NERC Freshwater Quality Programme

The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) has appointed Professor Joseph Holden and Professor Pippa Chapman as Freshwater Quality Champions and leaders of this new programme that will study water quality of UK rivers.

The four year NERC programme will run from 2022 to 2026, and is titled ‘Understanding changes in quality of UK freshwaters’, aims to:

• investigate how pollutants enter, leave and interact with rivers and supporting ecosystems
• determine how the movement of pollutants will be modified with changes in the water cycle
• create better tools to monitor and measure pollution.

The programme will oversee five different research projects, each focusing on a different aspect of water quality. Each project will be interdisciplinary and bring together a range of experts needed to deliver the integrated and cross sectional research required.

• Receive an invitation to the programme's webinar series and receive a newsletter by joining our mailing list.
• Follow the programme on Channel X.

Monthly Webinar Series

Join a monthly series of webinars on a range of related topics organised by the Champions Team. These include updates on project progress and are designed to promote communications and interactions between researchers, the policy community, business and practitioners who can all shape future UK freshwater quality. See Events list below for more information on the speakers.

Webinars - watch again

Each webinar includes a 30 minute presentation with time for questions afterwards. The presentations are recorded  -  watch the up-to-date playlist here.

This short film provides an introduction to the aims of the programme: