Dr William Stiles

BSc. (Hons) PhD

Will is a Lecturer for BioInnovation Wales and leads the Knowledge Exchange Hub in IBERS for Farming Connect. He divides his time between coordinating postgraduate modules on Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) and Waste Resource Management, and coordinating the provision of scientific support for the Farming Connect programme from the Knowledge Exchange Hub.

Will has a background in soil science and ecology and his research looks for ways to reduce the environmental impact of agriculture and make farming and food production more sustainable. 

Projects:

Farming Connect is a high profile, integrated project supplying focussed training, support and advice to the agricultural community in Wales, delivered through a pan-Wales programme of knowledge transfer activities, specialist advice and support for innovation. Farming Connect is funded through the Rural Development Plan (RDP) 2014 - 2020, which is funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the Welsh Government.

BioInnovation Wales is a partnership between the Institute for Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS) at Aberystwyth University and the College of Engineering at Swansea University. The scheme has been supported by the European Social Fund (Priority 2 ‘Skills for Growth’) through the Welsh Government.

In addition to his university responsibilities, Will is also a director of an external company, Vertikit, which aims to support the development of the CEA and Vertical Farming sectors in the UK.

Will completed a PhD in ecology and biogeochemistry at IBERS, Aberystwyth University, with a thesis entitled: Identifying key environmental factors affecting primary productivity and ecosystem services in the uplands.

Prior to this, Will Studied for a BSc (Hons) in Ecology & Environmental Management (joint honours) at the University of Worcester, graduating with First-class honours, before working on a project at Cranfield University for the HGCA to develop a calibration model for measuring phosphorus in UK soil, using visible and near infrared spectroscopy.

Lecturer

• BDM1220 - Waste Resource Management
• BBM1220 - Rheoli Deunydd Gwastraff
• BDM6320 - Life Cycle Assessment and Beyond

Research interests include ecological and soil based responses to system biogeochemical change, such as in response to nutrient, particularly nitrogen (N), pollution. Specifically, this has focused on the effect of phosphorus (P) availability in situations of chronic N pollution and the role of P limitation with regard to influence on plant diversity, soil biology, carbon fluxes and soil carbon storage potential.