We are a team of 30 academics from seven higher education research institutes, working together across disciplines to optimise outcomes in the Forth water basin. Our team includes two dedicated post-doctoral researchers and four PhD candidates, each contributing specialist expertise to the FORTH2O partnership.
Project Team
Principal Investigator
Paul Cairney
Paul Cairney is co-PI of the Partnership, FORTH2O Policy Lead, and Professor of Politics and Public Policy, University of Stirling, UK. His research interests are in comparative public policy, policy analysis, and policy theories, applied to UK and devolved government policy, and the use of evidence in policy and policymaking.
Place Lead
Deryck Irving
Deryck Irving, a member of the Hydro Nation Chair research and innovation team at the University of Stirling, specialises in blue-green infrastructure and nature-based solutions for sustainable placemaking. He has over 30 years of ecological experience and expertise in collaborative working and stakeholder engagement, from policy through to practical delivery.
Partnership Manager
Dawn Rafferty
Dawn Rafferty is the FORTH2O Research Partnership Manager. She oversees project management, governance, and investment, driving collaboration and innovation to connect research, policy, and practice in the Forth Water Basin.
Partnership Officer
Kathleen Stosch
Dr Kathleen Stosch is the Research Partnership Officer and communications lead at FORTH2O. She facilitates collaboration between academic, industry, government, and third-sector organisations within the partnership, to ensure effective knowledge exchange and engagement.
Research Fellows / Research Assistants
Research Fellow (Place)
Lizzie Smith
Dr Lizzie Smith is a qualified architect with a practice background in place-based and strategic spatial projects including green and blue infrastructure from a placemaking and design perspective. Her research has examined processes of community-led and creative regeneration. As Forth2O’s research fellow for Place and Wellbeing, she specialises in investigating place-based and spatial opportunities, including community and wellbeing impacts within the Forth region.
Research Fellow (Data)
Chris Littleboy
Dr Chris Littleboy is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow leading the development of FORTH2O’s “Data Lab”, a web platform for discovery and analysis of the regions’ data.
Research Fellow (Connections)
Kerr Adams
Dr Kerr Adams is a catchment systems modeller, focussing on investigating future change impacts on water quality and quantity to inform sustainable water management.
Research Fellow (Policy)
Alexander "Sasha" Mesarovich
Dr Alexander “Sasha” Mesarovich is a Research Fellow at the University of Stirling working on policy change. His research interests include policy learning, formal and informal barriers to policy change, and policy diffusion.
Research Fellow (Health & Wellbeing)
Tamara Brown
Tamara Brown is a senior Research Fellow at FORTH2O. She is supporting multiple work packages, facilitating engagement with stakeholders and links between evidence, policy and practice. Tamara is skilled in evidence synthesis, participatory research and co-production in public health. She is passionate about translating evidence into practice, with a specific focus on the social determinants of health.
Research Fellow (Culture)
Hanneke Booij
Dr Hanneke Booij (she/her) is a Research Fellow at the FORTH2O Partnership based at the University of Stirling. Her research explores resilience, sustainability and just transitions in communities and in heritage and cultural organisations, considering heritage as practices of care and connection. She has used qualitative, quantitative, and creative methods, and applied place-based and people-centred approaches in both academic and applied settings. Her research has included connecting communities to the river Clyde, and collaborations with third sector organisations, heritage organisations and community groups.
Research Fellow (Business & Innovation)
Esra Aydogdu
Dr Esra Aydogdu is a Research Fellow on the FORTH2O Partnership project at the University of Stirling. Her research focuses on social innovation and entrepreneurship, with particular interests in empowerment, inclusive development, and just sustainability transitions. She has strong experience in evidence synthesis and works across qualitative, quantitative, and co-production approaches, with a clear focus on translating academic research into policy impact and practice.
