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Category: Graduate School

  • The Lives We Want Exhibition – call for student entries

    The Centre for Alternative Technology and Aberystwyth University are delighted to collaborate on the exhibition ‘The Lives We Want: Life and Earth Beyond Covid-19’ and invite students at both institutions to respond to a call for entries.

    The Idea

    The ongoing coronavirus pandemic is affecting all areas of life, and living with the coronavirus has thrown into relief many of our habitual ways of being and our ways of living on this planet, including our entanglements with the non-human world. Covid-19 has provided a tragic reminder of the interconnections on which we all depend, underlined by the continuing threats of climate change and biodiversity loss. In the light of these intertwined issues, we need cultural, artistic, and technological responses which help us to rearticulate new visions of what matters and how to engage with planetary realities and relationships – human and non-human.

    Following this theme CAT and Aberystwyth University students (undergraduate and postgraduate) are invited to submit proposals for scholarly, creative, or critical/creative crossover contributions to a multi-site exhibition which will run physically at CAT and Aberystwyth University later in the year and in an online space curated by both institutions from June 2021 onwards.

    Adrian Watson, Head of CAT’s Graduate School said “During their courses, CAT postgraduate students gain the knowledge and skills to reflect upon practical solutions to climate change and biodiversity loss. During one of the core course modules, they participate in futuring exercises where they consider ‘what does a zero-carbon future look like?’ This exhibition allows our students to put their ideas into creative practice.

    Many of our students come not just from environmental science backgrounds but architecture and the arts too, so we are looking forward to seeing how they interpret the exhibitions’ brief and what media and artefacts they create to discuss what does a healthy, just, and creative post-COVID world look like, in the context of both environmental and social crises? And what steps might be made towards a more socially inclusive, ethical, and sustainable planetary co-existence?”

    Themes

    The exhibition will be curated by a group of staff from both institutions and contributions should address the overall theme of the exhibition and rearticulate new visions of what matters and how to engage with planetary realities and relationships, from any of the following perspectives, or a combination thereof:

    • Health, wellbeing, future generations, work, mobility, and home
    • Social justice, equality of access to services/space, employment, participation, and equity
    • Culture, heritage, identity, communication/s, creating and making
    • Biodiversity, nature conservation, regeneration, land-use, food
    • Net-zero, emissions, energy systems, low carbon futures, sustainable design

    Kim Knowles, Senior Lecturer within the Film, Theatre and TV department at Aberystwyth University said “By using both an online space and physical locations at CAT and at the Aberystwyth University campus for this exhibition we are encouraging students to think creatively with the media they propose using in their entries. We are looking forward to seeing the contributions which can be in any of a range of media – or a combination – including but not limited to: written, spoken, video, visual, performance, artefacts and installations, web-based media, augmented or virtual reality”

    The Lives We Want is a gender-inclusive project. Proposals that consider and/or reflect the diversity of human experience during and after Covid-19 are welcome. The exhibition also welcomes contributions in both Welsh and English.

    Further information

    The invitation for proposals will be open until 31 July 2021, with the online exhibition scheduled to launch in June 2021 and growing over time as entries are added. Further information about the physical and online exhibitions will be announced in due course.

    Students can find out more details about creating a proposal here and submit their proposal by emailing theliveswewant@aber.ac.uk or tll@aber.ac.uk at any point from 1 April to 31 July 2021.

  • CAT students run Transformation Prize

    Hannah Gardiner and Gerard Baker are current MSc students at CAT, who last year launched the Transformation Prize – an innovation award for environmental and social projects, open to CAT students and graduates. In our latest guest blog, Gerard explains how they developed the prize, and describes some of the brilliant projects carried out by CAT students that have come to light as a result of the prize.

