Professor Andrew Church joined Bedfordshire in 2021 from his previous position as Associate Pro Vice Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) at the University of Brighton. Since then he has launched a new Research and Innovation Strategy that has a vision to invest in an interdisciplinary research culture and partnerships, generating new knowledge, insights and resources that benefit society, inspire our students, transform lives, stimulate business innovation and directly influence policy and practice.

Andrew is also a Professor of the University of Bedfordshire and his research focuses on human geography and environmental issues, Drawing on this research expertise Andrew is the Vice Chancellor’s Executive Group lead for sustainability. Working with the sustainability team at Bedfordshire and external partners the University has recently developed a new Sustainability Strategy that will deliver a reduction in carbon emissions, waste and water consumption and cultivate education and research for sustainability amongst stakeholders within and beyond the University.

Andrew is in the process of working with a range of local, national and international partners in developing a New Community Engagement Strategy that will be launched in early 2023.

Andrew is still an active researcher and is involved in highly interdisciplinary and collaborative projects. His most recent book in 2021 was English wetlands: spaces of nature, culture, imagination is published by Palgrave. He is currently working on a £1.8m project called Towards Brown Gold funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Global Challenge Research Fund.

The project involves social scientists, micro-biologists, water scientists and inclusive artists working together to examine marginality, sanitation, water and wastewater challenges in five growing towns in Ethiopia, Ghana, India and Nepal. A recent article in the journal Landscape Research outlines some of the arts methods used to inform the project.