Most academics and students worry about climate crisis but feel powerless to make a difference. Of course we can make changes in our personal lives, but most of us feel we don't have the time, relevant expertise or opportunity to do much more. The 1in5project provides a framework that allows academics and students to make a contribution as part of a large scale multi-disciplinary effort. Moreover, participation in 1in5 simply involves a redirection of some of our existing work.


In the UK alone, every year, approximately 500,000 students complete an undergraduate degree. In the final year of their degree almost all these students, in collaboration with expert academic supervisors, undertake a substantial piece of advanced work: a research project, a composition, a dissertation, a show etc. We ask that just 1 in 5 of these projects (around 100,000 a year) focuses on climate crisis. At this scale there is scope for significant impact.

Assuming we can get enough academics and students to engage with the 1 in 5 project then it is inevitable that this will generate impact.

Increased climate issue awareness, knowledge and agency

The impact of such a large number of projects focusing on climate change would go beyond the immediate results of the projects undertaken. Engaging with the 1 in 5 project will provide both students and academics with greater awareness and knowledge of the most up to date issues in climate-focused research and how that interacts with their own chosen disciplines. This will naturally precipitate societal change. Students and supervisors will be more likely to challenge their (future) employer on environment-positive policies in the workplace. They will be more willing to engage relatives in a difficult discussion about global warming at family gatherings. They will be more likely to adopt environmentally friendly behaviours themselves. In addition the 1 in 5 project provides a framework for students and academics to feel like they are actually doing something about climate change, this is crucial since so many of us feel helpless in the face of such an overwhelming issue.


The law of truly large numbers

This statistical law says that even rare and exceptional events will become almost certain to occur given enough opportunity to do so.  If there were 10s or even 100s of thousands of projects on climate change happening every year, the chance of significant impact arising from the outputs becomes almost inevitable.

There are many problems that remain unsolved, and ideas that remain untried. Perhaps they require more effort or resource than could be delivered by an individual or small team, or they might need a breadth of multi-disciplinary expertise that is not readily available. We know that when collections of people get organised, the results can be truly impressive. Think of Wikipedia or the open science movement.  These are successful precisely because many individuals got behind an idea. 

Working at scale. Some problems can only be solved when resources are pooled.   Existing examples of this approach in universities are the “many labs” initiatives where a scientist, or group of scientists, propose an idea and then others sign up to collect data.  “Innocence projects” that are run in some law schools are another.  Student projects could follow the same model.  Academics, or groups of academics, could agree on an important problem or idea and then align 10s or 100s of student projects to pursue the idea.

Multi-disciplinary teams. The story of Silicon Valley is one of engineers working on an idea in their garage and then being able to draw on local universities for technical, scientific and other expertise (and future employees) to turn a prototype into a billion dollar business or product.  A critical idea for addressing climate change might currently be in the head of a lecturer in Chemistry, the notepad of a PhD student in Journalism, or on a mechanic's bench in a garage in the Outer Hebrides. 

Project coordination. How could multi-disciplinary or large-scale group projects work in practice? For example, lets say the ultimate aim was to help local councils improve their recycling message. Among other things this might require work to look at aesthetic and design factors (Art and Design) as well as behaviour change factors (Cognitive Psychology). All that is needed for such projects to be coordinated is a rudimentary system allowing people to post project ideas and form groups. A great example of this is the University of Manchester’s Living Lab. Of course, it is not necessary to have such a system in place for the 1 in 5 project to have benefit (see above), but with a little coordination we could have even bigger impact.

If you think you could help set up such a system, please email help@1in5project.info.

Collating the outputs. The pandemic taught us how much can be achieved when ideas, data and materials are collected and shared.  Even when what is shared is partial, tentative or uncertain. Currently when a project is completed it is typically filed away and forgotten.  Imagine if there was an environment focused version of Wikipedia, let’s call it Enviropedia, and a repository for materials.  At the time of project submission the student is asked to go to Enviropedia, add a two or three line summary of what they have done, and link or upload their work.  Information, ideas and materials would very quickly accumulate.  Enviropedia and the associated materials could be consulted, used or searched by individuals (or computers) in universities and beyond. If you think you could help set up such a system, please email help@1in5project.info.

By this point you might not be sold on the idea, but hopefully you like at least part of the proposal, and think there is something here worth pursuing.  You may have your own strong view on what needs to be done about environment change - perhaps development of a specific technology, the need to precipitate a change in attitudes, or a change in the law.  Or you might believe that the focus should be on mitigation strategies, or the interaction with habitat / species loss, mental health, global poverty.  You may even be a climate sceptic. Crucially, you could participate whatever views you might have.  What is being proposed is a framework, not an agenda, the content of projects is up to supervisors and students. 
If you are sympathetic but think there are flaws in the ideas, or you have suggestions for improvements then let us know (email: help@1in5project.info).  What is described on these webpages is the best version of the idea we could come up with, but we are confident it can be improved significantly. 

For those of you that would like to take a more active part, please join us. There are problems to solve, resources to create, decisions to make, an infrastructure to put together, and an idea to spread. We hope to set up a forum in the future, but for now you could email help@1in5project.info.