Bridging the Evidence Gap: A Student’s Reflections on the CIEEM Autumn Conference

The roads were frosty and the leaves brown, crunching satisfyingly under loafered feet as everyone streamed into the Crowne Plaza – which could only mean one thing… It was time for the CIEEM Autumn Conference!

I was fortunate to attend this year’s conference after winning the student draw. As a second‑year BSc Ecology & Conservation student, this was a completely new environment for me – one that would not have been accessible without CIEEM’s commitment to creating spaces where early‑career members can grow and thrive. I arrived with a mix of excitement and nerves, feeling a lot like it was my first day of school all over again: outfit laid out the night before, bag packed, and a journal ready to be filled with notes.

What followed was two days that left me inspired, motivated, and brimming with new ideas – and in this blog I’d like to share some of the highlights and reflections from my experience as a student delegate.

The conference was brimming with inspiring and engaging speakers, and Ruth Walters set the tone from the very start. Her opening talk on how ecological evidence can support a thriving society truly kicked off the day with energy and purpose, which followed through for the rest of the event. As someone particularly interested in the data and evidence side of ecology, the theme “Bridging the Evidence Gap” was right up my alley.

One of the strongest themes running through the conference was the call to make our data less fragmented and more useful. Nigel Doar’s talk “Whose evidence gap is it anyway?” really stuck with me – he showed how stories can sometimes be more impactful than raw data alone. Catherine Burton built on that by digging into why our data has become so disjointed, and how harmonisation could unlock its full potential. Then Richard Wilson nailed it with the line that stuck in my notebook: “We don’t just need data, we need the right data.”

On the solutions side, Katie Medcalf opened my eyes to why environmental evidence often fails to influence real‑world policy, and how shifting our approach could change that. And Elizabeth Mitchell wowed the room with some of the mapping products Natural England is developing – nationwide, open‑access datasets that look to transform how we share and apply evidence. It was exciting to see not just the challenges laid out, but the creativity and innovation driving us toward answers.

Oh, and a special shoutout to Kat Janczur, with her work training dogs to sniff out Honey Waxcaps – when I got home, I told my dog he needed to get a job!

I came away from the conference with so many fresh thoughts and insights. It was inspiring to be surrounded by industry professionals whom I look up to – to finally see the people and faces behind the work, and to reinforce my own ambition of building a career rooted in research and data. Watching everyone speak with such passion left me thinking “I want to be like that” – giving me even more motivation to carry me forward in the rest of my studies, and to ‘bridge the gap’ between graduation and career.

Again, a big thank you to CIEEM for hosting such a wonderful conference, for their student draw, and for making early‑career voices feel so welcome