Mel Woods

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Woods, Mel

Professor, Chair of Creative Intelligence

 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5507-0976

Accepting PhD Students

PhD projects

Design and the Green Transition, Creativity and Climate Action, Participatory Sensing, Citizen Science, Living Labs

Calculated based on number of publications stored in Pure and citations from Scopus
20052025

Research activity per year

Personal profile

Biography

Prof. Mel Woods is Chair of Creative Intelligence. Her research interests are at the intersection of creativity, technology, action-research and social innovation. She has sustained a critical enquiry into how data and technology can support decision-making and change in response to societal challenges, most recently through environmental monitoring and citizen science. 

Her research has addressed a number of critical environment challenges, through the H2020 Making Sense project in which she addressed issues of air quality and noise pollution in urban settings. The research used open design for hardware, software, data with service design and co-creation as a methodology with citizens at the intersection of participatory sensing and design with an eight-step process to support change-practices. This is published in the award-winning Citizen Sensing: A Toolkit.

Prof. Woods led H2020 GROW Observatory research, having the vision to support the emergence of a movement of citizens generating, sharing and using information on growing food, soil health and issues relating to the climate crisis. GROW resources have been adapted and delivered though H2020 WeObserve a free to access education programme of online courses on the FutureLearn platform, in courses such as Citizen Science Projects: How to Make a Difference.

She is currently PI for both EATS Enhancing Agri-Food Transparent Sustainability funded by EPSRC Digital Economy, Sustainable Digital Sociey 2021 and Urban ReLeaf Citizen-powered data ecosystems for inclusive and green urban transitions funded by Horizon Europe / UKRI. She is also Co-Director for AHRC DesignHOPES Healthy organisation in a place-based ecosystem, Scotland, one of four significant Green Transition Ecosystem Hubs and part of the Future Observatory programme.

Woods has contributed to policy, including by invitation from the European Commission Directorate General Environment (2019) for new Guidelines on Citizen Science for Environmental Monitoring, providing recommendations to promote the use of citizen science for environmental policy development and implementation.

Her current external roles include member of UNFCCC Technology Advisory Group for Resilience Frontiers 2022, advisory board for H2020 SCORE and UKRI Digital Economy Peer Review College.

Teaching

Prof Woods teaching portfolio is focused on PhD, Internships and Masters students.

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 2 - Zero Hunger
  • SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
  • SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy
  • SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth
  • SDG 9 - Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
  • SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities
  • SDG 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production
  • SDG 13 - Climate Action
  • SDG 15 - Life on Land
  • SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

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  • Local Action with Global Impact: The Case of the GROW Observatory and the Sustainable Development Goals

    Ajates, R. (Lead / Corresponding author), Hager, G., Georgiadis, P., Coulson, S., Woods, M. & Hemment, D., 16 Dec 2020, In: Sustainability. 12, 24, 17 p., 10518.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

    Open Access
    File
    30 Citations (Scopus)
    158 Downloads (Pure)

  • Transforming knowledge systems for life on Earth: Visions of future systems and how to get there

