Twelve major institutions involved in scientific research have pooled their resources to create the National alliance for environmental research. AllEnvi is the fourth research alliance, following those for health (Aviesan), energy (Ancre) and digital applications (Allistene), and its goal is to organise, both in continental France and in the overseas territories, better synergy between research institutes on scientific issues concerning food, water, climate and territories.

Director General Henrik Sandbech, National Environmental Research Institute (NERI) at Aarhus University, has taken over the task as chairman of the Partnership for European Environmental Research (PEER) for the next two years. An essential focal point of the PEER partnership is joint projects financed via EU research programmes, primarily research projects, but also a series of PhD courses within the framework of the Marie Curie programme.

The recent trend towards earlier UK springs and summers has been accelerating, according to a study published on 9 February 2010 in the scientific journal Global Change Biology. The collaborative study, involving scientists from 12 UK research institutions, universities and conservation organisations, is the most comprehensive and rigorous assessment so far of long-term changes in the seasonal timing (phenology) of biological events across marine, freshwater and terrestrial environments in the UK. Led by Dr Stephen Thackeray and Professor Sarah Wanless of the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, the research gathers together more than 25,000 long-term phenology trends for 726 species of plants and animals. More than 80% of trends between 1976 and 2005 indicate earlier seasonal events. The study considers a diverse array of organisms including plankton, plants, insects, amphibians, fish, birds and mammals.

In accordance with the IAPS mission, the conference will address the study of the interrelations between the social, the built and the natural environment and the impacts on them by what is called ‘global change’. This includes climate impacts, environmental risks, but also new demographic challenges and uneven economic developments.