enviroSPRINT 2024 was a 3-day online hack event for postgraduate researchers (PGRs) from the NERC Doctoral Training Partnerships (DTPs) ACCE, ARIES, C-CLEAR, CENTA, INSPIRE and QUADRAT.

During enviroSPRINT, interdisciplinary Teams of PGRs from universities across the UK developed innovative solutions to some of the pressing needs of policy makers, industry and third sector organisations in the environmental sciences.

"It was honestly brilliant, I thoroughly enjoyed the whole event (including the socials), felt like I gained a lot from it, and the break from thinking about my PhD project to engage in something else academic was actually useful and refreshing. The engagement from both the participants and organisers was amazing and the whole event was run incredibly well." - enviroSPRINT 2021 participant

What did we do?

Over the course of three days, Teams rapidly investigated one of our Challenge areas, identified a key problem and innovated potential solutions.

Each Team included a PGR Facilitator and a PGR Communicator who received additional training and guidance to support their Teams.

Experts from a number of nationally important organisations contributed their time and knowledge to provide background information, insights and advice to the Teams.

On the final afternoon, Teams demonstrated a prototype of their solution to a panel of expert judges who assessed the novelty and feasibility of the concept, along with the quality of the presentation, before selecting a winner.

"It was incredibly engaging and rewarding to come together like a well oiled machine to come up with a project to address an aspect of sustainability we all felt passionate about." - enviroSPRINT 2021 participant