    Developing the idea for the prize

    I was sitting in the Sheppard Lecture Theatre one day in December day in 2019 where we took part in an exercise where we had to put up our hands to say how hopeful we were about the future, and many raised their hands to show low levels of hope. This was something I found myself wanting to change. I thought about what CAT had taught me over the last few months about transformational change, and how it would be great to have an innovation prize to help students use the theory and skills we learn during our postgraduate courses at CAT for real-world action.

    The idea of the prize is to stimulate work that helps people come together, tackling inequality and taking better care of the natural world – something which CAT and our tutors have taught us is one of the essential aspects of combating the climate and ecological crises.  Other inspirations for the prize included a lecture given at CAT by Rob Crompton of the Common Cause Foundation about intrinsic values, and the work of Rob Hopkins, co-founder of the Transition Towns movement, around instilling a longing in people for a better world.

    First Transformation Prize – student entries

    We had a fascinating variety of entries in our first year running the prize, and it was inspiring to see the range of work carried out by the CAT students and graduates who applied.

    Art on Barton, 2020 Entrant

    Firstly, Anita Gardner’s project, Atelier Aquatic, which brings together artists in Port Barton, Philippines, to raise awareness of endangered sea turtles in the local marine conservation area. They run educational workshops in Tagalog and English, as well as mural-painting sessions, using art to create emotional engagement and a visual presence for the issue.

    Meanwhile, Less to Landfill Wales, entered by Joanna Kowalska, is working to promote a shift towards a circular economy in Ceredigion. Although things have been on hold during the Covid-19 pandemic, plans are afoot to hold a community screening of The Plastic Ocean, followed by a debate.

    Green GRASS Sheffield, 2020 Finalist

    One of the finalists was Bethan Robinson’s entry, Green GRASS Sheffield, which is a therapeutic horticulture project for asylum seekers and refugees, providing social connection and mental health support through the growing of food and flowers for people to share.

    Tyfu Dyfi, another finalist project, was created by Kirsti Davies as a response to social isolation and panic buying in the Covid-19 pandemic. By working with children and distributing seed packets they are helping local families in the Dyfi Valley to grow food, work together and connect with nature.

    The 2020 Transformation Prize

    Abbeydale Trees Project
    Abbeydale Street Trees: 2020 Winning Entry

    The winning entry for the 2020 prize was Abbeydale Street Trees, entered by a consortium including CAT students Joel Gilbert and Luke Rose. This project is bringing together local people to create a green corridor and enhance the community in one of Sheffield’s most polluted streets. The team showed impressive energy and enthusiasm, and fundraising activities included a fun run and a farmer’s market stall. The award and funding from the Transformation Prize enabled them to print T-shirts with their logo, to sell on, expand the funding and spread awareness.

    We were incredibly lucky to host Judy Ling Wong CBE (honorary President of the Black Environment Network), Tom Crompton and Rob Hopkins as guest speakers in our July 2020 awards ceremony; you can view a short video of highlights on the Transformation Prize website. The recipient of the award was chosen by public vote – over 700 votes were cast – and it was a delight to award funding to Abbeydale Street Trees.

    Transformation Prize Awards Ceremony Screenshots
    Transformation Prize Award Ceremony July 2020

    Transformation Prize launches for 2021

    Year 2 of the prize has now launched and is open for applications and expressions of interest. We are keen to expand what the prize achieves, in addition to awarding funding. In this spirit, we are running project development workshops; themes to be explored will include Tom Crompton’s intrinsic values work, as well as inclusivity, community engagement and marketing. We are also providing project planning templates, and further plans include arranging for mentors for the projects, as well as possible expansion to a broader applicant base. We have also recently been awarded funding support from the Liebreich Foundation.

    For me, one of the brilliant unanticipated things about running this prize has been a greater sense of hope. However many people there are in the world who do not realise the danger we face or are actively making things worse, the number of people who ‘get it’, and imaginative initiatives ‘fighting back’, means there is still so much to fight for.

    If you’re a fellow CAT student or graduate and you would like to get involved or enter the 2021 Transformation Prize – whether or not you have project plans, or even something already up and running, then visit the Transformation Prize website for more details, and to be kept up to date with their plans and workshops. There is so much work to do, and we need to work together!

