SEFARI Gateway is delighted to provide support for a Fellowship with Environmental Standards Scotland (ESS). We are seeking an individual researcher or small team of researchers to develop an approach that will allow ESS to undertake an assessment of alignment between Scotland’s and the EU or other international environmental standards and make recommendations on the consequences of regulatory alignment or its divergence.

Background

Environmental Standards Scotland (ESS) is a non-ministerial office, established in 2021 to monitor public authorities’ compliance with, and the effectiveness of, environmental law in Scotland following the UK’s departure from the European Union (EU). ESS is independent of the Scottish Government and accountable to the Scottish Parliament. The public authorities that fall within ESS’ remit include the Scottish Government, local authorities as well as agencies such as SEPA and NatureScot.

Over recent decades, the European Union has driven significant progress in environmental protection and is recognised as having amongst the highest environmental standards and regulation, internationally. Following withdrawal from the European Union, the Scottish Government committed to preserving and improving Scotland’s environment, and in areas of devolved competence to maintain or exceed EU environmental standards.  The Continuity Act¹ sets out that, in undertaking its functions, ESS may keep under review developments in international environmental protection legislation, and within ESS’s Strategic Plan, ESS set out that it will consider the extent to which the Scottish Government’s commitment to maintain or exceed alignment with EU environmental standards is delivered.

There are several ongoing assessments of Scotland and the UK’s alignment with general European law. These include the Scottish Parliament Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture (CEEAC) Committee’s EU Law Tracker, the UK in a Changing Europe Tracker and work by the Institute for European Environmental Policy UK (IEEP). However, there is variance between the trackers in their assessment of the extent to which divergence has occurred. The most recent CEEAC report (March 2024) concluded that, overall, there has not been significant divergence between Scots law and EU law, while the latest UK in a Changing Europe report identifies seven cases of passive divergence in environmental regulation from January to March 2024. Similarly, the Institute for European Environmental Policy concluded that a gradual divergence of environment and climate policy has been taking place at a UK level. However, the existing trackers provide limited information on the environmental consequences of legislative divergences, and only provide a limited assessment of Scotland-specific divergences with respect to reserved environmental matters. Beyond European trackers, ESS has not yet identified any trackers or other general assessments that set out international progress and best practice in environmental standards and regulation that would enable a comparison with Scotland.

¹ UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity) (Scotland) Act 2021.

Fellowship

The aim of this project is to undertake a scoping study to develop an approach that will allow ESS to assess the extent to which there is alignment between environmental standards, laws and regulations in Scotland and the European Union, or other international best practice, and to assess the environmental consequences of any divergences. It is envisaged that such an assessment could be carried out on a recurring basis by ESS, potentially on a five-year cycle.

An individual Fellow or small Fellowship team (up to 3 researchers) is invited to:

• Evaluate existing trackers of divergence between Scottish and EU environmental law to determine their suitability for assessing whether Scotland is maintaining alignment with EU environmental standards. This will include identifying strengths or limitations of the current trackers, any critical gaps and opportunities for improvement.
• Review relevant evidence and information sources that would allow ESS to identify international best practice in environmental standards, beyond the EU in a range of environmental areas including air quality, water quality, marine and land management, and waste management.
• Develop recommendations on the feasibility, data sources, and frameworks required for a systematic and recurring assessment of Scotland’s environmental regulatory alignment with the EU and other international environmental standards.
• Recommend capacity and resources (i.e. staff and or budget) that ESS would require to deliver a comprehensive assessment of Scotland’s alignment to EU and other standards, and the environmental consequences of any divergences.

This project will require knowledge of European and International environmental laws, regulation and policy, as well as an understanding and knowledge of the data and evidence sources on the environment and environmental performance in Scotland.

Outputs

The Fellow(s) will be required to produce the following:

• Interim report – outlining initial findings and a preliminary analysis of current international environmental law developments and an overview of existing alignment trackers;
• Draft final report – including completed findings from the evaluation of existing trackers and recommendations on a framework for a structured, recurring stocktake process, including the data sources, analytical methods, resource requirements and reporting mechanisms required. This should also include how the framework could integrate with existing tracking systems or policy processes in Scotland to ensure sustained alignment monitoring;
• Final report - incorporating feedback on the draft report and detailing:
  • Key findings and conclusions from the scoping study
  • Proposed approach for undertaking a future stocktake of international developments in environmental law
  • Recommendations for enhancing the tracking of Scotland’s regulatory alignment with the EU
• Presentation of findings - A summary presentation of the scoping project findings and recommendations to ESS at the end of the project;
• A SEFARI Case Study.

The outputs from the project will be used by ESS to determine their approach to assessing Scotland’s alignment with international best practice for environmental standards and regulations, and, where appropriate, make recommendations to the Scottish Government on improvements required to ensure that Scotland’s environmental law remains effective.

Practicalities

The details including any refinement of scope of the final Fellowship work plan will be developed, and agreed, between the Fellow(s) and a project support team from SEFARI and ESS. This team will assist with access to stakeholders and existing reports and as well as oversee the delivery of the Fellowship.

There is a maximum of 28 days available for delivery; the exact number of days, their timing, and their pattern through the working week will be agreed with the successful applicant(s) as set within the allocated budget.

Funding (maximum of £20,000 for upto a maximum of 28 days FTE) will be available to cover all salary costs. Please note that costs should be submitted net of VAT recovered by the applicant. Applicants should seek advice on appropriate VAT treatment of the proposed funding. Travel and subsistence and any workshop costs will be funded separately by SEFARI Gateway, and up to a maximum of £5,000.

The Deadline for reporting is 31^st March 2025, though some flexibility may be afforded subject to core budget approvals.

Further Details

The Fellowship is open to applicants from staff:

• from any SEFARI Organisation
• ENRA Portfolio Centres of Expertise
• Staff within any UK Higher Education Institution (or Research Institute)
• Please note, you do not need to have been previously funded by Scottish Government via the Portfolio to qualify for SEFARI Gateway funding
• Applicants must have the support of their organisation. Sign-off should be at the level deemed appropriate for each organisation (please talk to your line manager), but Directors/Chief Executives of your Institute (or University school as appropriate) should be made aware.
• The taking of such an opportunity should not result in a candidate going beyond the end of any agreed contract they may have with their employer.
• It is recognised that individual circumstances are different and support levels will vary depending on salary, distance from the opportunity and so on – the support level will be kept under review to try and maintain a fair and equitable competition and process. The organisation of the successful fellow(s) should not expect to meet any costs beyond that paid for by SEFARI Gateway.
• The successful candidate(s) will be expected to contribute to relevant meetings or outputs for the project partners as the Fellowship progresses and to generate knowledge exchange related content for SEFARI Gateway (support will be offered on this).

Applications

Applications should be made to: info@sefari.scot and should include a cover letter (two pages of detail on your suitability or that of the team) and a two-page CV (or up to 6 pages for a team). Decisions on who to interview will be based solely on this letter and CV(s).

The cover letter should include:

• Why are you interested in this opportunity and what you would hope to get from it?
• What skills and experience would you bring to this role?
• How would you use your current work to underpin the project?
• What would you do to take the learning back into your organisation?

Team-based applications should demonstrate how they propose to manage individual contributions to satisfy the degree of multi-disciplinary integration required and clearly identify a Fellowship Team Lead.

The deadline for applications is 5pm on Thursday 19th December 2024, interviews will be held early in the new year and in agreement with applicants. We appreciate this deadline is very tight, therefore, please do contact us if this is a major issue for your application.