Kirsty Blair

Kirsty is a Data and Digital Social Scientist in the Data and Digital Integration team within the Digital Research group at UKCEH, based in Edinburgh. Her work focuses on improving how stakeholders engage with environmental data and digital services, enhancing their impact, visibility, and usability, and supporting efforts to ensure these systems are sustainable, accessible, and designed with users in mind.

Her background spans research, communications and knowledge exchange across academia, policy and the third sector, with a particular emphasis on creative and participatory approaches to engagement on environmental challenges. She recently submitted her PhD at the University of Edinburgh, where she combined systems thinking, stakeholder engagement and digital methods to explore pathways towards more sustainable livestock futures. Alongside her doctoral research, she led communications and knowledge-exchange activity for a UKRI-funded programme focused on food and livestock systems transformation, and has previously contributed to applied sustainability work with Leeds City Council and Social Business Brokers, including contributing to climate-emergency training, guidance development and community-focused waste-reduction initiatives.