English frustration led to PhD job

Originally from Newcastle in the UK, Andrew graduated from Leeds with a Bachelor's degree in Political Science and worked as a policy advisor after graduation.

- I was really interested in sustainability and environmental issues, but I didn't have the knowledge and I was frustrated with how the council was dealing with them.

During his undergraduate studies, Andrew had done an exchange semester in Halmstad and made Swedish friends. This lack of knowledge led him to return to Sweden, while the UK was still in the EU, to study a double master's degree in sustainable development at Uppsala University and environmental science at SLU.

He then stayed in Sweden, first as a coordinator at Uppsala University, responsible for developing courses and training programmes. He also worked for a while as a communicator at the Stockholm Environment Institute before getting a job as a project coordinator at SLU Urban Futures, both in the Food and City project and as a hub coordinator for Ultuna.

- The project was created to see how Swedish municipalities work with food issues. It has led to my PhD project which is about new processes for innovation around food strategies and how they are managed. I will integrate lessons learnt from the project through case studies from 6-7 Swedish municipalities that have such processes underway.

In the UK and the US, there has been more thinking around food planning for a long time. The issue has been revitalised in Sweden since responsibility has been partially shifted from central to local government in the area of food security.

- Here we have had a narrow focus on urban agriculture, but there are many more aspects than that when you start thinking about preparedness and sustainability from a systems perspective. How should we think about urban development and self-sufficiency and how to process, transport, distribute and store food, for example?

When the PhD programme started in August, Andrew moved to Helsingborg from Uppsala with his partner and middle poodle. He enjoys walking his dog, being outdoors and is interested in plants and cultivation. He is proud to have learnt Swedish after also studying Greek and German. Reading sci-fi is also an interest he has.

- It's fun to fantasise about a different world and not have to focus on reality. There's something about the future. I guess there is a connection with my research. I also dream of getting a house in Italy and spending time in the mountains, says Andrew Gallagher.