    About the authors

    Gerard and Hannah are both MSc students on our MSc in Sustainability and Ecology and MSc in Sustainable Food and Natural Resources and run the Transformation Prize.

    If you would like to find out more about these courses or other postgraduate courses delivered by CAT then get in touch with Alis Rees, Graduate School Marketing Officer or book a space on our next Virtual Open Day.

  • Natural climate solutions

    We aren’t seeing the wood for the trees

    Political ecologist Dr Scott Leatham warns that we must sensitively restore nature, but we cannot rely on actions like tree planting alone as a solution to climate breakdown.

    (more…)

  • The Rose Jessica-Maia Bursary

    Content warning: please be advised that this page contains references to suicide

    We are pleased to announce the creation of the Rose Jessica-Maia Bursary in honour and memory of Rose Jessica-Maia, who would have been twenty-one years old today. You can read Rose’s story, from Kaye, her mum, below.

    (more…)

  • CAT Graduate business ‘Adaptavate’ secures Innovate UK funding

    Adaptavate, an innovative building materials business, co-founded by CAT graduate Tom Robinson in 2014 has secured £500,000 Government funding to take CO2 from the atmosphere and polluting industries and lock it into the biomaterials of the future.

    The development project will be co-funded by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency to develop new techniques to take CO2 from emitting processes, such as lime and cement and locking this into construction products, like the companies award-winning Breathaboard technology.

    Adaptavate’s breathaboard

    The project also builds on the strong relationships that Adaptavate has built with the University of Bath and Biocomposite Development Centre in York. In parallel the project is also asking the question; can the waste of these materials be used as soil nutrients for use in agriculture, to grow more crops and bio-materials, completing a circular economy approach to construction bio-materials?

    Ground-up construction waste will be compared to the digestate from Anaerobic Digestion (AD) of the same material. The AD process also generates synthetic gas, predominantly Methane. Here a second and third nutrient loop can be exploited as the Methane created can be burnt to create electricity to run the factory, creating CO2 , which can sequestered in the curing of new material. This is totally in line with Adaptavate’s purpose: to positively disrupt the material flows in the construction sector.

    CAT graduate and Managing Director of Adaptavate, Tom said:

    “This is a really exciting project at a pivotal point for Adaptavate. It enables us to grow the team and technical partnerships at a really exciting time in our industry. It affirms Adaptavate and the partner universities as leading the way in CO2 sequestration in building materials and industrial processes – helping us reach ambitious CO2 targets that are being set by governments and industrial bodies”.

    At the end of his MSc Tom focused his dissertation on developing a product that balances performance, workability, and sustainability which in turn led to the founding of Adaptavate where Tom and now other CAT graduates including Jeff Ive, Technical Director at Adaptavate set to rethink and redesign the way building materials are produced, used and disposed of.

    Jeff Ive, Technical Director at Adaptavate said:

    “Environmentally positive solutions are not one size fits all, and neither are business cases. This project will allow us to scale the next generation of bio-materials though absorbing CO2 from emitting processes all over the world through localised production models. This is a really transformative way of looking at this conservative, vertically integrated industry that is looking for a step change”.

    Jeff has also been a guest lecture on our postgraduate courses showcasing Adaptavate’s work and their products, providing our students with invaluable knowledge and insights from within the industry.

    We look forward to seeing how the project progresses and if you’re interested in following their work you can find out more on their website.

    Interested in becoming a CAT student?

    Inspired by Adaptavate’s story? Want to develop the skills and knowledge to make a real difference in your chosen field? Find out more about our postgraduate courses on our next Virtual Open Day  or get in touch with our Graduate School Marketing Officer.

  • Studying Sustainability and Ecology at CAT: A conversation with Mike Thomas

    Mike Thomas began his MSc in Sustainability and Ecology at CAT in September 2019, as a student on the very first intake of the course. Alis Rees, Graduate School Marketing Officer caught up with Mike one year into the course.