    Fazey, I. (Lead / Corresponding author), Schäpke, N., Caniglia, G., Hodgson, A., Kendrick, I., Lyon, C., Page, G., Patterson, J., Riedy, C., Strasser, T., Verveen, S., Adams, D., Goldstein, B., Klaes, M., Leicester, G., Linyard, A., McCurdy, A., Ryan, P., Sharpe, B. & Silvestri, G. & 163 others, Abdurrahim, A. Y., Abson, D., Adetunji, O. S., Aldunce, P., Alvarez-Pereira, C., Amparo, J. M., Amundsen, H., Anderson, L., Andersson, L., Asquith, M., Augenstein, K., Barrie, J., Bent, D., Bentz, J., Bergsten, A., Berzonsky, C., Bina, O., Blackstock, K., Boehnert, J., Bradbury, H., Brand, C., Böhme (born Sangmeister), J., Bøjer, M. M., Carmen, E., Charli-Joseph, L., Choudhury, S., Chunhachoti-ananta, S., Cockburn, J., Colvin, J., Connon, I. L. C., Cornforth, R., Cox, R. S., Cradock-Henry, N., Cramer, L., Cremaschi, A., Dannevig, H., Day, C. T., de Lima Hutchison, C., de Vrieze, A., Desai, V., Dolley, J., Duckett, D., Durrant, R. A., Egermann, M., Elsner (Adams), E., Fremantle, C., Fullwood-Thomas, J., Galafassi, D., Gobby, J., Golland, A., González-Padrón, S. K., Gram-Hanssen, I., Grandin, J., Grenni, S., Lauren Gunnell, J., Gusmao, F., Hamann, M., Harding, B., Harper, G., Hesselgren, M., Hestad, D., Heykoop, C. A., Holmén, J., Holstead, K., Hoolohan, C., Horcea-Milcu, A. I., Horlings, L. G., Howden, S. M., Howell, R. A., Huque, S. I., Inturias Canedo, M. L., Iro, C. Y., Ives, C. D., John, B., Joshi, R., Juarez-Bourke, S., Juma, D. W., Karlsen, B. C., Kliem, L., Kläy, A., Kuenkel, P., Kunze, I., Lam, D. P. M., Lang, D. J., Larkin, A., Light, A., Luederitz, C., Luthe, T., Maguire, C., Mahecha-Groot, A. M., Malcolm, J., Marshall, F., Maru, Y., McLachlan, C., Mmbando, P., Mohapatra, S., Moore, M. L., Moriggi, A., Morley-Fletcher, M., Moser, S., Mueller, K. M., Mukute, M., Mühlemeier, S., Naess, L. O., Nieto-Romero, M., Novo, P., ÓBrien, K., O'Connell, D. A., O'Donnell, K., Olsson, P., Pearson, K. R., Pereira, L., Petridis, P., Peukert, D., Phear, N., Pisters, S. R., Polsky, M., Pound, D., Preiser, R., Rahman, M. S., Reed, M. S., Revell, P., Rodriguez, I., Rogers, B. C., Rohr, J., Nordbø Rosenberg, M., Ross, H., Russell, S., Ryan, M., Saha, P., Schleicher, K., Schneider, F., Scoville-Simonds, M., Searle, B., Sebhatu, S. P., Sesana, E., Silverman, H., Singh, C., Sterling, E., Stewart, S. J., Tàbara, J. D., Taylor, D., Thornton, P., Tribaldos, T. M., Tschakert, P., Uribe-Calvo, N., Waddell, S., Waddock, S., van der Merwe, L., van Mierlo, B., van Zwanenberg, P., Velarde, S. J., Washbourne, C. L., Waylen, K., Weiser, A., Wight, I., Williams, S., Woods, M., Wolstenholme, R., Wright, N., Wunder, S., Wyllie, A. & Young, H. R., Dec 2020, In: Energy Research and Social Science. 70, 18 p., 101724.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

    Open Access
    File
    178 Citations (Scopus)
    303 Downloads (Pure)

  • WeObserve Open Data Challenge: Reflections and implications of open data on the sustainability of Citizen Observatories

    Woods, M., Ajates, R. & Coulson, S., 14 Oct 2020.

    Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper › peer-review

  • Open source toolkits for Citizen Observatories

    Coulson, S., Ajates, R. & Woods, M., 14 Oct 2020.

    Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper › peer-review

  • Citizen Sensing: A Toolkit

    Woods, M. (Lead / Corresponding author), Balestrini, M., Bejtullahu, S., Bocconi, S., Boerwinkel, G., Boonstra, M., Boschman, D.-S., Camprodon, G., Coulson, S., Diez, T., Fazey, I., Hemment, D., van den Horn, C., Ilazi, T., Jansen-Dings, I., Kresin, F., McQuillan, D., Nascimento, S., Pareschi, E. & Polvora, A. & 3 others, Salaj, R., Scott, M. & Seiz, G., 2018, 221 p. Making Sense.

    Research output: Other contribution

    Open Access
    File
    964 Downloads (Pure)
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