I am Professor of Upland Landscapes, Director of the Centre for National Parks and Protected Areas and Director of Ambleside Campus, University of Cumbria. My interests are focused on rural development, uplands and farming.

My Fellowship entailed me travelling to Japan to investigate how place-based cultural capital could be used to help marginal hill farmers become more resilient. My interests lie in trying to find ways to enable hill farming in the UK to continue to function. This way of farming is important as it creates the cultural landscapes of uplands from which we benefit in many ways including tourism, biodiversity, climate mitigation, flood management and high-quality low-impact food production.

I have presented the findings from my Fellowship at a range of conferences, and worked with regional organisations to increase the range of opportunities for hill farming businesses. My ideas have been included in large bids going forward in the Lake District to aid in its nature recovery through the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Travelling to Japan allowed me to look at the challenges we face in UK upland agriculture in a completely different way to how this issue has been considered previously.