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Ioana Ene undertook a 6-week summer internship at Defra as part of UCL's Public Policy Global Citizenship programme.

This summer I undertook a 6-week internship at DefraÌý(the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), the government department responsible for environmental protection. I was placed in the Chief Scientific Adviser’s Office. The Chief Scientific Advisor is responsible for providing scientific advice and making sure that policy decisions are backed by robust and appropriate evidence.

During my placement I worked with the Systems Research Programme (SRP) team which was working to develop a toolkit of approaches and methods for applying systems thinking across Defra. ÌýSystems Theory focuses on the interdependencies of elements within systems and thus on how changing one part of the systems affects the rest. The hope was that this approach would enable Defra to better evaluate the impacts of policy decisions and avoid unintended consequences. The SRP is formed by 5 groups representing different Defra systems: Food; Resources and Waste; Land Use; Air Quality; and Marine. By using interdisciplinary evidence, the SRP aimed to identify cross-cutting policy issues, evidence gaps, trade-offs, risks and opportunities across these areas of work.

I assisted the Air Quality sub-team with drafting a map of factors that affect the concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in the air. PM2.5Ìýis an air pollutant that, in high concentrations, is a major health concern. By mapping of sources and controls for PM2.5, we aimed to support the UK’s ambition to meet World Health Organisation limits for the concentration of the pollutant, which fell into the government’s Clean Air Strategy. My background is in human sciences, so one of the first tasks I was given was advising my team on the behavioural aspect of the map - i.e. factors that affect human behaviour such as incentives, education, and environmental values. ÌýI felt that my opinion was valued from the start and my advice had a significant impact on the maps’ development.

To construct the map, we elicited advice from various sources: air quality teams within Defra and in other government departments, external stakeholders including independent expert groups and academics, and the wider SRP team. We attended meetings, held a participatory workshop and corresponded with relevant stakeholders. I often took notes in these meetings, collated and analysed the feedback, and incorporated this into the map using an online diagramming. I also gave advice on the overall structure and logic of the mapping. While the diagramming tool we used was straight-forward, it was not quite detailed enough for the complexities of the map we were creating. Thus, another task I was given was to research other specialised software that would enable us to filter the map and analyse it in a more sophisticated way. I compared various visualisation, analysis, modelling and simulation programmes and presented my findings and recommendations to my team and the rest of the SRP.

Although I mainly worked with the Air Quality group, I also became familiar with the work of the other groups within the SRP. I attended weekly and monthly meetings in which teams presented their progress on incorporating systems thinking into their work, and collectively discussed how best to approach the themes which cut across the five systems. One of those over-arching ambitions is setting out a plan on how the SRP could assist in the government’s work to ensure the UK has net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

One of the highlights of my time at Defra was a visit toÌý East Hall Farm, a low-carbon farm in Harpenden. On the visit, the SRP team learned about the wildlife stewardship methods employed by the farm. But overall, my favourite aspect of working with the SRP was engaging with external stakeholders from different areas of expertise and sectors. It was a great way of gaining insight into the process of policy-making and the way policy is delivered. For instance, one talk which I particularly enjoyed was from a professor at Cambridge University and fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering who used an engineering-systems-thinking approach to tackle healthcare issues such as child obesity.

I am immensely grateful for this opportunity and I would highly recommend it to anyone thinking of applying. I had the chance to work on something that I am passionate about, environmental protection, and as a result, I have gained invaluable insight into policy-making, developed skills that will be invaluable to me in the future, and met amazing people along the way. I believe my team benefited from my insight and fresh perspective, and my contribution to their workload enabled them to carry out their work more efficiently and effectively. It felt quite intimidating at the start, but my colleagues were very welcoming and made me feel included and valued. This placement has improved my confidence as it required me to step out of my comfort zone and work with unfamiliar concepts and ideas.ÌýI am now considering focusing my studies on environmental science and will definitely consider a career in the civil service in the future.

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