Dr Judith Ford

Profile

I work on the EU Horizon 2020 ClieNFarms project which aims to support European farmers through the transition to climate-neutral and climate-resilient farming.  Locally this includes assessing the emissions from the University of Leeds’ farm, considering the best ways of reducing those emissions and also arranging knowledge exchange events for farmers.

I was a member of the Leeds Centre for Doctoral Training in Bioenergy from 2016 to 2021.  I completed masters projects on the use of verge grass in anaerobic digestion and the options for using the biogas produced.  My PhD was on ‘The prospects for increasing UK production of feedstocks for bioenergy’.  I identified barriers to the greater use of chicken litter, woodfuel, and perennial energy-crop biomass, and assessed the  policies needed to increase planting of miscanthus, willow and new woodlands in the UK at the scale needed to meet the UK net zero greenhouse gas emissions targets.

Research interests

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from farming paricularly from pig farming.

Renewable energy on farms.

Anaerobic digestion and other methods of managing animal waste (slurry and manure) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Adoption of energy crops and woodland creation by farmers and landowners.

Qualifications

• Integrated PhD and MSc Bioenergy, University of Leeds (2016 -2021)
• MSc Engineering Project Management, University of Leeds (2013 - 2014)
• MEng Petroleum Engineering, Heriot Watt University
• BSc (Eng) Engineering Science, University of Aberdeen