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Bridging science, agricultural practice and public policy.
Donal Murphy-Bokern's 25 year career has been devoted to improving the environmental performance of agriculture and related sectors. The common theme in his work is the support of excellence in interactions between the science base, public policy and practice. This focuses on deepening of the dialogue around the use of science in policy development and innovation. He has a broad agricultural science background which extends across traditional sectoral, disciplinary and policy boundaries. He has extensive experience of working as a research scientist and as a research investor/user in a public policy environment in Germany and the United Kingdom. Donal Murphy-Bokern is also a Visiting Fellow of Cranfield University where he supports the development of research at the Natural Resources Management Institute, particularly with respect to the application of Life-Cycle Assessment to agricultural systems.
Before establishing Murphy-Bokern Konzepte in Lohne, Germany, Donal Murphy-Bokern was employed in the UK Department of Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) in Westminster, London. He directed a wide range of Defra's agricultural and agri-environmental research programmes throughout his eight years in MAFF/Defra working in wide spectrum of agricultural and environmental policy areas. Following the publication of the Defra Research Priority Group's report in 2005, he played a key role in reframing Defra's farming and food research programme. He was actively involved in the setting the direction of the wider UK agricultural research effort, particularly in novel crop protection products and strategies, organic farming, non-food and bioenergy crops, eco-efficiency concepts for agriculture, arable crop genetic improvement, biomathmatics and decision support system development, systems analysis and the use of life-cycle assessment in food and non-food systems. Latterly, in 2006-2007, he established Defra’s new R&D programme covering all Defra agricultural research linked to climate change policy and greenhouse gas mitigation.
Prior to moving to MAFF/Defra, Donal Murphy-Bokern was employed by the German Ministry of Agriculture based in the Federal Centre for Agricultural Research (FAL - now the Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institute) at Braunschweig engaged as an agronomist/agricultural engineer (1993 – 1998). He conducted research on the management of spatial variability in soil using GPS based technology and also led several research projects relevant to the use of agricultural materials in the building sector and the application of life-cycle assessment to agricultural systems.
Dr Murphy-Bokern’s first long-term appointment was as a Research Associate in the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in the UK where he managed the development of the North of England Arable Centre (1986 – 1992). The NEAC pioneered farmer owned participatory research in an academic environment and Dr Murphy-Bokern led the NEAC’s research and technical services until 1992 by which time the NEAC had become the largest such centre in the UK. The NEAC is now part of The Arable Group (TAG) in the UK, the largest applied research and development organization serving English arable farmers.
Donal Murphy-Bokern gained a PhD from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne for his part-time research in crop physiology conducted in addition to his work for the North of England Arable Centre. He is a graduate of the National University of Ireland having studied agricultural science at University College Dublin between 1978 and 1983.
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