Professor Melissa Leach was a co-founder of the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) Environment Group in 1990. With a background as an anthropologist and geographer, her interdisciplinary, policy-engaged research in West Africa and beyond in subsequent decades has linked environment, health, and social change, with particular interests in knowledge, power, and the politics of science and policy processes. In 2006 she co-founded and co-directed the ESRC STEPS (Economic and Social Research Council's Social, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability) Centre and from 2014–24 was overall Director of IDS. She is now Executive Director of the Cambridge Conservation Initiative (CCI) – a partnership between the university and ten organisations linking research with practical action for people and nature (www.cambridgeconservation.org/). She is also Professor in Social Anthropology, Cambridge and remains connected with IDS as an Emeritus Fellow.
Robin Mearns is Global Director for Social Development at the World Bank. Since joining the Bank in 1997, he has led operations, policy dialogue, and analytics in various regions, served as global lead on the social dimensions of climate change, as Programme Leader for sustainable development in Southern Africa, and as Regional Manager for Social Development in South Asia and Africa regions. Robin was previously a Fellow of the Institute of Development Studies (where he co-founded the Environment Group with Melissa Leach in 1990) and a research associate with the International Institute for Environment Development (IIED) in London. He holds MA, PhD (Geography) University of Cambridge and MPhil (Development Studies) University of Sussex.
Ian Scoones is a professor at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS). He was the co-Director of the ESRC STEPS (Economic and Social Research Council's Social, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability) Centre working on the politics of sustainability and has recently completed the European Research Council Advanced Grant project, PASTRES (pastoralism, uncertainty, resilience: global lessons from the margins). An ecologist by original training, he works on the interface between science and policy, focusing on the politics of knowledge in the context of agrarian and environmental change especially in southern Africa. His most recent book is Navigating Uncertainty: Radical Rethinking for a Turbulent World (2024, Polity Books).