Defra Fellow
Dr Anna Krzywoszynska, Post Doctoral Research Associate at Durham University, started her role as the as Nexus Network-Defra Fellow in March 2015. Anna was based at Defra’s London office over a period of 5 months.
The aim of the Fellowship was to explore Nexus issues at the interface between research and policy. Anna engaged across the range of Defra evidence teams, including those dealing with resource security/sustainable consumption, sustainable land, food security, farming, water, ecosystems and biodiversity.
At the start of her fellowship, Anna Krzywoszynska said
I am really excited to take up this Fellowship with Defra. One of the themes in my research to date has been using qualitative methods to understand how knowledge is produced and used by people in different situations and contexts. I have looked at how people acquire knowledge by doing, and by cooperating with others in inter-disciplinary participatory research.’
I think the role knowledge and information plays in Nexus policy-making is an important issue, and something I would like to focus on during my Fellowship. As an academic it will be fascinating to gain an insight to how the evidence/decision making interface works in civil service and the roles played by academia. I am also interested in what role disciplinary and institutional training may play in how people within Defra interpret and transfer ideas across different areas and activities. I am looking forward to applying my skills in the context of Nexus policy-making in Defra in order to improve the policy-academia dialogue and cooperation around these domains.
Outcome
Anna has now completed the placement and has published her findings on how the nexus domains are currently being approached within the Department of Food and Rural Affairs and where there are opportunities for furthering cross-domain dialogue and action.
Anna says
The fellowship allowed me to develop a strong understanding of the relevance of nexus approaches to Defra’s activities, and provided many opportunities for formal and informal learning and knowledge exchange.
Key findings
- Nexus approaches are relevant to the challenges facing Defra as its remit covers the management of inter-relations and trade-offs between food, water, energy and environment.
- Defra already uses a variety of approaches in its evidence, policy and ‘place based’ delivery activities to tackle issues associated with inter-relations and trade-offs between domains.
- Defra’s current approach to evidence planning, bringing together Defra’s organisations, has potential to further facilitate work across nexus issues.
Giles Golshetti from Defra says
Anna has provided a very helpful overview of how Defra is making connections between the domains and where there are further opportunities for doing so. A big thanks to Anna for her report and for the knowledge exchange opportunities that she has created.
Read the report
Download the full report here Defra-NexusNetwork-FellowshipReport_Oct2015
