The IES invites you to join our new Environmental Impact Assessment Community, a new forum for thought-provoking, critical conversations around EIA. We aim to connect and support environmental scientists and practitioners working across a range of specialisms involved in the EIA process. 
 
Take advantage of this unique opportunity to come together with a diverse group of IES members, and invited external experts, to debate topical issues, and share learning and experience with others involved in EIAs. 
 
This first meeting will debate key issues in EIA and hear thoughts on how the community can best serve your needs through tailored support and events. 

The meeting will cover three key sessions: 

Session 1: Prove your competence. Does your EIA team stand up to scrutiny?  

The Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017 included new requirements for individuals involved in the preparation of EIA to be competent experts, and the competent authority to have, or have access to, sufficient expertise. Following extensive consultation with members, in November 2019 the IES published guidance on the experience and qualifications needed to demonstrate competence in different EIA roles. Eight months on, we would like to reflect on the utility of this guidance and explore ways that members are demonstrating competence when undertaking EIAs and during EIA reviews.

How can we make this guidance the industry standard?

Session 2: The future of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA): Digitising the EIA process 

The Digital EIA project, funded by Innovate UK, aims to explore opportunities and challenges for digitising the EIA process, and to develop prototypes and a roadmap for the implementation of a digitally driven EIA system. Their report, Digitising the EIA Process, published in March 2020, identified key challenges in the EIA process and developed concept ideas for addressing these challenges through digitisation.  
 
We are keen to hear your thoughts on the findings from this report and gather insights on how you think this project could be improved or supported. Key questions include:  

• Do you think the seven concepts explored in the report will address the six key challenge areas? Do you agree that the three concepts explored further through prototypes should be prioritised?  
• Are there other ways that digitisation could support the EIA process that have not been explored in the report?  
• What are the key challenges/limitations of the three concepts highlighted as priorities for digitisation, i.e. the National Environmental Datahub, Digital EIA Workspace and Post-Application Monitoring? 

Session 3: Over to you. Have your say on community priorities 

To best serve our members, we would like to understand what areas of support you would value as this community develops. This may include, but are not limited to: 

• Where the IES might develop best-practice examples or guidance 
• What information you require on policy/regulation changes 
• Training needs for you and your team 
• Discussions on the future of EIA topics such as climate change, pathway to Net Zero by 2050, health impact assessments, major accidents and disaster response 
• Further actions to support you proving competence. 

This event is now at capacity. Login details to the meeting will be circulated shortly before the event.