Professor Lisa Collins

Profile

Lisa Collins is Professor of Animal Science, Pro-Dean for Research & Innovation, Academic Director of the National Pig Centre and Director of Commercial Research for the Global Food and Environment Institute at the University of Leeds. Her research focuses on the development and application of smarter agricultural systems through multi-disciplinary approaches including technology development, systems modelling and data analytics. Amongst a broad portfolio of active research projects, Lisa is PI on PIGSustain, a £2.06M Global Food Security programme grant. During her time at the University of Leeds, she set up the highly successful, cross-institution Smart Agri-Systems research initiative.

She serves on key strategic national and international advisory and funding councils and strategy groups, including as a member of the Defra Science Advisory Council and as advisor on research strategy to the Scottish Government's Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture department. Further to this, she has continuously served as both a member and chair of multiple BBSRC committees, call panels, institute assessment panels and working groups over the last 10 years, including Committee A, Committee E, Transforming Food Production and the FTMA awards. She was a founder member of BBSRC's Animal Welfare Research Network. Lisa is a board member for the Sustainable Aquaculture Innovation Centre (SAIC) and a member for the SAIC Scientific Panel. She is a member of the Farmer Science Network. She is an external examiner for SRUC. Previously she has served as a member of the Dog Advisory Council, ASAB council, and European Food Safety Authority groups.

She is an experienced public communicator of science, regularly presenting invited public lectures including at the Royal Institution and in national theatres. Her work regularly features in national and international news media in all formats. In 2014, she received the British Science Association Charles Darwin Award for excellence in science communication, and in 2010, the UFAW Young Animal Welfare Scientist of the Year award. In 2020, she was elected as a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales. She was British Science Association Section President in Food and Agriculture for 2020-22.

Research interests

Lisa’s research focuses on the development and application of smarter agricultural systems through multi-disciplinary approaches including technology development and connectivity, systems modelling and data analytics.  She has a passion for technological innovation and solutions-focussed research in partnership with end-users. 

A welfare epidemiologist and quantitative behaviour analyst by training, she uses a combination of analytics and novel sensors to understand complex animal system problems. Recently, this has included a focus on the development of systems for livestock production that are sustainable, environmentally regenerative and high animal welfare.  Lisa uses multi-scalar approaches to understand a problem from both top-down and bottom-up perspectives; through individual-based research, she has developed a novel line of enquiry into factors that lead to important and significant differences between individuals which result in differential risk of exposure to, or subsequent development of, a health problem.  

Keywords:  Systems approaches; Sustainable agriculture; Resilience; Stress; Epidemiology; Animal welfare; Animal health; Individual and population measures

Qualifications

• MA(Oxon) Biological Sciences
• DPhil Zoology

Professional memberships

• Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales
• Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology
• Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society

Research groups and institutes

• Ecology and Evolution
• Heredity, Development and Disease