Professor Matt Lobley

Matt Lobley is Professor of Rural Resource Management and Director of the Centre for Rural Policy Research. He is a rural social scientist drawing primarily on the disciplines of Geography and Rural Sociology and has spent the last 35 years conducting research for a variety of government, private sector and third sector clients. He has successfully delivered research projects and evaluations with a gross value of approximately £26m. Matt specialises in applied research and evaluations of schemes and initiatives, drawing on a range of social science disciplines and utilising both quantitative and qualitative techniques. He has conducted face-to-face and telephone interviews with many hundreds of farmers, land managers, advisors, project officers etc. Matt’s research broadly addresses three key themes: i) agri-environmental management; ii) historical and contemporary agricultural change and restructuring; iii) the farm as a family business (including the well-being and mental health of farm family members). Matt is a member of the Great South West Food Security Board, a Board member of Rothamsted Research. He is Co-Director of the International FarmTransfers project, a global collaborative research initiative exploring the pattern, process and speed of farm succession and retirement. Matt was the sole social scientist on the Fursdon Review of Protected Sites on Dartmoor in 2023.