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Prof Janet Dwyer

Professor of Rural Policy

Janet is a Professor and an internationally-recognised academic with over 30 years’ experience in applied rural research, with expertise in the fields of sustainable rural development, agricultural and environmental policy at UK and EU levels.

Biography

Janet directs and undertakes applied research related to agriculture, the environment and rural development. Her research expertise centres on the evaluation and development of European and UK rural development policy and practice, with particular interest in integrated approaches, environmental sustainability and institutional adaptation.

She is well-known in policymaking circles in the UK and EU, has skills in facilitation and consensus-building, and is a regular speaker at international conferences. Her work has influenced the development and design of agri-environmental and rural policies in the UK, Ireland and Malta, and at the European level within the European Commission’s DGs for Agriculture and rural development, Environment, and Climate.

She sits on a variety of NGO and government-sponsored policy advisory groups in England including Green Alliance, the RSA’s Food, Farming and Countryside Commission and Defra’s Rural Academic Panel, and chaired Defra’s Nutrient Management Expert Group, 2021-22. Janet is a Director of Rural England CIC, and a Trustee of the Organic Research Centre and the Countryside and Community Foundation. She is a former President of the Agricultural Economics Society, a Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Societies and a Membre Associé of the French Academie d’Agriculture. She was awarded an OBE in the June 2022 Queen’s birthday honours for her services to rural research.

Qualifications

  • PhD Agricultural Economics, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, 1990
  • MA Biological Sciences, University of Cambridge, 1985.

Membership of professional bodies

  • Founder and steering group member of the Uplands Alliance
  • Member of the Agricultural Economics Socety
  • Fellow of Royal Society of Arts, Editorial Board of Environmental Science and Policy and Bio-based and Applied Economics

Teaching & Research

Teaching

Janet acts as a supervisor for postgraduate students and is an External Examiner for two applied ecological masters courses at Imperial College, London.

Research

Janet directs and undertakes research related to agriculture, the environment and rural development. Her research expertise centres on the analysis of European and UK rural development policy and practice, with particular interest in integrated approaches, environmental sustainability and institutional adaptation.

Current projects include: evaluation studies of the impact of the Common Agricultural Policy on balanced territorial development; sustainable land management challenges in the south west uplands (Exmoor and Dartmoor); knowledge and information needs for rural development (Horizon Europe project RUSTIK); and international comparative work on rural regeneration challenges in cultural landscapes (Satoyama), spanning the UK, Europe, Japan and Korea.

Publications

More publications from Prof Janet Dwyer can be found in the Research Repository.

External responsibilities

Subject for media interview

Agricultural policy, Rural policy, Rural enterprise, Marginal farming and Upland futures.