Andy Whitmore

Rothamsted Research

Group Leader, Sustainable Soil & Grassland Systems DepartmentPI SIRNVisiting Professor at Cranfield University

Expertise:

• agro-ecosystem modelling and validation• quantification of sustainability • carbon and nitrogen cycling• soils

Research Interests:

• Sustainable, Resilient Agricultural systems• Modelling environmental change in relation to soil physical and biogeochemical

processes• Sustainable Development Goals

Prof Sue Hartley

University of York

Professor of Ecology; Director of YorkEnvironmental Sustainability Institute; BESPresident and part of the Leadership team forSIRN

Expertise:

• Crop-pest interactions (particularly insects, both above- and below-ground)

• Plant secondary metabolites and the biochemical basis of crop resistance

• Experimental manipulation (lab, glasshouse, field) & plant chemical analysis

Research Interests:

• Maximising the efficiency of sustainable methods of pest control (co-cropping;

bio-pesticides; semio-chemicals)

• Crop responses to simultaneous attack by pests above and below-ground

(e.g. aphids and nematodes)

• How pest resistance might be compromised by environmental change (e.g.

increases in temperature and drought frequency)

Professor Michael Winter

University of Exeter

Professor of Land Economy and Society; Directorof the Land, Environment, Economics and PolicyInstitute (LEEP) and Director of the Food Security& Land Research Alliance and part of theLeadership team for SIRN

Research Interests:

Current research focuses on the governance of sustainable agro-food systemsand food security; the historical and contemporary sociology of west countryagriculture; and farmer environmental attitudes and decision-making,particularly in the context of diffuse pollution and water quality.

Michael leads Project 2 of Defra’s Sustainable Intensification ResearchPlatform.

Dr Matthew Heard

NERC Centre for Ecology & Hydrology

Terrestrial Ecologist and part of the Leadership team for SIRN

Expertise and Research Interests

• Interactions between agriculture and biodiversity• Pollination ecology• Ecosystem function• Restoration ecology and conservation• Plant community dynamics• Application of molecular analyses for ecological research (microbiomes, plant

outcrossing, population genetic structure)

Professor Jules Pretty

University of Essex

Professor of Environment and Society; Deputy Vice-Chancellor

Expertise:

• Evaluation of agricultural systems

• Agroecology and agroecosystems

• Local food systems

• Nature, health and well-being

Research Interests:

• Sustainable intensification of agriculture

• Nature and health (health benefits of ecosystems)

• Consumption patterns and well-being

Dr Ruth WeltersSenior Research AssociateUniversity of Exeter and University of East Anglia

I am interested in cross-sector approaches to environmental, policy and business issues, with a particular focus on agriculture and water

r.welters@uea.ac.uk 01603 591384 @ruth_welters

www.thenexusnetwork.org

Stuart KnightDeputy Director, NIAB

• Project Leader for Project 1 of the Defra / Welsh Govt funded Sustainable Intensification Research Platform:

‘Integrated Farm Management for ImprovedEconomic, Environmental and Social Performance’

• Member of the SIRN Advisory Board

• Expertise in combinable crop agronomy and its effects on crop performance. Interested in the impact of farming systems and practices on the economic and environmental performance of farms

www.siplatform.org.uk

@SIPResearch

Brian Harris

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences

Research Council

(Joint) Head of Strategy - Agriculture

and Food Security

Brian is (joint - along with Dr Adam Staines) head of sciencestrategy for agriculture and food security (AFS) in BBSRC’sScience Group. Brian leads on “pre-harvest” aspects of AFS,including crops, plant health, soils and farming systems, with aparticular current emphasis on the Council’s contribution to thesustainable intensification of agriculture.

