Dr Frances Manning

Profile

Frances Manning is a Researcher in MSPO–Oxford Sustainable Palm Oil Policy & Innovation Lab at the Smith School for Enterprise and the Environment (Department of Geography) at the University of Oxford. Her work focuses on sustainability challenges in agricultural supply chains, with an emphasis on developing practical solutions to environmental and social issues.

Trained as a biologist, Frances completed her PhD at the University of Aberdeen, where she specialised in oil palm sustainability. Her research examined the carbon cycle in oil palm plantations on agriculturally drained peat soils. As part of her doctoral work, she spent two years living on oil palm plantations in Sarawak, Malaysia, conducting field-based data collection. Whilst at the University of Aberdeen, Frances supported the IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land as a Chapter Scientist on Chapter Six of the report.

Following her PhD, Frances worked for ADAS for four years as a Sustainable Agriculture Consultant, delivering bespoke projects on carbon, nitrogen, and water cycles across UK and international supply chains for a range of public-sector and private-sector clients. Frances subsequently held two postdoctoral positions at the University of Oxford. At the Oxford Martin School, she worked with the HESTIA team on land use change and the associated environmental impacts of agriculture-driven deforestation. She then contributed to the FOODCoST Horizon project with the Food Systems Transformation team at the Environmental Change Institute. Here, her work focused on the environmental, health, economic, and social impacts of food systems from production to consumption.