    The course which focuses on land use, biodiversity (species) needs for conservation and ecosystem service provision and the global and local scale of ecological sustainability appealed to Mike after he developed an interest in conservation through his experiences as an active community woodland volunteer in North Wales.

    Read on to find out more about his volunteering projects and why he chose to study on one of CAT’s postgraduate courses and gain the skills and knowledge to develop positive solutions to the climate and biodiversity emergency.

    What was your background before CAT?

    I spent 10 years as a careers adviser in schools and a further ten working in social care, the last three of these years as an advocate for people with dementia. I had also done my first degree over 25 years ago in social theory and politics type studies and whilst continuing to work I have been active as a committee member and volunteer in a community woodland near to me.

    So what made you choose to study at CAT?

    I was involved in tree-planting, creating a wildflower meadow and establishing a pond as part of my volunteering experiences with my community woodland and I also ran a children’s environmental education group – the ‘Woodland Wonderers’ – with a friend which made me interested in ecology as a whole. I decided to study at CAT to deepen my understanding and knowledge.

    For me, it’s about gaining a deeper understanding of how ecosystems function to inform my conservation work. The more we know the more chance we can develop sustainable ways of doing things in conservation work and across the board.

    What impact has your studies at CAT had so far?

    I know loads more than I did before I started on the course. This has also translated across to the conservation work I’m currently involved in. It feels good to have an understanding of the theory as well as the practice of conservation and ecological restoration.

    Tell us a bit more about the conservation work you’re involved with outside of studying at CAT.

    I’m currently involved with a new tree nursery set up by North Wales Wildlife Trust that is currently growing around 6000 trees of various native UK species. The idea is to get these planted throughout North Wales in the coming months. I’ve done plenty of tree planting in the past, but never been involved in growing the trees. It’s a new skill and one which I’m enjoying.

    I’m also part of the team of people who look after the Countess of Chester Park in Chester, a community space in which we’re trying to enhance the environment and provide access to nature for local people. Our exciting new initiative – a proposed wetland.

    That all sounds great! What are the best things about what you’re doing now?

    I’m having the time of my life, to be honest. I’m studying something I’m really interested in plus getting hands-on with conservation work which I enjoy. I look forward to further studying and researching woodland ecology, community woodlands and their contribution to carbon storage and improving tree growing and planting methods.

    What are your plans for the future?

    Well firstly to pass the Masters – that would be the priority! I also want to carry on with my current conservation work and look for opportunities to expand into new projects. I’m hoping the new UK Government Environmental Land Management Scheme will provide plenty of options – and funding – for broad-scale tree planting across the UK. We need to get trees in the ground in very large numbers, and soon.

    We agree. And finally, if you had to sum up your experience of studying at CAT, what would you say?

    CAT provides a great opportunity to learn vital skills for the future while giving you the chance to meet a bunch of committed people also working towards doing things in new and sustainable ways. It’s empowering … and it’s also a lot of fun.

    Interested in studying at CAT?

    If you’d like to find out more about studying on our MSc Sustainability and Ecology or on one of our other postgraduate programmes in September 2021 then join us on our next Virtual Open Day or get in touch with Alis for more information.

  • CAT Graduate profile – Paula Huerta Andrés, Architect

    Alis Rees, our Graduate School Marketing Officer, recently caught up with Paula, who graduated from CAT in 2011. She now has her own architectural studio Studio Bambook in Indonesia and is an international green building consultant and circular economy lecturer. (more…)

  • A tribute to Sir John Houghton, 1931-2020

    World renowned climate scientist Sir John Houghton has died at the age of 88.

    Sir John was a great friend of CAT and many other environmental organisations, and helped raise public understanding of both the impacts of climate change and the need for urgent action on solutions.

