The Research and Innovation for our Dynamic Environment (RIDE) Forum evolved from the Living with Environmental Change (LWEC) partnership in 2016.
The forum is made up of 23 public sector member organisations who hold a stake in environmental change research, innovation, training and capabilities, whether that be as funders, providers or users.
The forum’s unique contribution lies in its breadth. It brings together:
- the complementary resources of the many different disciplines and publicly funded sector stakeholders needed to increase our understanding of the natural, social, economic and technological systems interacting with environmental change
- the translation of that knowledge into innovating policy and practice.
It focuses on the UK perspective and challenges, while placing this in the international context.
The forum aims to enhance the beneficial impact of the UK’s publicly funded research and innovation by informing:
- policy and practice to support effective decision-making
- the implementation of sustainable solutions that work with our dynamic natural environment.
The forum enables members to align, leverage their resources and avoid duplication through:
- sharing and co-developing strategies
- joint priority-setting
- drawing out interdisciplinary partnership opportunities.
In doing so, members can be more efficient in their use of public funds to give decision-makers the knowledge they need to respond to the challenges and opportunities presented by environmental change.
RIDE is a mechanism that also enables the UK academic community to form independent beneficial and impactful links to the policy and practice community.
Aims
Through the forum, members seek to:
Enhance strategic information exchange
We share information between funders and research users to help members identify common interests and priorities, build a strategic view across the landscape and foster collaborative partnership opportunities (especially at the interfaces between i-disciplines).
Champion environmental change research and innovation
We provide a focal point for raising awareness of the collective work being undertaken.
Facilitate co-design and co-creation of policy and practice-facing research and innovation activities
We build communities of interest between funders, policymakers, businesses and researchers. Will also provide a means of exploring opportunities for collaboration, where ideas and partnerships can develop, and establishing projects of scale that help members leverage their own resources, particularly in areas where members require access to knowledge, people, skills and capabilities that a single organisation could not do alone.
Promote the application of research outputs and evidence into policy and practice
Our work feeds into and endorses best practice for accelerating the impact of research investments on policy development, implementation and practice.
Read more about RIDE forum’s history and operations.
Activities and outputs
The RIDE forum undertakes time-limited activities to:
- enable members to develop collaborative actions or initiatives which, once mature, are delivered by those members
- deliver outputs on behalf of members, which add value for decision-makers in government, business and society by combining the expertise of all member organisations.
See LWEC publications and reports for more information.