Kerry Firth

BBSRC

Strategy and Policy Manager:

Agriculture and Food Security

Kerry is a Strategy and Policy Manager for agriculture and food security (AFS)

in BBSRC’s Science Group. Kerry’s portfolio includes:

• Sustainable and resilient agricultural systems

• Agri-environment/ Agri-ecosystems

• Ecosystem services/ natural capital/ valuing nature

• Agricultural management/ agronomy

• Soil science

• Multi-scale and systems approaches

Siobhan Sherry

Defra

Senior Scientific Officer – Sustainable farming and peatlands

Expertise:

• Defra lead for the Sustainable Intensification Research Platform

• Lead on Agri-environment R&D and monitoring & evaluation

Policy Interests:

• Sustainable Intensification

• Peatland restoration

• Agri-environment

• Integrated land management

Harley Stoddart

AHDB

Senior Resource Management Scientist

Expertise:

• Resource efficiency in agricultural production

• GHG emissions from agricultural production

• Smarter farm management (application of precision technology & farm data)

Research Interests:I lead a team responsible for managing a research programmes on water, precision technology and sustainable development. I am responsible for strategic planning relating to these areas. I represent AHDB on external working groups and committees (e.g. GHGAP and CSF), and am responsible for understanding policy issues impacting on the industry.

Dr Gorm Shackelford

University of Cambridge

Post-Doctoral Research Associate,

Conservation Science Group, Zoology

Expertise:

• Pollination, natural pest regulation, conservation agriculture

• Systematic review, meta-analysis, GIS analysis

Research Interests:

• Evidence-based conservation and agricultural practices (www.conservationevidence.com)

• Mapping trade-offs and synergies between ecosystem services (e.g. biodiversity, soil, water)

• How could agricultural landscapes be used to buffer protected areas?

Speak to Tom MacMillanwww.innovativefarmers.org

R&D support for farmers & growers

P2P

Web portal

Micro-grants

Match farmers & scientists

Dr Stephen Ramsden

University of Nottingham

Associate Professor in Management,

School of Biosciences

Expertise:

• Optimisation modelling of agricultural systems

• Risk Management

• Agricultural Business Management

Research Interests:

• Trade-offs within agricultural systems and between agricultural systems and

the environment

• Better representation of the above in models, particularly as they relate to

soils

• Resilience and tipping points: where are they and does the attainment of

short run optima make us vulnerable?

• Sustainable intensification: yield per ha will increase. How do we do this

sustainably?

John HealeyMULTI-LAND “Enhancing Agricultural Productivity and Ecosystem ServiceResilience in Multifunctional Landscapes” – Land sharing versus Land sparing

Agroforestry:

– Integration of livestock systems with trees

– Trees and catchment ecosystem services (flood risk and nutrients)

– How best to use trees to mitigate carbon emissions

– Trees and biodiversity in the agricultural landscape

– Managing the threat of tree diseases

Ecosystem services sustainability in the farming landscape:

– Restoration ecology, e.g. of bracken-dominated uplands

– Integration of scientific research with farmers’ knowledge

– Increasing grassland productivity through soil/nutrient/grazing management (SIP1;Climate-smart Grass)

– Incentives/constraints on farmer collaboration in catchment (SIP2)

– Life cycle assessment of dairy and beef intensification – CLEANER COWS

Nitrogen and phosphorus use efficiency in agricultural systems

– GHG emissions from livestock pasture systems, e.g. Uplands N2O

Prof. Chris Stoate

GWCT Allerton Project

Allerton Project Head of Research

Expertise:

• Farmland ecology and ecosystem services

• Catchment management for multiple objectives

• Farmer engagement and participatory research

Research Interests:

• Integration of multiple agri-environmental objectives at a range of scales at

and around the Allerton Project research and demonstration farm

• Knowledge exchange between farmers and researchers

Adam P Hejnowicz(adam.hejnowicz@york.ac.uk; Twitter: @HejnowiczAP)

University of York

Postdoctoral Research Associate (Environmental Policy Evaluation with CECAN – Centre for the Evaluation of Complexity Across the Nexus (www.cecan.ac.uk))

Expertise:• Environmental Management and Environmental Economics• Ecosystems Services and Sustainability• Social-Ecological Systems• Conservation, Natural Resource and Agricultural Incentive Schemes (e.g. PES, AES, Blue Carbon)

Research Interests:• The development and impact of incentive-based schemes on ecosystem services and livelihoods• Science-policy interface and the evaluation of the impacts and outcomes of environmental policy

in social-ecological contexts • Employing mixed methodologies to understand complex problems• Relationship between ecosystem services, sustainable development and nexus issues

Dr Suzanne Higgins

Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute

(AFBI), Belfast

Soil Scientist M.I. Soil Sci.

