I was delighted to hear that my constituent, Dr Jennifer Garden, has been awarded a £15,000 fellowship at the recent L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science UK and Ireland awards in Parliament.

The For Women in Science UK and Ireland programme awards fellowships to outstanding female scientists and Dr Garden was shortlisted from 337 applications. She was awarded the fellowship for her research on finding sustainable alternatives for conventional polymers, to tackle the growing environmental implications of single-use plastics. This funding will help fund Dr Garden’s chemical analysis and overcome the obstacles she is facing   what a fantastic achievement!

I have a keen interest in tackling the challenge of plastic pollution. I think many of us were impacted by the harrowing images from Blue Planet documentary and it really urged me to take a stand. I signed up to Sky Ocean Rescue’s “pass on plastic” pledge in early 2018 and led the hugely successful cross party More United plastics free oceans campaign over the summer of 2018. I continue to be actively involved in this and other areas, to push for positive action against plastic pollution.

I am grateful to Dr Garden for taking the time to meet with me to tell me more about her research. I was also pleased to table an Early Day Motion in Parliament, congratulating her on her award and calling on the Government to utilise her innovative research to help meet our climate change reduction commitments. You can see this here.