Dr Laura de Vito

• Qualifications:BSc, MA, MSc, PhD
• Position:Senior Research Fellow: Air Quality Management Resource Centre
• Department:School of Architecture and Environment
• Telephone:+441173285011
• Email:Laura.Devito@uwe.ac.uk
• Social media:

About me

Profile

Laura is a Public Policy (Political Sciences) researcher working at the science-policy interface on environmental policy, and long-term decision-making (strategic foresight). Since 2017 she has been employed in the Air Quality Management Resource Centre (AQMRC) at the University of the West of England (UWE) Bristol, where she is now working as a Senior Research Fellow. Her academic background is in Public Policy and Environmental Policy, in which she has two Masters' (at LUISS Guido Carli University, Rome, & at the London School of Economics and Political Sciences). In 2017, Laura completed a PhD at the University of Bristol. Her PhD research addressed the complexities of implementing the EU's Water Framework Directive using New Institutionalist theories and her thesis was nominated for the Faculty of Social Sciences and Law prize for outstanding excellence in a doctoral thesis. Since 2022 she has also focussed on researching and teaching sustainable futures, specialising in how governments can use strategic foresight for more future-oriented and resilient policymaking, and directly applying a wide range of strategic foresight methods as analytical techniques. 

Selected projects

West of England Industrial CLuster – Connecting, supporting and empowering West of England businesses to decarbonise the future together (2024-25): (Innovate UK, UWE and academic lead: integrating strategic foresight in the development of the LIDP).  

ESRC Policy Fellowship – Welsh Government Sustainable Futures (PI, Feb 2022-Aug 2023): exploring the role of strategic foresight in sustainable development governance 

JPI-ESRC CCC-CATAPULT (Co-I and WP lead 2020-2024) explores young people's climate anxieties and perceptions and intergenerational fairness issues  

UKRI Homes under the microscope (2021-2023) (Co-I and WP lead): a citizen-science project exploring airborne microplastics in homes and co-developing better practice and exploring potential policy solutions.

BA Just Transition and Biodiversity (Co-I, 2021), looking at what just transition mean for biodiversity protection using place-based lens

Local Government Association (LGA) – Net Zero Innovation Programme (Co-I, lead researcher 2021) in partnership with South Gloucestershire council for the development of a local carbon communication strategy and toolkit 

The NERC-MRC Clean Air for Delhi through Intervention Mitigation and Engagement (CADTIME)  (2017-2021) long-term policy solutions to air pollution in Delhi, India

Advisory roles

She is member of the Bristol Advisory Committee on Climate Change and of the Scottish Government Working Group on Public Engagement and Clean Air for Scotland.

Social media links
Laura De Vito | LinkedIn

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9196-4013

Area of expertise

Academic background: Political Sciences (Public Policy and Public Administration, with specialism in environmental and sustainable development policy and regulation) 

Research themes: environmental and climate change policy; sustainable development governance.

Research methods: mixed-methods (qualitative and quantitative), comparartive research and Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA); foresight methodologies

Publications

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