Professional summary
Bridget is a Principal Scientist at UKCEH and leads the inter-disciplinary and multi-partner Environment and Rural Affairs Monitoring and Modelling Programme (ERAMMP) funded by the Welsh Government since 2012 and is PI for a other projects which require a inter-disiplinary approach and a focus on policy evaluation and development. Bridget is a Trustee and recent Past President of the British Ecological Society and is a Member of the EU Mission Board for 'A Soil Deal for Europe'.
Bridget was formerly UKCEH's Science Area Head for Soils and Land Use (SLU), leading and managing more than 120 research staff and 40 postgraduate students across three UKCEH sites. Her research is often as the lead for projects requiring the coordination of a large number of partners to improve integration across different disciplines and sectors from catchment/landscape to national scale to improve the evidence base and support national policy development and outcome reporting in the areas of e.g. soil health, ecosystem services, agri-environment schemes and natural capital.
Bridget was awarded Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her Services to Soil and Ecosystem Sciences in 2023 and the Marsh Award for her Climate Change Research by the British Ecological Society in 2016. She has published over 184 ISI articles, has a H index of 66 (Scopus) and has a publication record with over 17,000 citations. She sits on a wide range of number of advisory boards both national and international for governments and research organisations. She served as the Specialist Adviser for the UK Parliamentary Inquiry into Soil Health in 2016.
Web tools and apps
Outreach activities include co-founder of the Resilient Landscapes and Seas Partnership which aims to create a more cohesive community of those involved in nature positive projects working at scale and the recently co-founded the UK National Environment Monitoring Conference. She led on the development of a soil health benchmarking tool called Soil Fundamentals UKCEH Countryside Survey Soil Health Webtool: SOil FunDamentals (SOD) | UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology which exploits UKCEH’s long term national monitoring programme she has been heavily involved in called Countryside Survey UKCEH Countryside Survey | UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. She was a member of the award winning team who developed the online community soil digital platform - the UK Soil Observatory http://www.ukso.org/ to improve community access to soil data and maps. Bridget co-authored and was the narrator of BBC Ideas/Royal Society animation film on “The wonders of Soil” https://www.bbc.co.uk/ideas/videos/why-soil-is-one-of-the-most-amazing-things-on-eart/p090cf64 and makes contributions to podcast media articles and interviews regarding the importance of soil health. She is a founding member and chair of the community initiative ‘uksoils’ which aims to create a community hub to inspire us all to learn more about soil and help build communities to take action to improve soil health https://uksoils.org/.
Outreach activities include co-founder of the Resilient Landscapes and Seas Partnership which aims to create a more cohesive community of those involved in nature positive projects working at scale and the recently co-founded the UK National Environment Monitoring Conference. She led on the development of a soil health benchmarking tool called Soil Fundamentals UKCEH Countryside Survey Soil Health Webtool: SOil FunDamentals (SOD) | UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology which exploits UKCEH’s long term national monitoring programme she has been heavily involved in called Countryside Survey UKCEH Countryside Survey | UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. She was a member of the award winning team who developed the online community soil digital platform - the UK Soil Observatory http://www.ukso.org/ to improve community access to soil data and maps. Bridget co-authored and was the narrator of BBC Ideas/Royal Society animation film on “The wonders of Soil” https://www.bbc.co.uk/ideas/videos/why-soil-is-one-of-the-most-amazing-things-on-eart/p090cf64 and makes contributions to podcast media articles and interviews regarding the importance of soil health. She is a founding member and chair of the community initiative ‘uksoils’ which aims to create a community hub to inspire us all to learn more about soil and help build communities to take action to improve soil health https://uksoils.org/.