Forest

Our environment is changing at unprecedented speeds and scales and we are rapidly losing the biodiversity, ecosystems, and natural resources that we depend upon. We are responsible for ensuring our environmental resources are protected and maintained for future generations.

The Environment and Sustainability Theme spans multiple disciplines that address the critical challenges we face in this space, with research and policy focused on understanding, monitoring, predicting and managing the environment and its sustainability.  Our scope ranges from local ecosystems to the global biosphere, and includes the overarching societal challenges posed by climate change, food production, chemical pollution, and transport.

We aim at studying, conversing and optimising the environment around us: from understanding ecosystems, to exploring the universe; reducing the negative impact of climate change to considering the future of food production and travel.

Theme leads

Get in touch with the theme members by emailing fons-environmentandsustainability-pq@groups.imperial.ac.uk.

Theme leads

  • Morena Mills

    Personal details

    Morena Mills Reader in Environmental Policy and Practice

    About

    Morena is passionate about applied biodiversity conservation research and is interested in improving policy that impacts the persistence of species and people's wellbeing

  • Guy Woodward

    Personal details

    Guy Woodward Professor of Ecology

    About

    Guy's research focuses on quantifying the impacts of stressors (climate change, acidification, eutrophication, species invasions and habitat alteration) on the structure and functioning of aquatic ecosystems.

  • Caroline Howe

    Personal details

    Caroline Howe Senior Lecturer

    about

    Caroline is a Senior Lecturer in Environmental Social Science. Her research is highly interdisciplinary and focuses on exploring the relationship between people and nature and how these relationships influence the outcome and success of sustainable development policies through the underpinning interactions between biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human well-being.

Coordinating research activities

Support with your grant research proposal


If you need support with your grant proposal writing, please complete the FoNS Research Grant Proposal Support Form. This will allow the strategic research team to understand the type of support you need before they contact you.

Watch our Theme Champions talking on how they can support you with grant applications - Check article and video!

Internal online resources - see our academics talking about funders and review processes


 The Environmental and Sustainability theme champions have started collecting short recordings produced by our academics. The aim of these videos is to help our researchers with the writing of  grant proposals and get to know more the funders and their review processes. Please have a look at these videos (only for Imperial users):

Environment & Sustainability Theme activities


Panel discussion on large grant proposals - event at Silwood Park campus (22 July 2022)

Read Dr Adam Sykulski's blog about the Environment and Sustainability theme event at Silwood Park. He reflects on why he attended the event, what he took away – valuable information about funding strategies, grant applications and potential collaborators – and reasons why researchers at all career stages should engage - check this blog!