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How we work

CO2RE is well positioned to co-ordinate activity across the GGR-D Programme, and connect the UK and international communities, cementing the UK’s position as leader in the rapidly evolving field of Greenhouse Gas Removal (GGR). This page outlines our values and approach, including the Programme’s oversight and advisory aspects.

Collaboration

CO2RE is fundamentally collaborative, and has been working with GGR developers, businesses and investors from the outset. We have significant experience advising policy makers, including at the most senior levels. We aim to ensure that expertise from across the GGR-D Programme is connected appropriately to wider UK and international research initiatives and to disseminate intelligence about collaborative opportunities.

CO2RE has a number of project partners – organisations who provided letters of support to CO2RE at proposal stage. These are a mixture of technology innovators, NGO’s, corporates, organisations from hard-to-decarbonise sectors, local and central government, research organisations, consultancies, regulators, and business networks. We are also in regular contact with central government departments (BEIS and DEFRA), parliamentary organisations and have some contacts in the devolved administrations (Scotland and Wales).

Partner organisations: Airbus, Aldersgate Group, BCG (Boston Consulting Group), BP, Cambridgeshire County Council, Capitals Coalition, Carbon Engineering, The Carbon Trust, Carbon180, Climate Change Committee, Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy, CCm, ClientEarth, Climateworks, Climeworks, Drax, Environment Agency, Energy Systems Catapult, ENGIE_UK, Heathrow, HM Treasury, International Airlines Group (IAG), Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC), Microsoft, Natural England, NFU, NIC, Origen, Progressive, Rolls Royce, RSPB, Shell, Soil Association, Sustainable Aviation, The Climate Group, The Nature Conservancy, UK100, Vivid, WWF.

Effective oversight and advisory

Programme Board

The Programme Board is a governance and decision-making body which has delegated authority to drive the delivery of the programme. The Programme Board meets once a quarter to receive advice and guidance from the Steering Committee, and to discuss programme progress, risks and issues, finances, and administration.

The GGR-D Programme Board is made up of cross council UKRI representatives from:

  • Natural Environment Research Council (NERC; lead council for the programme)
  • Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)
  • Innovate UK
  • Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
  • Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
  • Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)

Representatives from Defra and BEIS regularly observe the Programme Board.

 

Programme Steering Committee

The Steering Committee is an advisory body made up of leading experts, academics, and senior stakeholders. The Steering Committee meets once a quarter to discuss programme progress, direction, scope, methodology and legacy, and provides advice, guidance and insight to the Programme Board, the decision-making body for the GGR-D Programme.

  • Professor Jim Watson, Professor of Energy Policy and the Director of the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources (Chair)
  • Professor Paul Monks, Chief Scientific Adviser, BEIS
  • Professor Gideon Henderson, Chief Scientific Adviser, Defra
  • Professor Sir Robert Watson, Expert Advisory Group (EAG) Chair for the Treescapes Demonstrator project
  • Professor Julie Hill, EAG Chair for the Enhanced Rock Weathering Demonstrator project
  • Professor Chris Stoate, EAG Chair for the Biochar Demonstrator project
  • Steve Croxton,EAG Chair for the Biomass Demonstrator project
  • James Skates, EAG Chair for the Peat Demonstrator project
  • Professor Julie Doyle, Professor of Media and Communication, University of Brighton
  • Professor Mercedes Maroto-Valer, ISCF Industrial Decarbonisation representative
  • Dr Simon Burrall, representative of civic society
  • Dr Alison Mohr, Lecturer of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Nottingham
  • Jim Wharfe, representative of cross-council energy programme
  • Huub den Rooijen, The Crown Estate representative

Engagement and co-creation

Wide-ranging engagement and co-creation are embedded throughout the Hub’s activities to ensure cross-cutting, solutions-led research, aimed at evaluating the Demonstrator activities, scaling up promising options and achieving climate targets. Our outputs will be timely, relevant and transparent, delivered via an agile approach with effective project management.

