Professor Michael Winter
OBE
Extension: 3837
Telephone: 01392 723837
Professor & Director of the Centre for Rural Policy Research
Michael is a rural policy specialist and a rural social scientist with particular interests in applying inter-disciplinary approaches to policy-relevant research and in direct engagement in the policy process. Within the University he is a member of the management boards for two research centres: Sport, Leisure & Tourism and Egenis.
He is a member of Defra’s Panel of Agricultural & Environmental Economists and the National Ecosystem Assessment Expert Panel. He is a Commissioner for the Commission for Rural Communities, President of Devon Rural Network and a vice-President of Devon Community Council. He is former trustee/director of the BBSRC North Wyke Research Centre, a former member of DEFRA’s Science Advisory Council and of SWRDA's Panel of Economists, a past Chair of the South West Rural Affairs Forum.In 2000, he was a member of the Committee of Inquiry into Hunting with Dogs in England and Wales chaired by Lord Burns.He is on the editorial board of the International Journal of Sustainable Agriculture.
His current research interests, among others, focus on rural policy analysis and governance with a specific focus on regionalism; sustainable agro-food systems and food security; climate change and rural land use; the historical and contemporary sociology of west country agriculture; & farmer environmental attitudes and decision-making, particularly in the context of diffuse pollution and water quality.
