Bristol researchers get share of UKRI’s flagship fellowships grant

Dr Jessica Moody and Dr Amy Penfield are among 68 UK researchers who have been awarded a share of a UKRI’s flagship fellowships grant.

Study in UK: Two researchers from the University of Bristol have received a share of £104 million UKRI’s flagship fellowships grant. These researchers are from the University's Faculty of Social Sciences and Law, and Faculty of Arts. The grant has been given to help lead research into global issues including the Amazon rainforest and deforestation. The name of these professors are - Dr Jessica Moody and Dr Amy Penfield.

This fellowship allows UK universities to develop their early career innovators and researchers. Dr Amy Penfield, Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at Bristol will get £2 million to study small-scale drivers of Amazon forest and deforestation.

While commenting on the grant she said, “I’m extremely honoured to have been awarded this fellowship that aims to examine the localised causes of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. Relatively little comprehensive research exists on how incursion activities such as these play out on the ground, who participates, how the activities function, how they intersect, and how they link to broader global economies."

“This project will forge a novel approach to ‘incursion infrastructures’ by exploring the hidden networks and arrangements that facilitate the endurance of incursion economies. Alongside this framing, a central aim of the research is to better understand the motivations and moral tensions that define participation in environment destruction, steering the narrative away from one-dimensional stereotypes of Homo devastan, which describes the role humans play in environmental degradation, habitat destruction, and towards a more nuanced depiction of forest inhabitants who forge complex livelihood in these vulnerable terrains," she added.

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Dr Jessica Moody, Senior Lecturer in Public History in the Department of History will get the same amount of £2 million to study about the ways gardens, plants and green outdoor spaces can be able to communicate, be productive places of public history, and tell histories.

“The programme supports the research and innovation leaders of the future to transcend disciplinary and sector boundaries, bridging the gap between academia and business. The fellows demonstrate how these awards continue to drive excellence, and to shorten the distance from discovery to prosperity and public good," she said.

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