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Professor Simon Potts

Simon Potts portrait

Areas of interest

  • Understanding the relationships between land use, biodiversity and ecosystem services
  • Food security: role of biodiversity and ecosystem services in food production
  • Developing evidence-based adaptation and mitigation options for policy and management applications
  • Conservation of pollinators and sustainable management of pollination services
  • Environmental drivers of biodiversity and ecosystem services, including: land use change, climate change, agrochemicals, invasive species and socio-economic factors
  • Quantifying the economic and socio-cultural value of pollination and other ecosystem services
  • Ecology and management of agro-ecosystems for the conservation of biodiversity

Postgraduate supervision

Current PhD Students (44 previously completed):

  • Wiktoria Szkolnicka (BBSRC FoodBioSystems DTP) Novel pathways to transition complex supply chains to regenerative agriculture.
  • Bea Kerry (EU & UoR) Pollinator-friendly food labelling schemes.
  • Sirajum Munira (NERC Scenarios DTP) Using drone LIDAR technology to quantify hedgerow management, quality and configuration, and the impacts on farmland pollinator communities.
  • Leila Nicholson (BBSRC FoodBioSystems DTP) Increasing the value of silvoarable agroforestry using understory crops in the tree rows.
  • Harriet Gold (BBSRC FoodBioSystems DTP) Optimizing UK landscapes for agroecosystem resilience.
  • Joris Rockx, (UoR) Precision Apiculture: enhancing the health and effectiveness of managed honeybees for soft fruit production.
  • Rosy Scholes (BBSRC FoodBioSystems DTP) Integrating trees into arable systems to improve soil health & provide resilience to climate change.
  • Ellen Knight (NERC Scenarios DTP) Does pollinator diversity moderate ecosystem function in agroforestry systems?

Research centres and groups

Sustainable Land Management
Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems
Agriculture, Food and Health
Environment

Research Group:
Dr Bryony Willcox
Dr Charlotte Howard
Stuart Roberts (Visiting Research Fellow)
Richard Pitts (Visiting Research Fellow)

Research projects

Current European Projects:

  • Safeguard: Safeguarding European wild pollinators (EU Horizon 2020)
  • Showcase: Showcasing synergies between agriculture, biodiversity and ecosystem services (EU Horizon H2020)
  • RestPoll: Restoring Pollinator habitats across European agricultural landscapes based on multi-actor participatory approaches (Horizon Europe)
  • Agri4Pol: Sustainable agriculture for pollinators (Horizon Europe)
  • VALOR: Valuing the dependence of society and the economy on pollinators (Horizon Europe)
  • WildPosh: Pan European assessment, monitoring, and mitigation of chemical stressors on the health of wild pollinators (Horizon Europe/UKRI)
  • MAMBO: Modern Approaches to the Monitoring of Biodiversity (Horizon Europe/UKRI)
  • PollHabs: Pollinators typical of habitats protected under the Habitats Directive (EC DG ENV)
  • EPIC Bee: European Pollinator Identification Courses – Wild Bees (EC DG ENV)
  • EPIC Butterfly: European Pollinator Identification Courses – Butterflies (EC DG ENV)
  • EU-PoMS: Design of the European Pollinator Monitoring Scheme (EC DG ENV)
  • STING: Science and Technology for Pollinating Insect (EC DG ENV)

Current UK Projects:

  • Waitrose: University of Reading Knowledge Transfer Partnership (Innovate UK) 
  • DRUID: Drivers and Repercussions of UK Insect Declines (NERC)
  • UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme Pollinator Monitoring and Research Partnership (Defra, JNCC, the Welsh Government, Scottish Government and project partners)

Recently completed Projects:

  • STEP: Status and Trends of European Pollinators (Coordinator, EU Framework 7)
  • LIBERATION - Linking farmland biodiversity to ecosystem services for effective ecological intensification (EU FP7)
  • SCALES: Securing the Conservation of biodiversity across Administrative Levels and spatial, temporal, and Ecological Scales (EU Framework 7)
  • SUPER-B - Sustainable Pollination in Europe (EU COST Action)
  • NPPMF - National Pollinator and Pollination Service Monitoring Framework (Defra)
  • Crop pollination: Sustainable Pollination services for UK Crops (Insect Pollinator Initiative project, RCUK)
  • AgriLand: Linking agriculture and land use change to pollinator populations (Insect Pollinator Initiative project, RCUK)
  • Urban Pollinators: Urban Pollinators: their ecology and conservation (Insect Pollinator Initiative project, RCUK)
  • Landscape food webs: structure and function (NERC)
  • Closing the gap: bigger, healthier, and better-connected hedgerows (Green Recovery Challenge Fund)
  • Resilient Pollination: Modelling Landscapes for Resilient Pollination Services (BBSRC Global Food Security)
  • Optimising multifunctional land-use decisions: combining environmental, economic and social models for pollinators (NERC)
  • Economic benefits of pollination to global food systems: Evidence and knowledge gaps (NERC)
  • PoshBee: Pan-European Assessment, Monitoring, and Mitigation of Stressors on the Health of Bees (EC H2020)
  • SMOOPS: Sustainable Management of Orchard Pollination Services (BBSRC/NERC, Syngenta, Avalon and Worldwide Fruit)
  • SPRING: Supporting Pollinator Recovery through Indicators and Monitoring (DG ENV)
  • ORBIT: Developing resources for European bee inventory and taxonomy (DG ENV)
  • Tropical: Translating Research Opportunities to enhance Pollination benefits to economically Important Crops And improve Livelihoods (GCRF)
  • SuperFarm: Sustainable farming through effective pollination and pest regulation in India (GCRF)
  • Nature positive finance (NERC)

Websites/blogs


Professional Activities:

Policy:

  • Co-chair of UN Intergovernmental science-policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) assessment of Pollinators, pollination and food production
  • Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) International Pollinator Initiative): Advisor
  • Chair of the European Pollinators Initiative STING expert group for an EU-wide pollinator monitoring scheme (EU PoMS)
  • Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra): Pollinator Advisory Steering Group
  • Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra): Pollinators Expert Advisory Group
  • Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra): Sustainable Intensification Platform Research Advisory Group
  • House of Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee inquiry into Insect declines and food security: Expert witness. Full report
  • House of Commons Environment Audit Committee inquiry into Insects and Insecticides: Expert witness
  • UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST): Advisor
  • Convention for Biological Diversity (CBD) (IPI): Advisor
  • European Food Standards Authority (ESFA): Advisor
  • European Commission, DG Environment (ENV), DG Research and Innovation (RTD), DG Agriculture and Rural Development (AGRI), and DG Health and Consumers (SANCO): Advisor
  • European Environment Agency (EEA): Advisor
  • European Parliament: Advisor

Business:

Research:

  • SUPER-B: Sustainable pollination in Europe: joint research on bees and other pollinators: Management Committee
  • Horizon 2020 Societal Challenge 2 'Food Security, Sustainable Agriculture, Marine and Maritime Research, and the Bio-economy': Advisory Group
  • EU DG RIA: working group chair to identify and prioritise future call topics on pollinators

NGO and Charity:

Publications

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