I work at the cross section between academia, business, policy and public engagement.    

As Senior Research Fellow, my current research explores the public's preferences for how Biodiversity and Environmental Net Gain can be delivered in practice. Our research shows that people do not just care about the overall impacts of environmental policies, but also about the distribution of the associated losses and gains across society. These findings highlight the potential role of environmental policies to reduce social inequalities. 

I am currently extending the reach and impact of this research by producing a Policy Briefing Note and Podcast. I am also working with a teacher, illustrator and ecologist to develop a Primary School 'consolidating and supporting' resource for the KS2 curriculum (Living things and their habitats). This resource takes the form of a game 'Designing Homes for Nature' which includes habitat boards, individual species cards and activity 'wild' cards. It includes a scoring system based on Human and Nature points, a reference system for species taxa, an element of jeopary and a lot of adding up! It aims to teach children that environments can change (in this case due to building new homes) and that whilst this can pose a danger to living things, positive actions can be taken to replace and renew the lost nature.   

I also work as Project Manager and Business Fellow for The UK Sustainable King Prawn Project This ambition of this pioneering new research project is to establish the UK as a world leader in sustainable, environmentally-friendly king prawn farming, using renewable energy technology.

Led by experts from the University of Exeter, in partnership with the University of Reading and Rothamstead Research, the project aims to:

• assess the economic viability of terrestrial king prawn production in the UK and quantify and economically value the public goods generated by this transformation;
• maximise the efficiency of king prawn growth, health and nutritional quality in UK Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS) facilities, through the optimisation of water chemistry management and prawn diets;
• field-test the use of transportable RAS units co-located with terrestrial farm-based Anaerobic Digestors (ADs), and ensure the utility, sustainability and circularity of all inputs and outputs;
• scope out the necessary conditions and develop and assess business cases for supporting infrastructure, such as a UK-based king prawn hatchery, innovation, education and public outreach facility.

This project has 11 industrial partners including Sainsbury's, Lyons Seafood and Rastech Ltd. It is led by Prof. Rod Wilson from Exeter's Biosciences department. Co-Investigators include Prof. Ian Bateman (OBE) from Exeter's Land, Environment, Economics and Policy (LEEP) Institute and Dr. Rob Ellis also in Biosciences. 

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Prior to this, I worked as Impact Development & Evaluation Manager for Exeter Univesrity's South West Partnership for Environment and Economic Prosperity (SWEEP), a five-year programme (2017-2022) funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) to apply research to benefit our environment and economy. SWEEP's legacy website and Impact Reports can be found at www.sweep.ac.uk

I originally studied Economics (MA; Edinburgh University), and Fisheries and Marine Economics, Policy and Management (MSc and PhD; Fisheries Economics; Portsmouth University's Centre for the Economics and Management of Aquatic Resources (CEMARE). I have worked in academia, consultancy and on secondment to government, including the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit (Cabinet Office).  

I also have an FdA in Fine Art and have created and exhibited contemporary art work (photography, printmaking and ceramics).