Research Fellow (Policy)
Pippa Scott
Dr Pippa Scott is a global water specialist with an interdisciplinary background spanning research, policy and practice across local to global contexts. Trained as an engineer, she has over a decade of experience in water in international development, contributing to research, evaluation, strategic planning and collaborative learning initiatives. Within FORTH2O, Pippa focuses on aligning place, governance and finance to enable effective water management at catchment scale.
Research Assistant (Policy)
Kristen Nicolson
Kristen Nicolson is a research assistant in Politics at the University of Stirling. Her main research interests are in implementation gaps in public policy with a focus on health policy.
Research Assistant (Connections)
Sophie Miller
Sophie Miller is a Research Assistant from the Social, Economic and Geographical Sciences Department at the James Hutton Institute. Her interest in stakeholder engagement is being used to explore connections as part of WP4.
Research Assistant (Data)
Kate O'Hara
Kate O’Hara is a PhD student in quantitative research methods for the social sciences. She works on FORTH2O’s Data Lab, building tools and resources to support policymakers and researchers in using data about the region.
Research Assistant (Data)
Trystan Washburne
Trystan Washburne is a Sociology PhD student examining large datasets and how they record minority groups. For FortH2O, he studies access to nature and waterways within the Forth Valley’s large urban areas.
Research Fellow (Policy)
Lukas Fuchs
Dr Lukas Fuchs is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Stirling. In the Forth2o project, he works on innovation policy and potential business opportunities in the field of wastewater.
Melissa Tornari
Research Team
Data co-Lead
Ben Matthews
Ben Matthews is a Lecturer in Social Statistics and Demography at the University of Stirling. He specializes in analyzing administrative data and social surveys to understand social inequalities.
Data co-Lead
Arnab Bhattacharjee
Professor Arnab Bhattacharjee FRSA is Research Lead for regional and distributional modeling at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research. His work influences policy in areas like poverty, health inequalities, and environmental impacts. Together, he is a Professor of Economics (formerly Head of Economics and Director, Spatial Economics and Econometrics Centre) at Heriot-Watt University, leading research in econometrics, particularly in structural and causal modelling in Big Data contexts.
Value Lead
Mirko Moro
Professor Mirko Moro specialises in Economics at the University of Stirling. His research examines how individual decision-making and attitudes are shaped by wellbeing, environmental changes, and public policies. Using advanced econometric techniques and natural experiments, Mirko evaluates the impact of these factors across environmental, social, and policy-driven contexts.
Connections Lead
Kirsty Blackstock
Kirsty Blackstock researches governance processes connecting land and water across multiple domains and policy levels, with a strong interest in learning from lived experience. Working at the James Hutton Institute for over 20 years, she has worked on Scottish, European and International projects, often with non-academic partners.
Business & Innovation Lead
Stephen Knox
Dr Stephen Knox is Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Stirling and Programme Director for the MSc in International Business. His research explores enterprise policy, innovation governance, and business growth. Stephen previously worked in the Scottish Government’s Economic Directorate.
Health & Wellbeing Lead
Sandra Engstrom
Sandra Engstrom, Senior Lecturer at the University of Stirling, specialises in community resilience and the role of social work in tackling the climate crisis. Her research focuses on eco-grief, trauma, and mental health. She works in interdisciplinary settings across international networks and has experience with vulnerable populations and community groups.
Culture co-Lead
Katherine Champion
Dr Katherine Champion is Senior Lecturer in Creative Industries and Cultural Policy at the University of Glasgow. Her research explores regional creative economies, cultural policy, and knowledge exchange. Katherine has led on place-based projects which explore precarity and care in cultural work and evidencing the value of cultural organisations, including libraries and creative hubs.
Culture co-Lead
Greg Mannion
Greg Mannion, Professor of Education, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Stirling. For over 20 years, his interdisciplinary and impactful research on relations among young people, adults, place, and learning has generated new knowledge about intergenerational learning, outdoor learning, and sustainability. Funders include research councils (ESRC, MRC), NatureScot, and the Children and Young People’s Commissioner.
