Peter Lee has been successful in securing grants for two Centre for Urban and Regional Studies (CURS) projects.

The first grant has been awarded by the ESRC and JSPS (Japan Society for the promotions of Science) and will be used for a project entitled Planning Responses to ‘Shock’ and ‘Slow-Burn’ Events: the Role of Redundancy in Regional Resilience. The principal aim of the research will be to examine state-of-the art theory and practice on regional resilience and the role of redundancy in adapting to ‘shock’ and ‘slow-burn’ events as well as aiming to enhance collaboration between researchers on this topic. Two separate seminar events in the UK and Japan will be held during 2012/13 jointly organised by the University of Birmingham and Waseda University (Tokyo) to look at regional planning responses to economic shock such as the Longbridge closure in Birmingham and natural events including the implications for regional planning and economic development following the Tohoku earthquake in 2011. As well as including a group of university-wide researchers looking at the topic of redundancy in resilient systems, participants include Prof. Neil Adger, School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia and Prof. Andy Pike Dept. of Regional Strategy and Planning at Newcastle University. The Japan event will include a site visit to Miyagi Prefecture and Kesennuma City, one of the areas worst affected by the Tohoku quake.

The second grant (of 10K) has been awarded through EPSRC for a project entitled Open Source Food Distribution: Delivering Distributed Food Manufacture to Enhance Resilience. This project aims to explore the technical and socio-spatial implications of a more localised production and distribution system for food manufacturing in order to lower fuel costs, improve resilience and food security and reconnect communities through localised food manufacture and production. Peter is co-investigator with colleagues in School of Chemical Engineering and School of Health and Population Sciences.