New Defra role for YESI Research Theme Leader
A new science research programme has been launched to inform Defra policy making, with YESI's Professor Bob Doherty taking the role of Food Systems Fellow.
Professor Bob Doherty, YESI's Sustainable Food Research Theme Leader, is one of six new academic fellows to be appointed by The Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra) to lead its new Systems Research Programme.
The Systems Research Programme will explore some of the UK’s most pressing environmental issues to inform and shape future policy decisions in food and farming.
The Programme will be led by Professor Ian Boyd, Defra’s Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA), and will be delivered in close partnership with the research community.
Professor Bob Doherty said ‘The UK food and farming sector is critical to the UK economy employing 1 in 8 people and being the largest manufacturing sector. However, our food system is under increasing pressure from a range of environmental and socioeconomic drivers not least climate change, increasing health costs from unhealthy diets and increasing political risks.
This opportunity to work as part of the new Systems Programme team in Defra is an exciting opportunity to take an interdisciplinary food systems approach and embed the research evidence from the work of IknowFood, N8 Agrifood and the Global Food Security Programme and others in UK policy to create real transformative change."
To support Bob as he embarks on his new adventure, we have appointed Professor Tony Heron as Co-Lead for YESI's Sustainable Food Research Theme. Tony will work alongside Professor Doherty, and the YESI team, to develop cutting-edge research in the area of sustainable food. Read more about Tony.