Strathclyde input into research project aiming to boost resilience of coastal communities
Strathclyde Business School's Dr Scott McGrane is participating in a research project funded by UK Research and Innovation which aims to boost the resilience of coastal communities in the UK by learning from the past.
Five universities are collaborating in the TRANSECTS project - with Heriot-Watt University as the overall lead, the University of Strathclyde, the University of the Highlands and Islands, University of Aberdeen, and University of Hull are all co-leads.
The research is one of four projects to share £14.8 million in funding through the Resilient Coastal Communities and Seas Programme, which is funded by UK Research and Innovation – the UK’s national funding agency for investing in science and research – and the UK Government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). The programme aims to boost the resilience of coastal communities in all four nations of the UK by drawing expertise from multiple disciplines.
The aim is to inform approaches to the current energy transition that protect the wellbeing of coastal communities – and also underpin the success of important blue economy industries like offshore renewables.
TRANSECTS stands for 'TRANSitions in Energy for Coastal communities over Time and Space' and aims to learn from the past to help ensure that offshore renewable energy, including offshore wind and tidal energy, develops in a way that helps rather than harms coastal communities.
Dr McGrane from the Department of Economics, and the Strathclyde lead on the project, said, "This project is an exciting opportunity to engage with local coastal communities, and better understand how current approaches to a Just Transition can avoid the socio-economic harms associated with historical transitions. The team is an exciting interdisciplinary collaboration - we will be using an array of methods to tell the stories of historical change, and use this knowledge to drive the success of current blue economy sectors such as offshore renewables, that are crucial components of the current net-zero strategies."
The research will involve collaborating with scientists across different disciplines and with artists, archaeologists and cultural organisations including museums. Researchers will also collaborate with coastal communities in Scotland and England, with a focus on three areas. These are around the Humber in England, the Orkney islands archipelago and the east coast of Scotland between Edinburgh and Aberdeen.
As well as the universities taking part, there are 12 stakeholder partners from industry and government collaborating in the project. These include the Scottish Government, the Marine Management Organisation, which regulates marine activities in the seas around England and Wales, and Offshore Energies UK, a trade association for the UK offshore energies industry.
Published: 19 June 2024