Expertise:

• Soil nutrient management to maximise productivity while protecting the

environment

• Precision Agriculture applications for grassland

• Lime and Soil Conditioners

• Spatial and temporal variability in soil properties

Research Interests:

• UAV’s, Remote Sensing, Soil and Crop Sensors – application within

grasslands

• Soil Nutrient Management Planning for farms

• Reducing the environmental impact of agriculture

Geraint Parry

GARNet at Cardiff University

GARNet National Coordinator

Expertise: GARNet is a BBSRC sponsored network that aims to make sure the UK

Arabidopsis and wider plant research community remains competitive and productive at

the national and international level by helping researchers make the best use of available

funding, tools and resources. GARNet represents UK Arabidopsis researchers via

a committee of elected academic members.

Research Interests: GARNet does not undertake any original research yet

supports UK academics to learn about and utilise new technologies to improve

their research potential. In this funding round we have particular focuses on

Synthetic Biology, Big Data and the translation of basic research.

Dr Simon Attwood

Bioversity International

Ecological Intensification and Diversification component leader and agroecological scientist

Expertise:

• Meta-analyses and systematic review

• Science-policy interaction (and lack thereof)

• Agri-environment scheme design, implementation and monitoring

• Extension and outreach

Research Interests:

• Sustainable/agro-ecological intensification and how it can be successfully

deployed in context and at large scales (and how to measure success)

• Evidence-based approaches to management and policy

• Linkages between agricultural biodiversity (e.g. crop diversity), wild

biodiversity and ecosystem services

• Relationships between nature and culture, and communicating conservation

Dr Ir Theo Demmers

The Royal Veterinary College

Senior Research Fellow

Centre for Animal Welfare and Ethics

Expertise:

• Environmental monitoring livestock production systems

• Precision Livestock farming systems

• Animal Welfare

• Livestock production systems

Research Interests:

• Non invasive monitoring (technology)of animals

• Early detection of onset of disease

• Interaction between animal (behaviour) and their environment

Prof Jennifer Dungait

Rothamsted Research

Principal Research Scientist

Expertise:

• Biogeochemistry and soil science

• Plant:soil:microbe dynamics in agricultural soils using bulk and compound

specific stable 13C/15N isotope mass spectrometry

• Managing soil organic matter in agricultural soils

Research Interests:

• climate change mitigation through measurable increases in soil carbon

(‘sequestration’);

• reducing soil carbon loss through improved management of soil organic

matter in agricultural land; and,

• improving the livelihoods of farmers by realising the economic benefits of

soil health, which is driven by soil organic matter.

Dr Edward Joy

London School of Hygiene & Tropical

Medicine

Research Fellow in Nutrition and Sustainability

Expertise:

- Integrating dietary, food composition and environmental datasets

- Biofortification and other strategies to improve dietary mineral intakes

- Epidemiology of nutrition-related chronic diseases

- Metrics for sustainable food systems

Research Interests:

- Sustainable food systems in India, Ethiopia and Malawi

- Co-benefits and trade-offs in sustainable food systems

Rob Lillywhite

University of Warwick

Senior Research Fellow

Expertise:

• crop nutrition, fertiliser efficacy and agronomy

• use of organic materials, e.g. composts, digestates in agriculture

• cropping and farming systems performance and sustainability

Research Interests:

• crop response to different rates and types of mineral, organic and

inorganic fertilisers

• reducing on-farm losses of crop and food

• quantifying and improving on-farm and supply chain economic,

environmental and social performance

Professor Richard Tiffin

Agrimetrics Ltd & University of Reading

Chief Scientific Officer, Agrimetrics Ltd;

Professor of Applied Economics, University

of Reading

Expertise:

• Agricultural economics, applied econometrics, and applied micro economics.

