Dr Elena Cini

Elena is an interdisciplinary scientist with experience in ecology, agri-environmental research, and conservation social science. Using multi-disciplinary approaches – including participatory research and large-scale fieldwork – she has been exploring a range of sustainability and environmental themes, such as bee health, deer management, and food system resilience.

Email: [email protected]

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Background

Elena has expertise in quantitative and qualitative research to address environmental and sustainability challenges, contributing to different large-scale projects. At the Global Sustainability Institute, she works on the BBSRC-funded BAFR project – Backcasting to Achieve Food Resilience in the UK – aiming to reduce the UK food system vulnerability to external shocks and produce policy-relevant insights to prevent its collapse. Previously, she was a Postdoctoral Research Officer at Bangor University on the NERC-Treescapes iDeer project, where she explored attitudes toward deer management to inform future land management scenarios amid the UK net-zero targets. Elena completed her PhD at the University of Reading within the Horizon EU PoshBee project, where she focussed on drivers of bee declines and sustainable beekeeping in Europe using a range of different research approaches, including fieldwork, lab work, and questionnaires.

Spoken Languages

• English
• Italian

Research interests

• Bee health and ecology
• Use of pesticides in agriculture
• Social science research applied to ecology, conservation, agriculture, and related sectors
• Food systems, food waste, food security

Qualifications

PhD Ecology and Agri-environmental Research, University of Reading (UK)

MSc Food Security, University of Glasgow (UK)

BSc Food Science and Technology, University of Milan (Italy)

Selected recent publications

Tourbez, C., Gekière, A., Bottero, I., Chauzat, M.P., Cini, E., Corvucci, F., de Miranda, J.R., Di Prisco, G., […] and Michez, D., 2025. Variation in the pollen diet of managed bee species across European agroecosystems. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 383, p.109518.

Cini, E., Potts, S.G., Senapathi, D., Albrecht, M., Arafah, K., Askri, D., Bocquet, M., […] and Breeze, T. B., 2025. Beekeepers’ perceptions toward a new omics tool for monitoring bee health in Europe. PloS one, 20(1), p.e0316609.

Askri, D., Pottier, M., Arafah, K., Voisin, S.N., Hodge, S., Stout, J.C., Dominik, C., […] and Bulet, P., 2024. A blood test to monitor bee health across a European network of agricultural sites of different land-use by MALDI BeeTyping mass spectrometry. Science of the Total Environment, 929, p.172239.

Laurent, M., Bougeard, S., Caradec, L., Ghestem, F., Albrecht, M., Brown, M.J., de Miranda, J., […] and Chauzat, M. P., 2024. Novel indices reveal that pollinator exposure to pesticides varies across biological compartments and crop surroundings. Science of the Total Environment, 927, p.172118.

Babin, A., Schurr, F., Delannoy, S., Fach, P., Huyen Ton Nu Nguyet, M., Bougeard, S., de Miranda, J.R., […] and Dubois, E., 2024. Distribution of infectious and parasitic agents among three sentinel bee species across European agricultural landscapes. Scientific Reports, 14(1), p.3524.

Nicholson, C.C., Knapp, J., Kiljanek, T., Albrecht, M., Chauzat, M.P., Costa, C., De la Rúa, P., […] and Rundlöf, M., 2024. Pesticide use negatively affects bumble bees across European landscapes. Nature, 628(8007), pp.355-358.

Straw, E.A., Cini, E., Gold, H., Linguadoca, A., Mayne, C., Rockx, J., Brown, M.J., Garratt, M.P., Potts, S.G., and Senapathi, D., 2023. Neither sulfoxaflor, Crithidia bombi, nor their combination impact bumble bee colony development or field bean pollination. Scientific Reports, 13(1), p.16462.

Bottero, I., Dominik, C., Schweiger, O., Albrecht, M., Attridge, E., Brown, M.J., Cini, E., […] and Stout, J. C., 2023. Impact of landscape configuration and composition on pollinator communities across different European biogeographic regions. Frontiers in ecology and evolution, 11, p.1128228.

Hodge, S., Schweiger, O., Klein, A.M., Potts, S.G., Costa, C., Albrecht, M., de Miranda, J.R., […] and Stout, J. C., 2022. Design and planning of a transdisciplinary investigation into farmland pollinators: rationale, co-design, and lessons learned. Sustainability, 14(17), p.10549.

Vanderplanck, M., Michez, D., Albrecht, M., Attridge, E., Babin, A., Bottero, I., Breeze, T., Brown, M., Chauzat, M.P., Cini, E., [...] and Gérard, M., 2021. Monitoring bee health in European agroecosystems using wing morphology and fat bodies. One Ecosystem, 6.