After a competitive selection process, Dr Harriet Hunt has been selected as one of 34 early- to mid-career professionals as the 2023 Foundation Future Leaders.

The Foundation Future Leaders programme brings together a cohort of around 30 mid-career professionals over the course of a year, with approximately 10 representatives each from the research community, industry, and the civil service and wider public sector. Over a 12-month period, the group meet and discuss with senior figures from government, parliament, universities, large industry, SMEs, research charities and others. Just as importantly, Future Leaders present their own expertise, develop skills and make future contacts. The programme includes external visits and the development of an annual conference for a wider group of mid-career future leaders in science, technology, research and innovation.

Dr Hunt’s current research focuses on complex interventions with a particular interest in how evidence is used in the real world. She works on the Nature on Prescription project, developing and evaluating a handbook for nature-based interventions co-created with partner organisations including the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust. Her interests sit at the intersection between policy, practice, business, and the material world around us, with focuses on health, the environment, complexity, and behavioural science. This dynamic and diverse area of research is highly interconnected with local and national politics, civil service, public sector, university and research fields, and industrial sectors.

Dr Hunt comments,

“I’m delighted to have been selected to join the prestigious Foundation Future Leaders programme for 2023. The networked interconnectivity that the Foundation Future Leaders programme promotes and supports is invaluable for the practical application of scientific research. I’m looking forward to gaining insights into different priorities and pressures faced by the various groups represented; making the most of the networking opportunities to discover new interactions and opportunities; and learning wherever possible about others’ motivations and interests to help broaden my reach and improve traction for my research outputs. I relish the opportunity to gain practical insights into what people need and how those needs can be met within current structures, or how approaches can be tailored to specifically target the most useful routes.”