Wykeham quarry invites students to take part in new biodiversity award

19th October 2011 12:14 pm

Hanson’s Wykeham quarry near Scarborough is opening its doors to undergraduate and post-graduate students in a new academic research competition.

The Quarry Life Award, launched by Hanson’s parent company HeidelbergCement Group, aims to find new ideas for the conservation and promotion of species diversity in quarries and offers a total prize fund of more than £100,000.

The company is inviting students to submit potential projects to be carried out at Wykeham, and five other sites across the country, based around one of four main biodiversity topics.

Selected projects will be judged by a panel of in-house and independent experts and three national winners will be selected to win a cash prize. The overall UK winner will then be submitted into the global Quarry Life Award with the opportunity to claim the top prize of £27,000.

Martin Crow, head of environment and sustainability at Hanson UK, said: “The Quarry Life Award offers students a unique opportunity to add ecological and educational value to a mining environment.

“We have always promoted the protection of biodiversity during and after quarrying at our sites and we hope that the research projects will raise the understanding of the biological value of quarries while providing students with an insight into a possible career path.”

The other five UK participating sites are Shardlow near Derby; Padeswood near Mold, North Wales; Kings Dyke at Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire; Wrotham near Maidstone, Kent; and Warmwell airfield, an inactive site near Dorchester, Dorset.

The deadline for proposals is February 17, 2012 with selected projects being carried out between March and September 2012. Completed research is to be submitted by September 30, 2012.

More information can be found on the Quarry Life website: www.quarrylifeaward.com

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