Simon Willcock

Simon is an interdisciplinary researcher whose main focus lies in the interaction between people and nature. In particular, he is an expert in ecosystem services and the sustainable use of natural resources. His research uses novel quantitative methods. For example, his MobilES project (https://msds.tools/projects/mobiles/) used smartphones to conduct surveys on ecosystem services (featuring questions on food and water security, the impact of climate, natural resource use). Simon believes the future of agriculture will be determined by more than food production – which is only one of many ecosystem services provided by the agricultural sector – and is developing large-scale social science to determine how farm-scale changes might impact other aspects of society (e.g. access to recreation).

Simon’s aims to produce real-world outputs that can be applied in numerous policy and business contexts. He has been part of several large projects that focus on ecosystem services and social-ecological systems (e.g. ASSETS [http://espa-assets.org/], ARIES [http://aries.integratedmodelling.org/], TESSA [http://tessa.tools/], WISER [http://www.espa.ac.uk/projects/ne-l001322-1], RUST [https://rustindia.wordpress.com/]). He is experienced in working within a team containing broad-ranging skills in order to address complex problems in a holistic way, enabling scientific outputs to influence and impact society.