Environment Research Funders' Forum

• Delivery plan
• Research co-ordination
• LWEC
• UK Environmental Observation Framework
• Science-Policy
• Horizon scanning
• Skills needs
• Events

The Forum's Delivery Plan is not an 'activity' of itself, but it defines the objectives and activities which ERFF will pursue during the 3-year currency of each Plan.

ERFF's first delivery plan (2004-07) was completed in March 2007 and was based on the recommendations of an analysis of environmental science completed in 2003 and on members' priorities for the Forum identified in a review of ERFF carried out in 2004.

ERFF Report 01 - Progress report 2004-07 and delivery plan 2007-10, published in September 2007, reports on progress during the first three years and outlines objectives for the next delivery plan period (2007-2010).

Achievements from the first Delivery Plan include:

• Sharing of priorities for the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review, an underpinning document supporting Environmental Research sent to Treasury and an unprecedented joint programme 'Living With Environmental Change' (LWEC) initiated to address Treasury Challenge 5.
• The development of an ERFF research database containing information on nearly 6000 environmental research projects funded by 12 ERFF member organisations during 2004-05, and a strategic analysis of its contents to give a first comprehensive overview of the majority of the UK's publicly funded environmental research, reported in ERFF Report 04 - Strategic analysis of UK environmental research activity.
• A review of environmental monitoring in the UK, reported in ERFF Report 02 - Strategic analysis of UK environmental monitoring activity, highlighted the need for greater coordination of monitoring activities. This led directly to the UK Environmental Observation Framework which is now being developed by the Forum.
• A study was completed on how research is interpreted to inform policy. This was reported in ERFF Report 03 - Using research to inform policy: the role of interpretation.The recommendations in this report are now being explored via ERFF's Science-Policy initiative.

2007-2010 Objectives

The 2007-2010 Delivery Plan objectives (see page 15 of ERFF Report 01 for an overview) continue to build on these activities, for example the Living With Environmental Change initiative and following up recommendations in ERFF Report 03 via the Science-Policy initiative, as well as new projects such as:

• The ERFF environmental research database. This will be an online searchable database of environmental research funded by any of the ERFF member organisations. It will enable strategic analysis to facilitate better high-level planning and will provide project-level detail to facilitate coordination and cooperation.
• An horizon scanning study to develop a shared view of the issues that will affect the environment over the next 20 years in the UK.
• A skills needs review to identify skills needs in the environmental Science sector for the next 10 years.
• The UK Environmental Observation Framework (EOF). The EOF, which came into being on 1 April 2008 and holds its launch event and first workshop on 17-18 July 2008, will provide a strategic decision-making framework for all UK environmental observation/monitoring activities. It will enable funders and users to see the entire observation/monitoring portfolio, understand the motivations of its various components, and will provide a framework for optimising the investments and measurements made (eg for research, policy and regulatory needs). The project will also aim to improve data accessibility and quality.

Each project has a working group or project board, details of whose membership, meetings and papers can be found on the working group pages.