09:30 - 12:00 (with 30 minute break at 10:45)

Scarman, Room 42

Scarman, Room 43

Work & Wellbeing in a Post-Pandemic World

Led by the Productivity & the Futures of Work GRP and the Health GRP

Chair: Paddie Murphy, PLMCS

About

The Covid-19 pandemic has reshaped current thinking on the future of work in terms of productivity, wellbeing, sustainability and environment, work conditions and workspaces.

In this series of short keynotes, researchers will reflect on how the nature of work and the work environment is transforming. The interdisciplinary approach aims to stimulate debate and challenge the understanding of the direction of travel based on state-of-the-art research and practice.

Speakers

• Professor Nigel Driffield (Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Regional Engagement)

• Professor Steve Roper (Warwick Business School, Director of Enterprise Research Centre)

• Professor Christopher Warhurst (Director of Institute of Employment Research)

• Dr Christopher Bilton (Centre for Cultural and Media Policy Studies)

• Dr Carla Toro (Co-Director of Warwick Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing)

• Sean Russell (Director of Mental Health Commission, WMCA)

Towards a Sustainable Energy Future: Local Solutions

Led by the Energy GRP and the Innovative Manufacturing & Future Materials GRP

Chair: TBC

About

This session will draw out three main themes: technological change, energy system decentralisation and the circular economy. We begin by setting local action within place-based and national contexts and use these themes to explore practical solutions and some of the changes that emerge from them. This will include a case study of Warwick’s past changes and future plans for a sustainable campus.

We will then focus on technology and batteries - highlighting batteries as enabling and supporting local sustainable changes, how to make battery production and use more sustainable and, as such, a better fit with a more decentralised, circular local economy.

Speakers

• Professor Mike Bradshaw (Warwick Business School)

• Dr Caroline Kuzemko (Politics and International Studies)

• Dr John Low (WMG)

• Dr Anwar Sattar (WMG)

13:15 - 15:15

Scarman, Room 42

Scarman, Room 43

Future Health of the Region's Population & its Natural Environment

Led by the Health GRP and the Food GRP

Chair: Liz Gaulton, Director of Public Health, Coventry City Council

About

Human wellbeing is influenced by our diet and our surroundings and both are ultimately dependent on the natural world and the diversity within it. We will explore Warwick is working with partners and funders to protect the natural environment on our campus and the wider region and, secondly, how our research is focusing on the application of biodiversity to produce and cultivate the components of a healthy diet in a sustainable way. We will consider, amongst other things, birds, butterflies and beans!

The session will then explore the national recommendations for BMI cut-offs to trigger action to prevent obesity-related complications like type 2 diabetes among non-white populations. We will discuss why existing guidelines are questionable, and how they may impact non-white populations in Coventry.

Speakers

• Professor Paramjit Gill (Warwick Medical School)

• Professor Rosemary Collier (School of Life Sciences)

Driving to Sustainability

Led by the Innovative Manufacturing & Future Materials GRP and the Cyber Security GRP.

Chair: Ivan Wilson, EMBED

About

Coventry and Warwickshire have always been at the cutting edge of innovation in transportation. This session will discuss the challenges and potential consequences of moving towards greater electrification in the region. To deliver the regions plan for smart sustainable transport we need to develop disruptive technologies and deploy cooperative, connected, and automated mobility. Smart transport can make transport safer, more efficient, and more sustainable. Plus, the integration of existing technologies can create new innovative services that are key to supporting regional jobs and growth.

The session will explore data-driven transport, and how users’ personal data must be safeguarded. Personal data is needed if we want to understand travel behaviours, but the data that is collected and shared is personally identifiable. During the session, we'll explore how to balance the effectiveness of strategies to deliver smart sustainable transport against the privacy needs of travellers.

Speakers

• Professor Paul Jennings (WMG)

• Professor Kerry Kirwan (WMG)

• Professor Carsten Maple (WMG and Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute)

• Professor Noortje Marres (Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies)

15:45 - 17:00

Scarman, Room 42

Scarman, Room 43

Changing Behaviours for a More Sustainable Society

Led by the Behaviour, Brain & Society GRP

Chair: Bret Willers, Head of Climate Change & Sustainability, Coventry City Council

About

This session focuses on the psychological challenges to building and supporting a sustainable society: from wellbeing across an expanding lifespan, to consumer choices in the age of climate change, to the behavioural and emotional adaptations required by our increasingly complex communities. Projects include behaviour change interventions to encourage people to reduce household water waste; raising awareness of the risks associated with indoor air pollution, and exploring the integration of refugees and migrants.

We will present examples of this work and explain how insights from behavioural science can be harnessed for the good of individuals and local communities. The session will give participants an opportunity to discuss and share their ideas with a view to supporting new collaborations with the University.

Speakers

• Dr Lukasz Walasek (Psychology)

• Dr Friederike Schlaghecken (Psychology)

Towards A More Sustainable and Resilient City

Led by the Sustainable Cities GRP and the Habitability GRP

Chair: TBC

About

We will showcase a number of projects that seek to understand how a range of hazards and risks are perceived and assessed by different professional and civic communities, how this knowledge changes the ability of society to plan for disruption, and the processes by which these changing constructions of risk have led to a range of resilience and humanitarian interventions being operationalised in particular ways.

Drawing from a range of international experiences, we will explore meanings, practices and utility of community and disaster resilience and showcase how different resilience ideas have been implemented in different places and what this means in practice for wider questions of sustainable development, vulnerability, social equity and the ability to enhance resilience in context-appropriate ways. In particular, we will unpack the role of geospatial mapping, humanitarian engineering and spatial planning policies in fostering enhanced urban resilience for vulnerable communities and in seeking to advance framework for embedding humanitarian competencies.

Speakers

• Professor Jon Coaffee (Politics and International Studies)

• Professor Georgia Kremmyda (School of Engineering)

• Dr Vangelis Pitidis (Institute for Global Sustainable Development)