Dr Tracie Evans

Head of Natural Science Strategy, Environmental Land Management team at Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)

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Head of Natural Science Strategy, Environmental Land Management team, DEFRA
Policy Fellow of the Centre for Science and Policy

Tracie works in a multi-disciplinary evidence team responsible for providing policy colleagues working on future environmental land management schemes in England with the evidence and analysis needed to design and develop policy. As the lead for the natural science team, her responsibility is to identify the short and long-term questions needing answering to inform the evolving policy; an important part of her role is therefore also to have an understanding of the current evidence base and the gaps in this evidence. Tracie has been in the environmental land management team for 5 years where she has built a strong team of scientists as well as a network of external experts (including an expert panel whose role it is to scrutinise the team’s analyses), commissioned research and performed analyses, both, to inform and scrutinise policy decisions.

Tracie’s background is in ecology and she has previously worked in various academic institutes and organisations. This has included leading a team developing insect lures and repellents; working on a project researching multiple drivers of pollinator decline; supporting a post-doctoral project studying the effects of pollinators on yield and working on various research projects looking at the effects of land management on insects and plants. She graduated with a BSc in geography, an MSc in Ecology and a PhD in pollinator ecology. During her PhD, she used molecular techniques to track the movement of pollinators across the landscape in response to land management.