The ESRC Nexus Network: Core Activities and Outputs, 2014-2018

From its launch in June 2014 through to the end of its project life in 2018, the ESRC Nexus Network worked to support transdisciplinary research at the food-water-energy-environment nexus and to create meaningful links between communities of researchers, policymakers, business leaders and practitioners. Data collated here includes records of public facing network activities such as published working papers, reports, email newsletters and workshop activities.
The purpose of the Network+ was to build community through running events, interacting with decision makers, building a network and onward-funding original research. As such, the Network+ did not conduct research in a traditional sense. However, the data and documents collated here represent the substantive knowledge creation activities of the Network+ and can be considered a form of research data in themselves - which were used to iteratively build the network, influence and impact.<p>From its launch in June 2014 until 2018, the ESRC Nexus Network worked to support transdisciplinary research at the food-water-energy-environment nexus, and to create meaningful links between communities of researchers, policymakers, business leaders and practitioners.
Interdependencies, tensions and trade-offs between energy, environment and food generate some of the most significant challenges facing humanity in the 21st century. Addressing these at local, national and international scales, the social sciences have the potential to make ground-breaking contributions. But equally important is a process of continuous and deep engagement between the academic and non-academic communities.
Run by the universities of Sussex, East Anglia and Cambridge, the Nexus Network+ (NW+) engaged the social science community with these complex 'Nexus challenges' and linked them to research users from business, government and civil society.</p>