The COAST-R Network is part funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and DEFRA under their Resilient Coastal Communities and Seas programme and is part of a £14.8M investment in place-based research projects aiming to enhance resilience, wellbeing and sustainability across the UK.

Cross-UK project partners

Headed by Professor Briony McDonagh at the University of Hull, the COAST-R Network involves academic teams from the Universities of Hull, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Southampton and Aberystwyth University, as well as coastal and marine partners and communities across all four UK nations.

Together, they will work to generate and share learning across sectors and disciplines to build UK coastal and marine resilience.

Prof. McDonagh, Director of the Energy and Environment Institute and Professor of Environmental Humanities, said: “The UK’s coasts represent the front line for many of our most significant resilience challenges. Coastal and estuarine communities are living with social and health inequalities, rising sea levels, and coastal erosion, to name but a few challenges. Yet conventional models of coastal management sometimes fall badly short, ignoring local needs and experiences of coastal change.”

Photo by Lisa Fotios

The COAST-R Network has five key objectives:

1. Share learnings and best practice across sectors and disciplines, to build UK coastal and marine resilience;
2. Co-design a range of events, training and mentoring to improve partnership working and nurture the next generation of resilience champions;
3. Work in partnership with coastal communities and other partners to identify and respond to priority needs using our Flexible Fund;
4. Collate key insights, case studies and resources through our website and other outputs;
5. Build ongoing practitioner and community-led evaluation on the activities of the Network and funded projects, to shape future learning, legacy and funding opportunities. 

Environmental resilience boost

The Network is part of the UKRI Strategy, “Transforming Tomorrow Together”, which will see a £24.3M boost to the UK’s environmental resilience through place-based research projects. Four large projects funded under UKRI’s Resilient Coastal Communities and Seas Programme will shortly be announced, as well as a number of projects researching place-based approaches to an environmentally sustainable future.

View the COAST-R website here

Read the full press release from the University of Hull here