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Directorate

Prof. Adie Collins

Science Director

Net Zero and Resilient Farming

PUBLICATIONS
Location
North Wyke, Okehampton, Devon, EX20 2SB
Tel
+44 (0) 1837 512 315
Email
adrian.collins@rothamsted.ac.uk
Professional Platforms
LinkedIn
ResearchGate
Google Scholar

Biography

Adie's research interests broadly encompass the sustainability and resilience of agriculture. They specifically include a number of themes: 1) characterising pollutant emissions to water and air; 2) the development and application of pollutant source tracing procedures; 3) understanding cross-sector water pollution at different scales and the development of screening tools for contextualising the role of agriculture in water quality problems; 4) the impacts of agricultural pollution on aquatic ecology; 5) measuring and modelling the efficacy of on-farm interventions for managing agricultural sustainability and resilience, and; 6) scenario-based evaluation of technically feasible mitigation impacts on multiple outcomes for policy support. His expertise includes hydro-chemical monitoring at multiple scales, integrating empirical and modelling approaches for scaling up, and pollutant source fingerprinting. Between 2009-2020, Adie was a national PI of the UK Demonstration Test Catchment (DTC) programme. He was assistant director of the landscape scale UK Sustainable Intensification Platform (SIP) between 2014-2017. His recent UK research council projects include DIVERSe, an UKRI-BBSRC project testing the impact of different vegetation treatments in riparian buffers on hydrology and water quality; an UKRI-NERC project developing real-time pesticide risk assessment tools, the UKRI-BBSRC-funded Institute Strategic Programme (ISP) at Rothamsted Research, Soil to Nutrition (2017-2023), in which Adie led the work package on optimising sustainable intensification of agriculture at multiple scales, and the current UKRI-BBSRC funded ISP on Resilient Farming Futures (2023-2028) of which Adie is overall PI.

Strategic Programme

  • Resilient Farming Futures
  • S2N - Soil to Nutrition

Science Projects

  • Global Nitrogen Innovation Centre for Clean Energy and Environment (NICCEE)
  • Development of the Woodland Water Code for the UK
  • Land Use for Net Zero Hub (LUNZ-Hub)
  • Co-benefits and trade-offs of on-farm interventions for water quality
  • Resilient Farming Futures
  • Blue and Green Biosphere
  • Greenhouse gas removal with UK agriculture and forestry via enhanced rock weathering
  • Water futures: mitigation in a changing environment

PhD Projects

  • Organic nutrients: defining risk and managing transfers at catchment scale
  • Farmer attitudes to on-farm interventions for water quality

Awards

  • 1995 - PhD in Hydrology, University of Exeter, UK
  • 1992 - BA (Hons) in Geography, University of Exeter, UK

Measures of Esteem

  • Chair, Science Excellence and Research Impact review panel for James Hutton Institute reviews, 2024
  • Member, Science Advisory Group, Environmental Markets Board
  • Member, Agriculture Advisory Group for the UK Climate Change Committee
  • President (2016-2020) of the International Commission on Continental Erosion (ICCE) of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS)
  • Vice President (2012-2016) of the International Commission on Continental Erosion (ICCE) of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS)
  • Member, UK Committee for the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS)
  • Member, European SedNet steering group
  • Member, National Science Advisory Panel, Salmon and Trout Association
  • Co-recipient, Canadian Council of the Federation Excellence in Water Stewardship Award co-recipient in conjunction with the Southern Rockies Watershed Project (2014)
  • Co-recipient, Alberta Emerald Award in conjunction with the Southern Rockies Watershed Project (2014)