Equality, diversity & inclusion

CO2RE is committed to developing a strong and enduring culture of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and to promoting a positive culture, which celebrates difference, challenges prejudice and ensures fairness. Our ambition is to instil these values across the Hub and its activities, as well as promoting them to our partner Demonstrator projects, and the developing GGR industry. 

The GGR-D Programme has set up an EDI Committee. Formed of CO2RE and Demonstrator staff, the EDI Committee advises the leadership team on relevant issues, shares good practice and takes other agreed initiatives consistent with the aims of the EDI Plan. It serves as a place for reflection and EDI policy development, the harmonisation of reporting across the Hub and Demonstrators, and periodic course correction. The EDI Committee will meet twice per year to monitor and refresh our EDI approach.

The members of the EDI Committee are:

  • Navraj Singh Ghaleigh, Senior Lecturer in Climate Law, University of Edinburgh (Chair)
  • Chris Bell, GGR-Peat Programme Manager, UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
  • Dr Emily Cox, Research Associate, Cardiff University and University of Oxford
  • Professor Bridget Emmett, Head of Soils and Land Use Science Area, UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
  • Dr Kate Gannon, NetZeroPlus Programme Manager, University of Exeter
  • George Hope, CO2RE Communications Manager, University of Oxford
  • Umme Hani Imani, CO2RE Project Assistant, University of Oxford
  • Mikal Mast, CO2RE Programme Manager, University of Oxford
  • Dr Clement Ugana, Research Fellow, University of Nottingham
  • Dr Philippa Westbury, CO2RE Stakeholder Manager, Imperial College London
  • Dr Jeanette Whitaker, Plant-Soil Ecologist, UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
  • Dr Mark Workman, Research Fellow, Imperial College London

You can download the GGR-D Programme EDI Plan. Please note that this is a living document, and we will continue refresh this plan throughout the Programme, informed by the EDI Committee.

We commissioned a survey and report in 2023 on diversity and inclusion in the GGR-D Programme. You can access the report here.

 

Responsible innovation

Responsible innovation is a central aim of CO2RE. We will seek to anticipate societal issues surrounding GGR by adopting a responsible innovation framework with the Demonstrator projects. Our work builds on UKRI’s responsible innovation AREA framework, to ‘Anticipate’ GGR impacts, ‘Reflect’ on framings of GGR, ‘Engage’ in meaningful two-way engagement and ‘Act’ on findings to inform the trajectory of GGR innovation itself. It will facilitate public participation in decision-making by eliciting perceptions of and preferences for GGR processes and their social control.

We will facilitate public participation on decision-making, such as understanding people’s preferences around GGR, and engage with society on ethical issues and concerns about the effects of GGR. The Hub is also working with the Demonstrator projects to support embedding this approach in their work.

Solutions-led research

CO2RE comprises a highly-motivated multidisciplinary team of some of the UK’s leading academic experts on GGR, with exceptional publication and project successes. Jointly, we can bring together the GGR community in the UK and globally, provide a gateway to UK research expertise on GGR and deepen the research base. We work across many academic disciplines, including business, economics, engineering, law, physics, policy and sociology. Our research is solutions-led, aimed at evaluating the Demonstrator activities, scaling up promising options and achieving climate targets.

Events

Goodbye Greenhouse Gas @ The Old Fire Station
Goodbye Greenhouse Gas @ The Old Fire Station

Event date - June 20, 2024

At CO2RE, we are hosting an evening of fun and learning on the topic of Greenhouse Gas Removal (GGR), touted as one of the key ... Read more

3rd International Conference on Negative CO₂ Emissions
3rd International Conference on Negative CO₂ Emissions

Event date - June 18, 2024

CO₂RE is hosting the 3rd International Conference on Negative CO₂ Emissions Read more

ECR Net Zero Conference 2024
ECR Net Zero Conference 2024

Event date - February 27, 2024

ECR Net Zero Conference 2024 is taking place at the Birmingham Conference & Events Centre on 27 and 28 February. Read more

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