• Previously led the University of Reading’s strategic research in the area of Food

Security.

• Data Science to integrate data across the food system.

Research Interests:

• Diet and health policy including: impacts of alternative food policies on land use in the

UK; impacts of a soft drink tax and a fat tax.

• Factors influencing dietary choices and health: currently developing an empirical

framework to better understand the cognitive underpinnings behind dietary choice.

Prof Wilfred Otten

Cranfield University

Professor of Soil Biophysics

Expertise:

- Soil Biophysics, and in particular soil structure and fungal interactions

- Characterisation of soil physical characteristics across scales

- Novel technologies for the characterisation of soil properties including

the use of X-ray CT

Research Interests:

- Invasion and persistence of beneficial and pathogenic microorganisms

in heterogeneous crop and soil environments

- Linking fungal communities and fungal traits to ecosystem services

- Upscaling processes from pore-scale to field for improved prediction

of soil systems functioning and resilience to perturbations

Dr Rachael Dils

Environment Agency

Research Scientist; Agriculture, Risk

and Evaluation team

Expertise:

• Nutrient and eutrophication management, covering land and water,

particularly the nutrient phosphorus (P). This includes sources, pathways of

delivery, water quality response, ecological impacts, and mitigation options

including policy options.

Research Interests:

• Cost-effectiveness of sustainable farming methods to reduce impact on the

water environment

• Knowledge exchange between academia, industry, third parties and

government on the effect of farming on the water environment

Who is the

user?

Why should

they want to use it?

Is it easy to

use?

Can they

use it?e.g. requires good

rural connectivity?

Is there a

delivery plan?

Think user See Rose et al. 2016

©D.C. Rose

David C. Rose – University of CambridgeEnvironmental Geographer interested in technology use on-

farm (expertise in interviews, surveys, focus groups, statistics)

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308521X16305418

Professor Julie Fitzpatrick

Moredun Research Institute;

University of Glasgow

Scientific Director; Chair in Food Security

Expertise:

• Prevention and control of infectious endemic diseases of livestock species

• Sustainable livestock production in developing countries

• Research strategy and management

Research Interests:

• Development of novel vaccines, diagnostic tests and disease control

programmes for livestock disease in the context of global food security and

climate change mitigation

• Knowledge exchange programmes for agriculture in the UK and globally

• Mastitis in ruminants

Dr Barry RawlinsBritish Geological SurveyTeam Leader: Soils

Research interests: 1) Improving use of agricultural soil data to enhance yield and

improve soil physical and chemical properties. 2) Landscape scale analyses using model-based approaches3) Improved laboratory methods for rapid soil analyses

Dr Tara Garnett

Food Climate Research Network (FCRN), University of Oxford. www.fcrn.org.uk

The FCRN at the University of Oxford is an interdisciplinary and international network operating at the intersection of food production and consumption, climate and broader sustainability issues. It works to foster the informed dialogue and critical thinking needed to build mutual understanding and collective action on food systems sustainability.

Three core activities:• We produce our own integrative research to clarify the state of knowledge on emerging

issues of critical concern – see FCRN publications.• We inform through our communication activities. We produce a weekly Fodder newsletter

summarising recent articles/ reports; host a research library which contains summaries of and links to some 3,500 papers and reports, all fully searchable. Also see Foodsource, our new learning resource providing accurate, clear, accessible, and agenda-free knowledge about food systems and sustainability.

• We facilitate a member network of engaged researchers and practitioners and provide spaces for them to share information and collaborate (including forums and blogs) – this network spans some 1,500 individuals from over 70 countries

Dr Adelia de Paula

SIRN, based at Rothamsted

Research

Network Coordinator

Adelia is SIRN network coordinator with a strong science background andextensive experience in outreach activities, networking, event organization, publicengagement and communications.

DEADLINE FOR CALL FOR PAPERS IS 11 DECEMBER 2016