Global Environmental Challenges Seminar and Masterclass series - University of Reading and Natural History Museum

Global Environmental Challenges Seminar and Masterclass series 2026

During the first half of 2026 the UoR-NHM Partnership will be running a second series of events intended to highlight and support collaborative, interdisciplinary research on global environmental challenges.

Four cross-institutional keynote seminars aiming to raise the profile of interdisciplinary research in areas of sustainability, biodiversity, and environmental challenges will be presented, led by researchers from UoR and NHM who have successfully designed proposals for large, interdisciplinary projects, including Prof Joy Singarayer and Prof Nick Branch, Dr Anne Jungblut and Dr Ana Santos, Prof Julie Hawkins, and Dr Adrian Glover.

These seminars will be delivered in hybrid mode, and are open to all staff and postdocs from both institutions. Seminars will not be recorded.

The seminars will be paired with a concurrent set of masterclasses led by the seminar presenters. The masterclasses aims to support professional development by focusing on what it takes to lead complex cross-disciplinary, multi-institutional projects. They are especially targeted at mid-career research-active staff who might be starting to develop proposals to lead research activity on a larger and/or more complex scale.

Seminar Programme

Wed 28 Jan, 1-2pm at NHM	Prof Joy Singarayer and Prof Nicholas Branch, and Prof Kevin Lane (University of Buenos Aires)	ACCESS to CROPPs: water and food security for smallholders in the rural Peruvian Andes
Wed 25 Feb, 1-2pm at UoR	Dr Anne Jungblut and Dr Ana Santos	People, Nature and Mining: a multidisciplinary approach to legacy mine rehabilitation
Wed 22 Apr, 1-2pm at NHM	Prof Julie Hawkins	How I became an ethnobotanist (or did I?)
Wed 20 May, 1-2pm at UoR	Dr Adrian Glover	Balancing the need for economic growth and environmental regulation: a case study from the deep sea

Registration is now open for the first seminar and masterclass, booking for subsequent sessions will start in January so please save the dates if you are keen to attend.

Seminar #1 Wednesday 28 January, 1-2pm

Prof Joy Singarayer, Prof Nick Branch, and Prof Kevin Lane

Seminar (hybrid, at NHM, South Kensington, and online):
ACCESS to CROPPs: water and food security for smallholders in the rural Peruvian Andes

Rural farming communities in the Peruvian Andes face growing pressures on water security, agricultural productivity and livelihoods due to rising temperatures, glacier retreat, changing precipitation patterns and long-term underinvestment in water infrastructure. Recent projects (ACCESS and the follow-on CROPP programme) combine climate modelling, hydrology, ecology, archaeology, ethnography and agro-economics to understand how these challenges intersect with local knowledge, land-use histories and traditional agro-pastoral systems. Through participatory workshops and interviews with campesino communities and NGOs, the projects documented concerns over water scarcity, soil degradation and crop losses, as well as strong interest in strategies such as improved water management and diversification. Building on this collaborative work, the team are now working with local partners to rehabilitate pre-Hispanic hydraulic structures, including community-led dam restorations. This seminar will reflect on interdisciplinary and co-produced approaches, and discuss the practical and ethical challenges of equitable research partnerships in mountain regions.

Masterclass #1 Wednesday 28 January, 2-4pm

Masterclass (in person ONLY, at NHM, South Kensington):
Developing international interdisciplinary research approaches with a case study of water security in Peru

Please register to attend the seminar and/or the masterclass using this form by Sunday 18 January. Joining instructions for both in-person and online attendance will be sent to all those who have registered a week before the event.

Please note that in order to provide opportunities for in-depth conversations and focused learning, masterclass attendance will be limited to c. 20 members of staff. The Partnership is committed to building capacity for distributed, institutional leadership in research-active staff at both UoR and NHM, and this series of masterclasses aims to support professional development by focusing on what it takes to lead complex cross-disciplinary, multi-institutional projects. Should we receive more than 20 requests to attend the masterclass, we will need to allocate places by considering career stage and perceived potential for developmental benefit.