    An illustrious career as one of the world’s most eminent climate scientists included serving as Co-Chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Scientific Assessment Working Group from 1988 to 2002. In 2007, he received the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the IPCC, an award shared with Al Gore.

    A former Director General and later Chief Executive of the Met Office, Sir John founded the world renowned Hadley Centre for Climate Science and Services. As one of the foremost climate scientists of his generation, he contributed greatly to the understanding of the causes and impacts of global temperature rise.

    In 2007, Sir John – who grew up in Rhyl, Denbighshire – moved to Mid Wales, becoming a near neighbour and valued adviser to CAT.

    Paul Allen, CAT’s Zero Carbon Britain research coordinator said:

    “Sir John Houghton was a great inspiration for CAT’s Zero Carbon Britain research, and a good friend. Years before net-zero carbon became a goal of governments around the world, Sir John encouraged us to explore solutions rooted in what the physics of the climate science demands, rather than what is judged to be politically palatable.

    “We worked with him at several UN climate summits, and in 2016 he made a generous donation to CAT that allowed us to create the annual Sir John Houghton Bursary for our postgraduate students, helping support the next generation in exploring climate solutions. We will miss his wisdom, deeply held beliefs and foresight.”

    The Sir John Houghton Bursary is awarded annually to a promising student who demonstrates that they have an excellent academic record and a passion for tackling climate change.

    On making the donation, Sir John said:

    “I have spent a lifetime studying the atmosphere and the climate and latterly have been concerned with the reality of human induced climate change. I now want to help the next generation tackle this serious problem, possibly the biggest the world faces.”

    Thank you, John, for everything that you did to help build a better world, and for your friendship and support over many years.

    Our deepest condolences to all of Sir John’s friends and family.

  • The Ethel and Gwynne Morgan Trust Bursary

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    The Ethel and Gwynne Morgan Trust Bursary

    Last week the Graduate School of the Environment at CAT launched a new postgraduate bursary which provides up to £4,500 towards studying climate change solutions. The Ethel and Gwynne Morgan Trust Bursary is open to applications from students beginning on one of our postgraduate courses in September 2020.

    The bursary is available thanks to a generous donation from the Ethel and Gwynne Morgan Trust, which is focused on the advancement of education in science in Wales. Aimed at allowing a student who would otherwise be unable to study with to partly fund their course, the bursary can be applied to on-site or blended learning.

    On awarding the donation to CAT, the trust said:

    “Climate change is a challenge for us all. The aims of the Ethel and Gwynne Morgan Trust include environmental improvement so we are delighted to offer a bursary with a focus on learning and research to reduce climate change and develop a sustainable future for generations to come.”

    CAT students in a futuring workshop

    In recent years, students studying on our postgraduate courses have also benefitted from the Sir John Houghton Bursary which is also worth £4,500. When the need for training in sustainability has never been greater, and people are actively looking for distance learning and flexible study options, the Ethel and Gwynne Morgan Trust Bursary alongside the Sir John Houghton Bursary will allow students looking for that flexibility to gain knowledge and inspiration for tackling climate change.

    Sonia Cunningham, a student on our Masters in Sustainable Architecture course and last year’s awardee of the Sir John Houghton Bursary said:

    “I feel extremely fortunate to receive a bursary, providing the opportunity to pursue my passion for learning about sustainable solutions for climate change at the Centre for Alternative Technology. Being the recipient has enabled the financial pressures of education to be preceded by an enthusiasm and awareness towards furthering my architectural education, engaging with the mission of caring for our environment.”

    Applications for the Ethel and Gwynne Morgan Trust Bursary opened on Wednesday 1 April, 2020 and will close on Tuesday 30 June. For more information and to apply, visit our Funding page.

  • Meet CAT graduates

    CAT now has over 1,800 graduates – people who have immersed themselves in studying sustainable solutions for 18 months or more, gaining the skills, knowledge, networks and qualifications to make a real difference in the world. Alis Rees caught up with a few of them to find out about life after CAT.

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