Laura Devaney

Dr. Laura Devaney is a contract research officer in Teagasc, the Agriculture and Food Development Authority in Ireland.

She is currently working on WP3 in CASA with particular roles in Task 3.2 assessing the state of play of research and innovation policy in the European bioeconomy and conducting a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) of the current SCAR structure and functions. Previous to her CASA commitments, Laura was a postdoctoral researcher on the nationally funded BioÉire project in Teagasc, identifying the most promising value chain opportunities for the Irish bioeconomy. Results form part of the knowledge base being used to develop a national bioeconomy policy statement for Ireland.

Before her time in Teagasc, Laura lectured in the Department of Geography, Trinity College Dublin where she was lead researcher of the Eating HomeLabs for the CONSENSUS project that examined sustainable consumption at the household level (www.consensus.ie).

She has also conducted bioeconomy research in Nova Scotia in 2017, funded by a Dobbin Atlantic Scholarship from the Ireland Canada University Foundation, provided with support from the Irish Government.

She is also due to travel to UC Berkeley in 2018 as an EPA-Fulbright scholar to research American bioeconomy governance and development, forging further bioeconomy research connections across the Atlantic.