The Lancaster Environment Centre (LEC) in Lancaster, England, is a new centre for teaching, research and collaboration at Lancaster University

Lancaster University

Lancaster University, officially The University of Lancaster, is a leading research-intensive British university in Lancaster, Lancashire, England. The university was established by Royal Charter in 1964 and initially based in St Leonard's Gate until moving to a purpose-built 300 acre campus at...

.

The building is a joint investment by NERC

Natural Environment Research Council

The Natural Environment Research Council is a British research council that supports research, training and knowledge transfer activities in the environmental sciences.-History:...

 / CEH

Centre for Ecology and Hydrology

The Centre for Ecology & Hydrology is the United Kingdom's Centre of Excellence for integrated research in hydrology, terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems and their interaction with the atmosphere...

 and Lancaster University, currently totalling £20M. The project combines CEH and Lancaster University laboratories, developed partly by a new extension to Lancaster University’s Biological and Environmental Sciences building and partly by extensive refurbishment of areas of the existing laboratories. The development of this joint facility underpins the close integration of CEH and Lancaster University research activities and provides extensive, state-of-the-art research laboratories, fifteen glasshouses and ten walk-in controlled environment rooms. These include high-grade containment facilities for research with genetically modified organisms and radionuclides.

In addition to the main site is a 1000m² prefabricated building at the northern end of campus

Campus

A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls and park-like settings...

, which houses environmental engineering and instrumentation workshops and large-scale sample preparation facilities for CEH.

On the 22nd May 2007.the Gordon Manley

Gordon Manley

Gordon Valentine Manley, FRGS was an English climatologist who assembled the Central England temperature series of monthly mean temperatures stretching back to 1659. This is the longest standardised instrumental record available for anywhere in the world...

 Building, (LEC III) was opened by Lord Rees of Ludlow Kt

Martin Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow

Martin John Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow, OM, FRS is a British cosmologist and astrophysicist. He has been Astronomer Royal since 1995 and Master of Trinity College, Cambridge since 2004...

. The £8.4m building provides new office, laboratory and meeting-room space for the Geography department and provides offices, meeting and training rooms for LEC’s Enterprise & Business Partnerships Team and offices for companies wishing to locate into LEC or co-locate new activities.

Organisation of Science

The research themes of Lancaster University, include

• Environmental Change and Pollution
• Environment and Society
• Catchement and Aquatic Processes
• Organisms and the Environment

and the science programmes and themes of CEH, including:

• Water
• Biodiversity
• Biogeochemistry
• Environmental Informatics
• Climate Change
• Sustainable Economies

provide a range of research interests within the Lancaster Environment Centre and represent a distinctly post-disciplinary approach to research.

LEC Centres

In addition to this research endeavour, the two organisations are developing a number of integrating research centres to provide a specific strategic research focus on particular areas of current concern where the two organisations collaborate to form major new centres of excellence. These centres undertake high-quality blue skies research

Blue skies research

Blue skies research is scientific research in domains where "real-world" applications are not immediately apparent...

and provide a strategic focus for LEC's collaborative work with science users, including policymakers and industry.

The current centres include:

The Centre for Sustainable Chemical Management

Led by Professor Kevin Jones, the Centre has been established to provide an integrated approach covering all aspects of chemical fate, behaviour and effects. This ranges from development of new chemicals designed for fitness of purpose without resulting in adverse impact on human health or the environment to safe disposal options. This includes providing input to the "design" of new chemicals that are "fit for their purpose" but avoid the physico-chemical properties which lead to undesirable traits in the environment, such as persistence, bioaccumulation and toxicity.
.

The Centre for Environmental Informatics

Led by Professor Ian Marshall, the Centre is currently targeting the development of self-managing heterogeneous infrastructures for data gathering and analysis at a wide range of temporal and spatial scales for both science and industry. This experimental research is motivated by the need to characterise and model the non-linear interdependencies between dynamic natural processes and enable improved prediction of the impacts of factors such as climate change and changes in land-use.

The Centre for Sustainable Water Management

Led by Professor Louise Heathwaite, the Centre seeks to deliver cross-disciplinary science in water-related research areas. Faculty and Research staff in the Centre undertake research to develop scientific tools and techniques to enable the uncertainties associated with land and water use problems to be addressed in the development of sustainable water management strategies.

The Centre for Sustainable Agriculture

Led by Professor Felix Wackers, the Centre seeks to couple cutting-edge research in plant science with a practical focus on sustainable agriculture in order to address the ecological, economic and social challenges facing agriculture in a changing global environment.

Enterprise & Business Partnerships

The purpose of the business incubation centre within LEC is to allow environmental business to rent office space within the centre, enabling faster business growth through finding easier access to LEC research, knowledge, state-of-the-art laboratories, clean rooms, workshops and specialist instruments.

Collaborative Work

LEC is interested in a wide range of research partnerships from across the environmental sector, and companies locating within LEC can access these resources for research, new product development, managing environmental impacts, developing environmental CSR programmes, and responding to legislative or consumer pressures.

Office Space / Incubation

Specification of the offices are

• Fully furnished
• Sizes range from 20 to 50m2
• Shared office facility is available at a reduced cost.
• All have broadband internet and VOIP telephone lines
• Companies have an allocation of free meeting-room time from a selection of five meeting rooms, capable of seating six to eighty people; three of these rooms are equipped with audiovisual equipment.
• Training facilities available.

External links

• Lancaster University - official website
• The Lancaster Environment Centre - official website
• Natural Environment Research Council
• Centre for Ecology and Hydrology