Richard Westaway

he/his

About me

I have been a Project Manager / Project Officer at the University of Bristol since 2017, providing project management and administrative support to various projects in the School of Geographical Sciences and the School of Psychological Science. Since 2020, I have also been affiliated to the Department of Environmental Science (ENVS) at Aarhus University, Denmark.

In addition, I am currently the UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN) Local Lead for the University of Bristol. The local network lead provides a point of contact for UKRN within the institution and represents a community of UoB staff who advocate rigorous, reproducible and transparent research.

I currently manage or support the following research projects:

  • DEEP PURPLE, which is investigating the physical and microbial processes which darken the Greenland Ice Sheet. Host: ENVS, Aarhus University. Funder: ERC
  • PRODEMINFO (Protecting the Democratic Information Space in Europe), which aims to gain a greater understanding of people’s perception of truth in an age rife with fake news and conspiracy theories. Funder: ERC
  • CASP-ICE (Cryospheric Algal Sampling Protocols – International Collaboration and Exchange), which brings together experts in snow/glacial algal research in order to align methods and undertake standardised global sampling. Funder: UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)
  • DTC-Glaciers (A Digital Twin Component for Glaciers), which aims to deliver a demonstration of a digital twin component for glaciers, to lay the groundwork for potential future integration in the ESA Digital Twin Engine (DTE) framework. Funder: European Space Agency (ESA)
  • Arctic PASSION, which aims to co-create and implement a coherent, integrated Arctic observing system: the ‘Pan-Arctic Observing System of Systems – pan-AOSS’. Funder: European Research Council (ERC)

I also support other projects and activities within Bristol Glaciology Centre (BGC) and the Technology, Democracy, and Cognition Group (TeDCog), including contributing towards research outputs. My wider interests include open research, science communication and data visualisation.

I have a PhD that developed remote sensing techniques to detect and quantify morphological changes of large gravel-bed rivers, undertaken in the Department of Geography, University of Cambridge. I subsequently managed and delivered a variety of environmental projects in the private, public and research sectors. These focused first on climate change impacts and adaptation and then on corporate sustainability and carbon accounting.