The Conservation Research Institute offers an unparalleled opportunity to establish a globally influential programme of research on biodiversity conservation and its impacts.
- Bhaskar Vira
For biodiversity conservation to be effective, knowledge of how to protect and manage species and landscapes needs to be accompanied by an understanding of how ecosystems function, and, crucially, how these factors interact with people. The University of Cambridge’s Conservation Research Institute intends to promote new ways of working across disciplines and departments, to scale up and catalyse collaborative research activity on different aspects of biodiversity conservation.
The Institute will be the latest addition to a flourishing conservation community in Cambridge. Home to over 40 conservation organisations, the city and its surroundings have long been a hub of conservation research, ideas and practice. In 2007, a group of these conservation organisations joined forces with the University of Cambridge to form the Cambridge Conservation Initiative (CCI).
The Conservation Research Institute intends to provide a focal point for academic research about conservation within the CCI. In 2015, when the CCI takes up residence in its campus building, the Institute will be co-located with the other CCI partners, further enabling dialogue and collaboration between conservation practitioners and researchers.
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Image: Taraxacum seed head
Credit: Ervins Strauhmanis on flickr
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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