I completed a 12-week placement with the Environment Agency's Social Science team from July to September 2025. The placement's main goal was to learn how to better communicate environmental risks, especially those pertaining to the quality of bathing water. This work contributes to the Agency’s wider goal of helping people make informed decisions about when and where to swim safely within designated bathing sites.
I was motivated to conduct this placement as it gave me the opportunity to use social science research in a more applied setting, and develop both skills and networks in a practice-led environment. My DPhil research explores how digital technologies shape the ways in which people make sense of and experience rivers and issues of river quality, and I was keen to experience what it was like working with an organisation focused on improving both river quality and outcomes for members of the public.
Using a case study approach, I examined a range of successful examples and identified key lessons that the Environment Agency could draw upon. This meant that the work was interesting and varied, and also allowed me to gain more perspective on environmental issues and ways to address them. From this, I developed a set of practical recommendations to inform future digital design work. In terms of impact, therefore, the project has strengthened the evidence base for effective environmental risk communication by combining academic insight with real-world practice. This helps to ensure that bathing water information is accurate, accessible and genuinely useful to the public.
A personal highlight of the placement was the opportunity it provided for networking. I developed several contacts within both the Agency and the wider environmental sector, which I hope will serve me well when it comes to future employment opportunities and possible collaborations going forward. I have kept in touch with members of the team, and have discussed the possibility of returning to present my DPhil findings, and hear about the work the team have done in other areas where our interests align. The experience has given me insight into the various career paths within digital or environmental research that I could go into at the end of my DPhil.
On reflection, I also learnt a lot about the context of bathing water policy, and was able to engage with risk communication and behavioural change theory for the first time. I was grateful for the opportunity to develop my skills in communicating across audiences, using a wide variety of mediums outside of academic formats. Materials were shared widely within the organisation through written reports, short fact sheets, briefing documents and presentations, allowing me to gain access to teams outside of the social science function too.
Overall, I greatly enjoyed my time with the Environment Agency. The team were incredibly supportive, and I found the work fun and exciting. It has encouraged me to pursue potential careers in the civil service at the end of my DPhil, and also made me consider how to eventually share my own research with practitioners in formats and audiences most appropriate. I am grateful to the team for the opportunity to think beyond the academic bubble, and would wholeheartedly recommend working with the Agency to any future placement students.
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