Jane Atterton
Dr Jane Atterton is Senior Lecturer and Manager at the Rural Policy Centre, SRUC (Scotland’s Rural College). She has over 20 years experience undertaking policy-focused research on rural and island community resilience and change (including demographic trends, connectivity and poverty and exclusion), rural and island businesses and their characteristics, networks and performance, and rural policies and policy-making processes.
Lindsay Beevers
Professor Lindsay Beevers is Chair of Environmental Engineering at the University of Edinburgh. A Civil Engineer with over 20 years’ experience, her research focuses on water resilience and climate change adaptation specifically around hydrological regimes. Lindsay has worked on river systems globally and led research on water resources in Europe, Africa, and Asia.
Frank Siedlok
Frank Siedlok is a Senior Lecturer in Strategy at the University of St Andrews Business School. His research focuses on collaborative forms of strategy, innovation and knowledge. His research remains firmly practice focused, often conducted in collaboration with external stakeholders.
Andrew Tyler
Professor Andrew Tyler is the Scotland Hydro Nation Chair, the strategic lead on the Scottish Water funded programme that provides the leadership to forge the collaborative relationships across the Scottish water sector to deliver the solutions for sustainable water management, including going beyond net zero by 2040. He leads pioneering research Earth observation and the development of digital observatories to support sustainable water management and advancing solutions at both local and global scales.
Augusto Rocha
Dr Augusto Rocha, Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh Business School, specialises in entrepreneurial ecosystems, focusing on social and financial capital, networks, and regional development. His research employs innovative methodologies, including Social Network Analysis, to explore how social interactions shape entrepreneurial opportunities, fostering knowledge exchange and growth within entrepreneurial communities.
Iain Docherty
Professor Iain Docherty is Dean of the Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of Stirling. His research focuses on public policy, transport infrastructure, economic development, and environmental sustainability. He has advised governments and led major research on infrastructure, mobility, and climate change across the UK and internationally.
Hannes Stephan
Dr Hannes Stephan is Senior Lecturer in Environmental Politics & Policy at the University of Stirling. His research focuses on environmental, climate, and energy politics, including low-carbon transitions and narrative politics. Hannes also explores the cultural politics of environmental and agri-food issues. He teaches undergraduate and postgraduate modules on environmental politics and resource conflicts.
Tony Robertson
Tony Robertson is a lecturer at the School of Health and Wellbeing, University of Glasgow. His research and teaching interests are focused on linking understandings of the complex and challenging inter-relationships between humans and biological and environmental systems. He is particularly interested in socioeconomic inequalities and the impacts these inequalities have on people’s underlying physiology and health.
Clemens Hoffman
Dr Clemens Hoffmann, Senior Lecturer in International Politics, researches water and climate conflicts as part of a broader socio-ecological metabolism involving energy, water, land, as well as human and non-human social life. His research on ‘Geo-Political Ecology’ analyses resource circulation from a political economic and material flow perspective.
Peter Hunter
Peter Hunter is Professor of the Digital Environment at the University of Stirling and Science Director for Forth-ERA. His research uses technologies like satellite data, AI, smart sensors, and supercomputing to improve environmental monitoring and help society adapt to future environmental challenges.
David Miller
PhD students
PhD researcher
Harriet Crisp
Harriet Crisp is a PhD student in Film and Media Studies at the University of Stirling and her PhD is linked to FORTH2O. Her doctoral research investigates people’s experience to water in the Forth River basin through engaging with archive films and working with local communities.
PhD researcher
Matthew Gower
Matthew Gower is a PhD student within Forth2O, researching how to optimise the value of water for individuals, communities, and society in the Forth Water Basin.
PhD researcher
Perla Errasti Hernandez
Perla Errasti Hernandez is a PhD student researching entrepreneurial ecosystems and innovation at the Forth Water Basin. She connects businesses to foster sustainable and inclusive economic development.
PhD researcher
Igor Yegin
Igor Yegin is a Sociology & Social Policy PhD and a Research Assistant at FORTH2O Data Lab.
Shared Services
FORTH2O offers a range of services to support innovation through collaboration.