RCE NETWORK

Last updated: April 3, 2023

RCE Wales

Photo Credit:

Rce details

Region:

EUROPE

Country:

United Kingdom

Overview

Date of RCE acknowledgement:

December, 2009

Description of RCE and Geographic Region:

RCE Cymru/Wales facilitates collaboration to research, develop and promote a greater understanding of sustainability and well-being of current and future generations, and is central to co-developing the sustainable ‘Wales we want’.

Wales is a country with a population of over just over 3 million people, with 560,000 Welsh speakers, and is a bilingual nation. It has a total land area of 20,758 sq.kms, with over 2,700km of coastline and large mountainous areas with its highest summit, Snowdon standing at 1,085 meters. Wales borders the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the east, and the Bristol Channel to the south.

Wales was amongst the first nations to make sustainable development a constitutional duty, the first Fair Trade Nation and the first nation in the world to legislate for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals with the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.

The Well-being of Future Generations Act requires public bodies in Wales to think about the long-term impact of their decisions, to work better with people, communities and each other, and to prevent persistent problems such as poverty, health inequalities and climate change.

RCE Cymru meeting (Photo credit: RCE Cymru/Wales)

Goals and Objectives:

RCE Cymru/Wales will:

Facilitate the creation of cohesive communities or circles of interest driven in part but not exclusively by the Welsh Universities’ Future Generations Group (HEFGG), each community working to its strength and sharing that expertise so that individual strength becomes the strength of all.
Develop a ‘hub of expertise’ for education on sustainable development and the well-being of future generations across Welsh Universities which will work with the communities of interest across Wales to research and promote local and global citizenship.
Use the Well-being of Future Generations framework – the one sustainable development goal, the four pillars, the five ways of working and the seven Wellbeing Goals enshrined in the Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 to guide and shape the work of the RCE and to contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Well-being of Future Generations Wales Goals (Credit: Future Generations Commissioner)

Organisation Hosting RCE Secretariat:

Bangor University & Cardiff Metropolitan University

Key Partners:

Name of organisation: Aberystwyth University
Role: Key Partner
Contact name: Dr Elin Royles
Contact email: ear@aber.ac.uk

Name of organisation: Bangor University
Role: Key partner
Contact name: Dr Gwenith Elias
Contact email: gwenith.elias@bangor.ac.uk

Name of organisation: Cardiff Metropolitan University
Role: Key partner
Contact name: Chris Deacy
Contact email: CDeacy@cardiffmet.ac.uk

Name of organisation: Cardiff University
Role: Key partner

Name of organisation: Glyndŵr University
Role: Key partner

Name of organisation: Swansea University
Role: Key partner
Contact name: Dr Gavin Bunting
Contact email: g.t.m.bunting@swansea.ac.uk

Name of organisation: University of South Wales
Role: Key partner
Contact name: Professor Carolyn Wallace
Contact email: carolyn.wallace@southwales.ac.uk

Name of organisation: University of Wales Trinity St.Davids
Contact name: Tania Davies
Contact email: tania.davies@uwtsd.ac.uk

Activities

Current Activities:

Healthy & Sustainable Colleges and Universities Network
Circular Economy Research and Innovation Group
Regeneration
Teaching & Learning
Social Prescribing
Language & Culture
Communication

Photo credit: RCE Cymru/Wales

Upcoming Activities:

11 March, 2020, Place-based Sustainable Development/Regeneration Symposium, Cardiff Metropolitan University (ljmurphy@cardiffmet.ac.uk)
27 May, 2020, Place-based Sustainable Development/Regeneration Symposium, Aberystwyth University (ljmurphy@cardiffmet.ac.uk)

Achievements:

Photo credit: RCE Cymru/Wales

Provide a forum to share good practice and facilitate knowledge exchange between academia, business and policy makers.
Through collaboration, increase the circle’s research capacity in Welsh institutions.
Engage with government, third sector organisations and industry to develop the circle’s research and practice.
Provide evidence to inform Government policy and programmes in the circle’s area of expertise.
Develop an online forum to facilitate exchange of good practice, funding opportunities, news and events for the circle.
Showcase the circle network’s outputs locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.
Collaborate on including the circle’s theme within curriculum development and training in teaching.
Work with the Global Regional Centre of Expertise (RCE) network (acknowledged by the United Nations University) to share learning and good practice at regional, national and international levels.
Conference: It’s Good to Share – Universities joining forces to put the Well-being of Future Generations Act into practice (7/11/18)
The Wales Social Prescribing Network (WSPN) has received over £1M in research funding (since the initial £10K grant) to lead on social prescribing and set up a Wales School for Social Prescribing (January 2020).
Circular economy podcasts available on:
‘Our Voice in the World’ festival to celebrate the vitality of the Welsh language among the family of global languages as part of the UNESCO International Year for Indigenous Languages 2019.
Healthy Universities and Colleges framework event in Wales (November 2019).
Hosted an RCE UK & Ireland meeting (July 2019).
Conference (2018) It’s good to share – Universities joining forces to put the Well-being of Future Generations Act into practice (Cardiff).