Month: May 2025

University of Portsmouth hosts event to advance national reuse systems

Stuart Mitchell

Reuse systems take a significant step forward as leading international experts met in Portsmouth last month to develop a future policy blueprint for implementing reuse systems. Hosted by the University of Portsmouth’s Global Plastics Policy Centre (GPPC), the event brings together 50 key stakeholders, including academics, reuse businesses, policymakers, NGOs, producer responsibility organisations (PROs), and policy think tanks. With global plastic waste reaching record levels, reuse systems, in which single-use plastic items are replaced by reusable items, are increasingly recognised as a more economically and environmentally beneficial solution to the…

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UKRI publishes annual report on investment by region and nation

Stuart Mitchell

Half of UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) investment in research projects last year was made to organisations outside London and the south-east. This is the highest proportion of our funding ever provided to projects outside the greater south-east. It represents a cumulative additional £1.4 billion invested outside the greater south-east since 2021 to 2022. All regions and nations received an increase in UKRI investment between 2021 to 2022 and 2023 to 2024. The greatest absolute increases in investment were in the north-west, the West Midlands and the East Midlands. The…

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New initiative aims to tackle violence against women and children

Stuart Mitchell

Experts are launching a major research programme that aims to reduce acts of violence against women and children (VAW/C) in six countries across the Global South – boosting long-term health and security. Researchers will work with survivors of VAW/C in South Africa, Mexico, Peru, India, Brazil, and Sri Lanka to produce trauma-informed research that will help to better prevent violence and build local research capacity. VAW/C affects one in three women and around one billion children worldwide, with devastating effects on people’s physical and mental wellbeing. Backed by £3 million…

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Ocean Outdoor UK announces results of contribution-based sustainability initiative

Stuart Mitchell

Ocean Outdoor has announced the first results of its most recent sustainability initiative, working with agency partners to establish a rigorous and long term form of corporate climate activism using Out of Home (OOH) ad spend. Under its Pinwheel platform, a percentage of Ocean’s 2024 revenue uplift has been given to four marine based projects that remove atmospheric carbon and are driving lasting change by helping to repair the planet’s natural ecosystems. All of the projects are verified by Pinwheel and were selected in a vote which invited clients and agency partners…

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African Development Bank Group approves $50 million trust fund to end school-age hunger in Africa

Stuart Mitchell

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank approved the establishment of a fund to help put an end to hunger and malnutrition amongst school age-children in Africa.  The End School-Age Hunger Fund (ESAH) was approved on 20 March with the aim of bolstering school meal programmes in targeted African countries by expanding existing initiatives and creating new ones so that more children in Africa have access to nutritious food while attending school while simultaneously boosing rural economies through agricultural productivity.   The implementation of the Fund, which will be…

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