Student Placement: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Student Profile
Anna Goodden – Department of Political Economy, King’s College London
PhD topic: Rethinking flood resilience: from policy to practice. The case of flood risk management in England.
Host: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
When: October – December 2025
What drew you to this placement and to working with Kew Gardens?
My placement at Kew Gardens involved working with their Science-Policy team. Most people know Kew as a tourist attraction with their gardens, but it is also a scientific organisation which focuses on researching solutions to prevent biodiversity loss. I learnt lots about many of their scientific projects – from storing seeds in the Arctic, to working with the International Space Station!
My PhD currently focuses on climate and flood resilience policies in the UK, and prior to this I had a background in biodiversity policy through my Masters degree specialising in Environmental Resource Management. I was attracted to this placement as a chance to re-visit a previous area of environmental policy that I studied. Post-PhD I am looking to have a future career in environmental policy, and so this placement was ideal to help me gain a wider range of experience of different types of environmental issues and policies.
What was the main project or challenge you worked on during the placement?
My main project was creating a report card which summarised Kew’s scientific contribution to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF). In short, the KMGBF is the world’s roadmap for protecting nature, through setting out goals to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2050. As a part of this, there are 23 targets to be completed by 2030 to meet these goals, including conserving 30% of land, waters and seas (target 3), and enhancing nature’s contribution to people (target 11). My placement project focused on helping to understand how Kew’s research contributes to these targets, to demonstrate how their scientific work is halting and reversing biodiversity loss. This practically involved collecting information of the policy outputs of many of their science projects, and interviewing scientists about how their work helps to contribute to these targets.
What tangible outputs or contributions did you produce during or after the placement?
The report card will be published by Kew, for Kew’s staff members to take to the upcoming Convention of Biological Diversity COP17 Conference in Armenia in October 2026. For now, the outputs were disseminated amongst Kew staff through a staff blog.
In addition to this work, I contributed to a briefing for Kew’s Director of Science for the Climate COP30 in Brazil last November. This involved summarising some case studies of Kew’s scientific research, and linking them back to the climate discussions being had at that COP.
As well as working on these projects, I attended many events and learnt a lot about biodiversity! I particularly enjoyed attending a Youth Climate Day, which was held at the same time as COP30, to empower youth to have a say on global climate discussions. I also attended Border Force training hosted by Kew’s CITES team, to learn more about how plant trade is regulated at the UK border to ensure that plant species are protected from illegal trade.
What was the most valuable learning experience from your placement?
“By the end of my placement I had linked 67 scientific projects back to the Global Biodiversity Framework targets!”
I really enjoyed being a part of the Science-Policy team to help advance understanding of the global importance of Kew’s science to the general public, and internally to help Kew scientists understand the role and importance of policy within their own science. As much of my PhD is solo work, I found the experience of working with a team and getting opinions from colleagues to be invaluable, which helped to actively shape much of the work I was doing. Along with this, I learnt much about how to communicate new complex ideas very quickly, as by the end of my placement I had linked 67 scientific projects back to the KMGBF targets!
How did the placement relate to your PhD, and which of your research skills proved most useful?
My research focuses on climate adaptation rather than biodiversity, so my ability to read and understand new complex ideas quickly was invaluable for this placement. Communication was a big skill that I developed, particularly with writing for a policy audience and having to summarise large amounts of information into a small case study for a selection of projects.
“Communication was a big skill that I developed, particularly with writing for a policy audience and having to summarise large amounts of information into a small case study for a selection of projects.”
What was the workplace culture like, and what surprised you about working beyond academia?
The workplace culture was great as everyone was so friendly! I really enjoyed coming into the office every day and meeting colleagues who were also a part of different teams (such as education & science communication), to also learn from them and the importance of what they do at Kew. It surprised me how much I learnt from them and from others at Kew who were outside of my placement department. I also enjoyed many walks around the Gardens! That never got old.
How has the placement shaped your confidence or career thinking, and what advice would you give future LISS DTP students?
“This placement made me confident that I can integrate myself into a new team quickly, and learn lots of new information within a short time.”
I am still not sure yet whether I will stay in academia or get a job in environmental policy elsewhere, but this placement has made me confident that I can integrate myself into a new team quickly, and learn lots of new information within a short time. I would definitely recommend LISS DTP students to have confidence whilst applying to internships, particularly for schemes that are a bit different from your research, as they will give you a greater understanding of the wider world of work.
PhD supervisor’s view
Dr Francesca Vantaggiato:
“Anna had a very positive experience at Kew. She felt like the project she was assigned to was designed with her skills and interests in mind. She felt qualified to carry it out. Most importantly, she felt like her work was having concrete impact on the way that Kew works and on the stakeholders that engage with it.”
Host’s feedback
Tom Livermore, Head of Science Policy, RBG Kew:
“Anna was a fantastic addition to Kew’s Science Policy team during her three-month placement at Kew. She has directly contributed to our work on mapping and understanding the contribution of Kew’s work the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF). This included working through current Kew projects and building a database mapping these to the KMGBF’s 23 targets and then working with researchers to develop case studies which can help to demonstrate these contributions in future.
Anna’s work will support Kew’s renewed focus on measuring impact and will also inform our contribution to both the global mapping of the progress towards the KMGBF that will be considered at the CBD’s CoP17 in October 2026.”
Find out more about placement opportunities at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew lists PhD placements on a quarterly basis, with many suitable for social science PhD students. You can find out more about the placements on offer here.