Our Impact in 2024/25

Each year, we reflect on the impact of our charitable activities and share a summary in our Trustees’ Annual Report.

2024/25 was a productive year for the JBA Trust, with new and continued collaborations across research, learning and practice.

Strategic partnerships with universities and research centres enabled us to support doctoral training and specialist skills development in areas critical to climate risk management. We committed support to four new doctoral research projects this year, exploring flood risk modelling, community resilience and changing weather patterns.

Our research outputs reflect another strong year with six peer-reviewed papers, new tools to map evidence about nature-based solutions, and a Maths for Humanity knowledge exchange catalyst to connect mathematicians and hydrologists. Artificial Intelligence remained a major theme, with contributions to studies on model transparency and the behaviour of large language models, and through initiatives exploring AI’s role in adaptive pathways for environmental decisions.

We also maintained our bursary and scholarship programmes to help postgraduate students access advanced training.

Our community of practice for physical models continues to grow, helping educators and practitioners share ideas and resources that bring water and climate resilience concepts to life. Demand for interactive models is still high, reinforcing the importance of shared learning and open access to technical expertise.

Engagement activities reached large communities of learners and educators through collaborative projects such as Future Climate Engineers and the Morecambe Bay Curriculum. We co-created resources for schools, delivered water safety workshops with fire and rescue teams, and supported science festivals with dedicated volunteers.

These efforts, alongside new digital resources, reflect our commitment to inspiring the next generation and encouraging participation.

Rob Lamb, Director of JBA Trust, commented:

“Thank you to all our partners and JBA colleagues for their many contributions, helping us to deliver impactful research and learning in climate and water cycle resilience. Our work is made possible by the continued funding and support from the JBA Group of companies, and I’m grateful for their support and commitment.”