STEM Faculty

Professional biography

Andrea Berardi has more than 20 years’ experience in teaching, researching and building capacity for enabling sustainable communities. After achieving qualifications in ecology (BSc), nature conservation (MSc) and environmental science (PhD), he has taught at the London School of Economics, University College London, Royal Holloway, and The Open University. 

His main interests lie in facilitating grass roots approaches to ecological sustainability and social justice using an action research and learning process. The aim is to enable communities to collaboratively learn from their own practical experiences using local resources.

His work has pioneered the development and application of the concept of ‘community owned solutions’: practices that are conceived, developed and successfully implemented within communities by communities. As part of this, Andrea is the co-director of the Cobra Collective - a UK-based social enterprise launched in 2016 aimed at translating academic research into practical interventions for directly supporting communities in facing up to current and emerging challenges. The Collective blends environmental science, accessible information and communication technologies, and traditional knowledge using highly participatory methodologies and action learning, ultimately aimed at building local capacities so that communities can implement their own solutions with minimal ongoing external assistance. Since its launch, the Collective raised over £1 million for community-based projects in Guyana, Venezuela, Bolivia, Kenya, Sri Lanka and the UK.

In May 2023, Andrea was elected as an Indipendent Councillor to represent Englefield Green East within Runnymede Borough Council. Since May 2024, his Independent group formed an alliance with other political groups to administer the council. Andrea leads on climate change and biodiversity policy-making and community action.

Research interests

Andrea’s role at The Open University is now entirely focused on research and project delivery in community development, environmental management and systems thinking. His approach uses holistic, accessible, visual and participatory methodologies. Andrea’s transdisciplinary research activities develop socio-technological systems for supporting and promoting ecological sustainability, social justice and community development. Notable funded research projects include:

• Co-Investigator, Increasing the resilience of biodiversity and livelihoods in Colombo’s wetlands, Sri Lanka (£344k) Darwin Initiative, DEFRA/FCDO, 2020-2023: The project aims to sustain and restore Colombo's wetlands, which are fundamental to the well-being of 2.3 million people, particularly urban poor.
• Co-Principal Investigator, Landscape Sensor-based Monitoring Assessment using Remote Technologies – SMART Project (£399k) UK Space Agency, 2021-2022: aimed at launching a new global service aimed at providing accessible surface water monitoring tools using remote sensing technologies.
• Co-Principal Investigator, Integrated Space Technology Vector Control for Enhancing Community Health and Resilience Against Escalating Climatic Disruptions – DETECT Project (£381k), UK Space Agency, 2020-2021: The project co-designed, through participatory action research, a community-based vector control service with Indigenous communities in Guyana.
• Co-Investigator, Co-producing a community-based mental health improvement programme in Guyana through interdisciplinary participatory action research (£50k), British Academy, 2019-2020: In collaboration with Guyanese communities and stakeholders, the participatory action research project developed, implemented and evaluated a capacity building and intervention programme for strengthening community mental health resilience.
• Co-Investigator, Community Owned Best practice for sustainable Resource Adaptive management in the Guiana Shield, South America - COBRA Project (€1.9 million) EU FP7, 2011-2015: COBRA studied the impact of new funding sources aimed at addressing emerging challenges, such as climate change, on Indigenous communities in Colombia, Guyana, Venezuela, Suriname, French Guiana and Brazil, and investigated how civil society organisations are able to work with marginalised communities in order to respond more effectively to these new funding opportunities.

Teaching interests

Andrea has been involved in capacity building activities and courses in Guyana, Brazil, Italy (linked to research projects) and the UK (for The Open University, Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust and students at Schumacher College). This includes developing materials, organising and implementing training courses in participatory methods, community engagement, systems thinking and practice, ecological and social indicator development, ecological monitoring techniques, participatory video, GIS, data analysis, and stakeholder engagement. He has extensive experience as a course facilitator for local communities, mature students, institutional staff and scientists, and government officials.

Andrea has supervised several PhD students whose work examines participatory methods and community engagement to achieve environmental and developmental outcomes. 

Until July 2021, Andrea held significant responsibilities in the development, production and presentation of OU Environmental Management and Systems Thinking modules. 

Impact and engagement

From September 2016 to March 2021 Andrea was the lead for Research Impact in The Open University’s Development Studies Research Excellence Framework (REF) Unit of Assessment. This involved coordinating the development of REF impact case studies, including a case study based on his own research impact activities.

External collaborations

Member, UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship Panel College, 2020 - present: A £900 million fund aimed at attracting talented early-career individuals in order to ensure a vibrant environment for research and innovation in the UK.

Awarding panel member, ESRC Impact Acceleration Account (IAA), 2019 - 2021: Making decisions on funding for a wide range of Knowledge Exchange activities in order to enhance the impact of excellent social science research within universities.

Member, ‘Learning from Consortia’ Academic Advisory Board, 2020 - 2021: The ‘Learning from Consortia’ programme was an initiative designed to learn from £142 million UK Aid Connect programme funding and the consortia delivering these programmes. The Academic Advisory Board provided expert input, advice and validation of the research process throughout the duration of the programme. Andrea's focus was on community engagement, which culminated in the publication of this resource. 

Andrea also acted as the external examiner for Schumacher College's MSc in Holistic Science.