What we do
The work we do falls into three broad categories – Science, Education, and Community Engagement. Our mission is to improve scientific understanding of the ecological health of the River Clyde and its tributaries, drive environmental improvements across the catchment and build capacity for its stewardship.
Science
The Clyde and its tributaries are slowly recovering from centuries of human impact, the major legacies of which for the biota are the effects of pollution, alterations to water flow and physical alteration of banks and beds. Many of the watercourses are heavily modified and there is considerable scope for environmental improvement across the catchment.
The Clyde River Foundation is not a statutory body – we work to support environmental managers by providing evidence-based scientific advice on fisheries science and freshwater biology. Our approach has been to remain strictly independent but willing to work with all potential users of the freshwater resource for the public benefit. We are based within the University of Glasgow’s Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine and are members of the university’s Fish Biology Group.
Left to right: Aquatic invertebrate identification in the CRF lab, collection of salmon data from the River Kelvin and the use of SEM imagery to detect protozoan communities on host crustaceans
Education
Since 2001, the Clyde River Foundation has delivered numerous education initiatives; most notably Clyde in the Classroom and Flying Fish with primary schools across the Clyde catchment, but also bespoke projects involving secondary school pupils, young adults with the Princes Trust, adult education initiatives and eco-day activities with charities, Councils and schools. An overview of our education programme can be found here.
Through our partnership with the University of Glasgow, we teach in a variety of undergraduate courses and offer a number of undergraduate and postgraduate projects annually on any aspect of freshwater biology and/or fisheries science relevant to our work on the Clyde. Our vision is to increase public engagement with the river environment through education.
