Defra has appointed a new Chief Scientific Adviser, following the current advisor, Professor Sir Bob Watson’s announcement that he will be stepping down from the position after five years in the post.

He will be replaced by Professor Ian Boyd, the current Director of the Scottish Oceans Institute at the University of St Andrews and the Sea Mammal Research Unit. Professor Boyd, whose appointment was announced today by Defra, will remain in the post for three years.

Commenting on his appointment this morning, Professor Boyd said, “I am delighted to be taking up this important position. There are substantial future challenges ahead in bio-security, food security and in responding to the effects of climate change, but the UK is well placed to meet these challenges. It has excellent scientific research and I look forward to helping stimulate this research community to even greater things in future. I also look forward to listening to people’s concerns about the management of our environment.”

Professor Watson, the outgoing Chief Scientific Advisor, had called for a ‘paradigm shift’ in agriculture towards a sustainable position and for the natural environment and ‘ecosystem services’ such as clean air and water and insect pollinators to be given equal consideration with economic factors in business and policy decisions going forward.

Addressing the Oxford Farming Conference in January, he called for radical revaluation of nature’s value to society. Professor Watson, who received a knighthood in honour of his work on food policy, used his address to accuse commodity speculators of causing volatile prices and indict corporate interests for perpetuating unsustainable practices in agriculture for short-term financial gain, to the detriment of future generations. He said “Business as usual will not work: the system is broken.”

Professor Boyd, the newly instated officer, was responsible for the creation of the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland in 2009. He is a member of the Scottish Science Advisory Council, chairman of a scientific advisory board on decommissioning for Oil and Gas UK and he also chairs the committee that monitors the environmental compliance around Europe’s largest oil terminal at Sullom Voe in Shetland.

He is on the Board of Reviewing Editors of Science and is a former Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Zoology.

The Chief Scientific Adviser sits on Defra’s Board and is responsible for overseeing evidence that the Department relies on to make policy decisions. The advisor also provides Ministers with scientific advice and sets the priorities for scientific research and evidence-gathering.

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