Who are we?
A group of researchers with a very diverse background. Not your usual research team, as we bring together expertise from psychology and political science to environmental science, modelling and plant sciences. What brings us together? A common goal and our passion for change. We want to make a difference and we want to help transform our food system to a more resilient and sustainable one that promotes healthy eating.
But really, who are we?
Our Rurban Revolution team includes four academics and three early career researchers from three UK universities; Lancaster University, University of Liverpool and Cranfield University.
Our academic lead is Dr Jess Davies. Jess is a Senior Lecturer in Sustainability at Lancaster University and her research has been focused on developing models that help us understand and predict change in plant, soil and water systems. These models can inform our decisions regarding the resilience and sustainability of our food system.
Joining Jess at Lancaster University is also Dr Lingxuan Liu, a Lecturer in Sustainability at the Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business and Management School. Ling’s work is focused on supply chain sustainability as well as on environmental governance and policy and he will be responsible for stakeholder engagement and for identifying opportunities for alternative business models suitable for urban agriculture.
Dr Charlotte Hardman, a Senior Lecturer in Psychological Sciences at the University of Liverpool is bringing the psychology of eating into the Rurban Revolution concept. Charlotte’s research is focusing on the psychological determinants of dietary behaviour and the development of interventions for health behaviour change.
Finally, joining the northern team is Dr Sofia Kourmpetli, a Lecturer in Plant Science at Cranfield University. Sofia’s work is focused on food quality and sustainability and on the development of technologies to reduce food waste.
The team would not be complete without the addition of our three talented early career researchers who will be responsible for undertaking all the experimental work; Lael Walsh (Lancaster University), Dr Beth Mead (University of Liverpool) and Dr Natalia Falagán (Cranfield University). Lael will focus on environmental modelling and ecosystems service analyses, Natalia will collect soil, fruit and veg samples from different locations and analyse them in the lab for quality and safety aspects, while Beth will have a double role, working on understanding the relationship between urban growing and dietary choices (through surveys, interviews and virtual reality experiments) as well as coordinating stakeholder engagement throughout the project.