h.grub21@imperial.ac.uk

Henry Grub

Background

I grew up in Sussex with easy access to the beautiful British countryside and its wildlife, and have loved it from the very beginning. However, whilst as I child I enjoyed spending time outdoors, it was becoming increasingly apparent to me as I was growing up that the natural world was under serious threat. Now, I want to spend my time trying to shape a different trajectory for nature, so that my future children, grandchildren and so on, can enjoy countrysides the world over as I did.

I enjoy birdwatching, cycling, and trapsing around historic sites, and I’m on a life mission to see as many different bear species in the wild as I can before I die (I’ve still got a long way to go)!

I went to state school and didn’t come from an academic background – I’m passionate about widening access to academia and our top universities, and in return communicating science back to the general public. I completed a PhD at Imperial College London and the ZSL Institute of Zoology that investigated farmer viewpoints with respect to the management of bovine tuberculosis disease. Prior to that, I worked at ICCS coordinating the OxPOCH project.

So generally I’m in this job to see if I can try and save it so my future kids – and grandkids and so on – can enjoy it growing up as much as I did… and do still to this day!

Research Interests

My main interests can be broadly thought of as coalescing around the central question of ‘how do we achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals’? This is a multi-disciplinary question, and so my current research mixes biology, climate science, psychology, geography and economics (and more!) Sustainability is a critical research topic to me owing to our inherent need to achieve the SDGs pretty soon if society is to continue functioning as we know it. The inherent trade-offs that are present in this, plus the huge engagement requirements and integrated approach required make this a mammoth, all-hands-on-deck task.

I specialise in using research techniques and methodologies from social science, and applying these to sustainability challenges. This type of research enables us to better understand how to design policies and regulations that are more likely to succeed, highlights where there are deficiencies in our own knowledge, and accounts for the actions of people in our environmental systems.

Current Research

My current work at UKCEH focuses on nature finance, which is split into three strands: firstly mobilising capital to fund the protection and restoration of biodiversity, secondly mobilising capital to fund the transition of industrial sectors towards more sustainable practices, and thirdly the assessment and disclosure of the exposure of investments to nature-related risk, and in turn the contribution of those investments to the damaging of nature. My work is on the research side of these strands, i.e. developing methods, techniques, mechanisms and instruments that could advance these areas, and appraising their effectiveness and efficiency.

At ICCS, I am a core team member of Nature Positive Universities, an initiative that was developed from the OxPOCH project in collaboration with UNEP. My work here aims to develop internationally relevant frameworks for higher education and research institutions to account for their impact on nature, both positive and negative, and work towards promoting transitions that will bring about nature positive outcomes within their spheres of influence.

Brief CV

2026 – present: Nature Finance Analyst, UKCEH

2021 – 2025: PhD Environmental Policy, Imperial College London & ZSL Institute of Zoology

2025: Digital Media Intern, The Royal Institution

2023: Research Fellow, Parliamentary Office of Science & Technology

2019 – 2021: Project Coordinator of OxPOCH, ICCS, University of Oxford

2016 – 2019: BA Biological Sciences, Merton College, University of Oxford

Memberships

Member of the Royal Society of Biology (MRSB)

Member of the British Ecological Society

Member of the Society for Conservation Biology

Member of the IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management

Publications

Woodroffe, R. et al. (2024). Farmer-led badger vaccination in Cornwall: Epidemiological patterns and social perspectives. People and Nature, 6, 1960–1973. https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10691

Grub, H.M.J., & Wentworth, J. (2023). What is a just transition for environmental targets? POSTnote 706, Parliamentary Office of Science & Technology. https://doi.org/10.58248/PN706

Taylor, I. et al. (2023). Nature-positive goals for an organization’s food consumption. Nature Food, 4, 96–108. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-022-00660-2

Hawkins, I. et al. (2022). No consistent relationship found between habitat scores determined using the Biodiversity Metric and presence of species of conservation priority. In Practice, 118.

Bull, J.W. et al. (2022). Analysis: the biodiversity footprint of the University of Oxford. Nature, 604, 420-424. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01034-1

Milner-Gulland, E.J. et al. (2021). Four steps for the Earth: mainstreaming the post-2020 global biodiversity framework. One Earth, 4(1), 75-87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2020.12.011

Grub, H.M.J. (2019) Delivering biodiversity net gain for infrastructure development through stakeholder engagement. Undergraduate dissertation, University of Oxford. Online at: https://iccs.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/HenryGrub_Dissertation_Jan2019_1.pdf