1. What's your position now and how long have you been in it?
I am the head of the animal welfare unit which sits within AFBI’s Livestock Production Science branch. When I came to AFBI in 2018 the unit had been empty for several years, so I had to build it up from the ground. I’m lucky to have been able to build a good team around me since.
2. What has your career and/or academic path looked like, in leading you to your role at AFBI?
I’ve been involved in research in farm animal welfare for nearly two decades now and this has taken me to several countries. Before I came to AFBI I had carried out research on the welfare of pigs, hens, broiler chickens, and meat rabbits in the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK and Belgium. Most of this time was spent in Belgium, where I did my PhD work and several post-doc projects after that. As my last post-doc project there came to an end, I fell into a financing gap. Sadly, this is all too common in research careers. There was just no funding for farm animal welfare research available at that particular moment, due to a lack of political interest in the topic. So I was faced with a choice: either stay on at the Belgian research institute but switch to a topic other than animal welfare, or find greener pastures elsewhere. I chose the latter and ended up at the University of Bristol for a while. When one day I heard about a permanent function in farm animal welfare research, I knew it was my time to move again and this is how I ended up at AFBI. I think the variety of places I have worked in and the different species I worked with really help when fulfilling my current role, as the research questions that we attempt to tackle cover many species and require a varied approach.
Stephanie Buijs
3. What does a typical day look like for you, if such a thing exists?
Absolutely not. My work varies greatly from day to day. One day I might be out in the field collecting data at one of our various animal experiments, the next day I may be dealing with staff management, presenting to a group of farmers or students, financial management, writing a paper, analysing and interpreting data, or planning new experiments.
4. Tell us more about your work and what impact it has (or is expected to have)?
With my unit I perform scientific research on farm animal welfare. This research is very important to discern objectively what animals truly need and want. Knowing this is essential to the improvement of farm animal welfare in Northern Ireland and beyond. Of course, the animals themselves are the first beneficiary of this. But it also highly important for farmers and the other links of the production chain. This is because showing that welfare on their farms is good and improving helps to ensure the ongoing social acceptance of livestock farming. Good welfare also contributes to animals reaching their optimal production efficiency, so there are financial and environmental benefits too.
5. What do you enjoy most about your working day?
I enjoy all parts of doing scientific research, but what drew me most to this field is the need to understand animals. So interpreting the data from our experiments to draw meaningful conclusions on how we can improve welfare certainly ends up at the top of the list. Observing animal behaviour, which can tell us so much about their needs and preferences, is also an all-time favourite. Working with the wider team here at Hillsborough is definitely also a bonus!
2. What has your career and/or academic path looked like, in leading you to your role at AFBI?
