Institute for Sustainability people

Biography

Amelia joined the University of Surrey in January 2019 as Head of the Department of Politics, and Chair in European and International Affairs. Previously she worked as Director of the Centre for European Studies (CEFEUS), a Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence at Canterbury Christ Church Uni (2013-2018), after positions in Brussels at the Vrije Universiteit Brussels and the Institute for European Studies, where she directed the Euromaster degree, as well as the Educational Development (EDU). Amelia is a long-standing Jean Monnet Chair in European Foreign Affairs, allowing her to successfully obtain Erasmus+ funding for the University of Surrey’s Centre for Britain and Europe (based in the Department of Politics), establishing it in 2020 as a Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence. Amelia’s researching, teaching, consulting & postgrad supervising covers a wide range of areas on EU foreign and security policy, as well as new forms of EU-UK relations. These include Common Foreign and Security Policy, Common Security and Defence Policy, EU-US and EU-Canada relations,  EU-Russia relations, EU Neighbourhood Policy, EU Development policy (with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa), as well as Arctic & northern governance issues. Additional areas of interest include foreign policy analysis, international and diplomatic history, the role of sovereignty in political history, International Relations theory, international political economy, public policy analysis, the Commonwealth and EU education policy. Amelia is regularly called upon as a guest speaker, external supervisor, research partner, consultant and media pundit on areas of EU foreign affairs, and of late, EU-UK relations.  In January 2021, Amelia was appointed Dean International of the University of Surrey, leading the International Engagement Office in supporting the strategic goals of the university on partnership with other universities and networks world-wide, enhanced cutting-edge research cooperation, as well as staff/student mobility. From October 2023, Amelia was appointed Associate Vice-President of External Engagement, helping to deliver the University of Surrey’s international strategies, alongside community engagement, public affairs, and developing new partnerships at local, regional, national and international level. 

In December 2024, as a result of her work with UNITAR, the UN’s research and capacity building agency, and  complementing her role as Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Centre of Excellence on Ageing (April 2023), Amelia was appointed inaugural Director of the CIFAL Surrey Centre, a knowledge exchange hub based within the Institute for Sustainability, dedicated to training and capacity building climate literacy, climate leadership and sustainability more broadly. 

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Biography

Zoe’s core research focuses on how we can use land to provide food and energy provisions whilst minimising environmental impacts. She is currently assessing the feasibility of vertical farming and the potential it has to support the deployment of Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS).

Zoe leads the high profile Taeda Tech Project, a £4m interdisciplinary demonstration project looking at using a novel aeroponic technology to rapidly multiply biomass feedstocks. She has also recently kicked off the Vertical Farming to Improve UK Food System Resilience (VF-UKFSR) project assessing how vertical farming can increase UK food system resilience. 

Beyond Surrey, Zoe has a significant international profile with notable positions in the International Energy Agency Bioenergy Technology Collaboration Programme. Representing the UK, Zoe is Head of Communications of the IEA Bioenergy Executive committee. Zoe also acts as the National Task Lead for the UK for Task 45  In this role she represents the UK research landscape and develops collaborative research for “Climate and Sustainability Effects of Bioenergy within the broader Bioeconomy”.

Zoe also has interests in the role of gender in the energy sector and is founder of the IVUGER network, which aims to support women and BAME women in UK energy research. She has undertaken work into the role of job advert wording on applicant diversity and has a new project assessing the role of diversity in decisions making for transport decarbonisation in Bradford.

Zoe is a keen science communicator and professionally trained actor. She uses her theatre training to deliver workshops on how scientists can better communicate their research.

Prior to joining CES, Zoe was a Research Fellow, and Research Associate, at the Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London. She has worked in DEFRA as a Science Officer assessing GHG mitigation options for agriculture, and in BEIS and DfT as a Policy Adviser on the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). Zoe completed her PhD and BSc Biology at the University of Southampton.

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Biography

Roberta Discetti is an interdisciplinary researcher in the field of business ethics and sustainability. Roberta's research interests lie at the intersection of socio-ecological transitions, sustainable food systems, ethical consumption, and market-based activism. 

Background. Roberta has a background in philosophy (BA and MA), environmental communication (MA), and business ethics (PhD). She has conducted her doctoral studies on food activism and fair trade at the University of Portsmouth. She then covered a post-doc position at Newcastle University working on food sustainability. Prior to joining the University of Surrey, Roberta was a lecturer in business ethics and management at Bournemouth University, with experience in teaching business ethics on the MBA and Senior Leaders Apprenticeship programmes. At the University of Surrey, Roberta is supporting the training and research programmes at UNITAR CIFAL Surrey Centre and is the Programme Leader for the MSc Sustainable Development in Practice within Surrey Online Learning.

EU research projects. Roberta has worked on multiple EU-funded projects on sustainable food systems, such as Strength2Food (Strengthening European food chain sustainability by quality and procurement policy), FoodMapp (Local Food supply communicated through a transactional searchable Map-based Application). She is currently working on two active EU projects, FoodCLIC (Integrated urban FOOD policies – developing sustainability Co-benefits, spatial Linkages, social Inclusion and sectoral Connections to transform food systems in city-regions) and GISmart (Geographical Indications’ contribution to smart territorial development and sustainability). She has also worked on the British Council-funded SUNRISE project (Supporting University Network for Research in Sustainability Engagement). Her recent work in the field has been published in leading academic journals such as the Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Rural Studies, Urban Studies, and Journal of Business Research. 

Engagement. Roberta is co-founder and co-lead of SETS seminars (Socio-ecological Transition Seminars) in collaboration with the Research Group on Collective Action, Change, and Transition at the University of Trento (Italy) and the Environmental Sociology Section at the University of Orebro (Sweden). Being keen on academia-practice synergies, Roberta collaborates with several NGOs in the UK and abroad, including the Fairtrade Foundation (UK), the Fairtrade Society (UK) and the Fair Trade Advocacy Office (Belgium). Since 2017, she has been an active member of the International Fair Trade Symposium Steering Committee and has contributed to the organisation of the symposium in 2018, 2021, 2023, and 2026.

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