The Turner Kirk Trust Challenge Fund has been established thanks to a generous donation from the Turner Kirk Trust to bring together conservation scientists and mathematicians from Imperial’s Centre for Environmental Policy, Department of Life Sciences and Department of Mathematics to develop transformative and tangible solutions to some of the most difficult conservation problems facing us today.
The Turner Kirk Trust (TKT)
Founded by Dr Ewan Kirk and Dr Patricia Turner in 2007 to solve specific challenges through effective, evidence-based philanthropy, the Turner Kirk Trust is a family foundation with a specific focus on science, technology, engineering, mathematics, conservation, biodiversity and early childhood development.
Since its establishment in 2007, the Trust has disbursed over £7 million to charitable causes across the UK and developing world.
Our mission
We are at a critical moment in our planet’s biodiversity. A multidisciplinary approach is imperative to tackling global conservation and biodiversity challenges.
To this end, the TKT Challenge Fund mission is to identify and boost breakthrough topics critical for global biodiversity conservation that are particularly amenable to mathematical analysis. Of particular interest are high risk/high gain ideas, to develop innovative and novel mathematical approaches to biodiversity conservation that are previously untried and untested.
Participating Departments
Centre for Environmental Policy
The Centre for Environmental Policy is a unique interdisciplinary Department in the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Imperial College London conducting policy-focused fundamental and applied research to solve environmental and sustainability issues.
The CEP works at the interface between science, technology and policy, to understand complex scientific issues and co-create solutions for real-world environmental challenges. In particular, its Conservation Science programme is a centre of excellence for applied and fundamental research into global biodiversity challenges.
Department of Life Sciences
The Department of Life Sciences embraces the full breadth of modern life science activity and comprises one of the largest life science groups in Europe, with vibrant and internationally leading research programmes that span levels of organisation from atoms to the biosphere. It strongly supports multidisciplinary collaborations and that actively fosters the development of new fields.
Department of Mathematics
Ranked amongst the very best UK Mathematics Departments, the Department of Mathematics at Imperial College London is a leading internationally renowned centre for research and teaching. The Department’s research strategy emphasises working across disciplines, quantitative approaches to research, translating ideas into impact, and collaboration with stakeholders locally, nationally and internationally.
