Research Fellow
Dr Neil James
With a background in marine ecology and zoology his broad research interests include applied approaches tackling environmental contamination, developing sustainable resource use and circular economies in remote and rural regions.
Neil’s research interests include the issues surrounding the presence, magnitude and effects of marine pollution of aquatic environments. These include:
1. Marine plastic pollution – the presence in the environment and impact on biota, especially, but not limited to birds
2. Marine oil pollution – developing new tools to assess the risk and impact of oil spills on local wildlife
3. Developing novel solutions – to protect the environment and biota of remote and rural regions, including citizen science
4. Sustainable and circular economies – developing sustainable resource use and circular economies in remote and rural regions.
Neil manages and coordinates BirdsandDebris.com, the crowdsourcing, community science project focussed on the interaction of plastics, and other debris, with birds, and is project coordinator for One Health Breakthrough Partnership.
Neil is also a lecturer for the UHI course Environmental Conservation, and is the host of a podcast Under the Surface: The Pollution Experience.
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2015 – Present: Research fellow & NPA project coordinator
2011 – 2015: Contracts researcher and STEM co-ordinator
2010 – 2011: Ecological Consultant – self employed
2010 – 2010: Amphibian Research Assistant – University of Glasgow
2004 – 2009: PhD – Marine Ecology – British Antarctic Survey, University of Liverpool
2000 – 2004: MBiolSci (Hons) Zoology (First Class) – University of Sheffield
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Neil was the project coordinator for Circular Ocean, a €1.5million project funded by the EU’s Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme and responsible for the operational management overall financial administration and accounting of the project. Circular Ocean focussed on the impact of environmental contamination and sought to developing innovative and sustainable solutions for marine plastic waste. Through transnational collaboration and eco-innovation Circular Ocean developed, shared and tested new sustainable solutions to incentivise the elimination, collection and, reprocessing of discarded fishing nets and assist the movement towards a more circular economy. Circular Ocean won the prestigious EU RegioStars 2016 inaugural Public Choice Award and was a finalist in the category Sustainable Growth: Circular Economy.
Neil also worked on the project Blue Circular Economy which aimed at developing sustainable solutions to marine plastic waste a litter, and was itself a finalist in the RegioStars 2020 awards
Neil has previously worked on a range of transnational projects including the following EU Interreg funded Northern Periphery and Arctic / Northern Periphery Programme projects :
POPCORN Preventing Oil and Plastics Contamination of Ocean Regions of the North
APP4SEA (Arctic Preparedness Platform for oil Spill and other Environmental Accidents)
GREBE (Generating Renewable Energy Business Enterprise).
REGINA (Regional Innovation in the Nordic Arctic and Scotland with a Special Focus on Regions with Large-Scale Projects).
BioPAD (Bioenergy Proliferation and Deployment)
RASLRES (Regional Approaches to Stimulating Local Renewable Energy Solutions)
CoastAdapt which focused on how coastal communities can adapt to future impacts of climate change
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PhD students
Steph Griffiths – Seabirds as sentinel species: assessing the risk of nest incorporation of marine plastic debris
Huiyi Zhang – Can marine plastics be used as adsorbent for emerging contaminants in aquatic system?
Lola Paradinas – Microplastic distribution along the Scottish coastline
Master’s students
Florian Meyer – Marine microplastic pollution present on Northern Scottish and Orkney Island beaches and its affinity for heavy metals.
