References:1. Emerging issues in our global environment, UNEP Yearbook 2014.2. Burden of disease from Ambient Air Pollution for 2012, WHO 2014.3. The business of the environment, Delivery Plan 2015/16, NERC