Prof Briony McDonagh, Coast-R Network lead, reflects on the successes of the Network’s first year, and looks forward to the next programme milestones.
1st July marked the beginning of Year 2 of the Coast-R Network programme, which will be led by colleagues at the University of Glasgow. In the last couple of weeks, we have also held our Year 1 review of the Coast-R Network programme, gathering together as a group of co-leads to reflect on the highlights, challenges and opportunities of the Coast-R Network over the past 12 months.
For me, personal highlights of Year 1 have been the positivity and good will at our launch event for the Coast-R Network and Resilient Coastal Communities and Seas Programme in November 2024 at University of Hull, and the hugely nurturing experience that was the Aberystwyth Dialogues Training Workshop back in March 2025.
At our Year 1 review, colleagues picked a range of other events and achievements, flagging the growth of the mailing list and LinkedIn profile (now at over 500 people) and the sign up to our webinar series. They also mentioned hearing Coast-R being referenced by others in sometimes unexpected contexts (which is always nice to hear!). We talked too about the challenges and opportunities that large-scale funding and a big programme bring. This included useful discussion about how to make the best use of interest within the wider coastal resilience community, how to sustain enthusiasm across the five years of the Network’s funding, and the importance of working across sectors and projects in order to ensure research and knowledge mobilisation is additive and collaborative rather than duplicative – themes also picked up in lots of the meetings we have had with our partners over the past 12 months.
So what else have we been up to lately? We’ve led a collaborative workshop at Flood & Coast in Telford (where Coast-R co-lead Dr Kate Smith also won the WiFCERM Rising Star award – well done Kate!), convened our first Strategic Advisory Board meeting, and contributed to the ReCCS Programme Executive Group meeting with our funders and the ReCCS project leads.
We’ve also held two recent webinars and have a third taking place this month on 15 July, featuring presentations on ‘Crafting the Shore’ and ‘The Sustainable Management of UK Marine Resources Programme’. We’ll then take a short break for August and reconvene in September (date TBC).
I’m delighted to see the four Resilient Coastal Communities and Seas projects going from strength to strength too. You can read a blog from Dr Karen Alexander, the TRANSECTS project lead, giving insights into the discussions and outcomes of their second annual event.
June also saw a solutions-orientated workshop on beach litter take place in Glasgow. Co-sponsored by the Coast-R Network, the University of Glasgow’s Knowledge Exchange Fund and Centre for Research and Development in Adult and Lifelong Learning, the GRAB Trust and the Solway Firth Partnership, this event brought together experts to think differently about the persistent challenge of removing plastic waste from coastal litter sinks in ways that preserve/extract resources and value.
I’m looking forward to seeing how the annual programme develops over Year 2 as our fantastic University of Glasgow team take the lead. Do join us on 11th and 12th September at the University of Glasgow for our Coast-R Annual Forum 2025: Co-creating Resilient Coasts.
