A/ProfDana Cordell

Associate Professor Dana Cordell is a Research Director at the Institute for Sustainable Futures where she leads the Food Systems research group. Dana works with stakeholders across Australia, EU, UK, Sweden, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, India, China, Malawi and the U.S. to identify how food systems can transform and circularise in response to a range of sustainability challenges, from climate change to urban sprawl, to the global phosphorus challenge. 

In 2023/4 she led the Australian Government-funded Phosphorus and Climate Smart Agriculture Network (PACSAN) which modelled how Australia and China’s food value chains can decarbonise and ensure phosphorus security, together with a network of stakeholders across both countries. The collaborative P-FUTURES project which Dana co-led, aimed to identify how urban food systems can cope or transform in response to the global phosphorus challenge, together with 90 local stakeholder partners across Australia, Vietnam, Malawi and the U.S. In 2008 Dana co-founded the Global Phosphorus Research Initiative - the first global platform to undertake research, policy and public engagement on phosphorus security, seeking to ensure phosphorus fertiliser supply chains are secure, sustainable and circular so that all farmers have access to fertilisers, agricultural soils are fertile, people are food secure and waters are clean and free from nutrient pollution.

As a circular economy expert on food, nutrients and organic waste, Dana led the development of Australia’s first Agriculture Circular Economy Framework (AACE) and the systemic identification of roadblocks and opportunities to scale up circularity in agriculture, commissioned by AgriFutures. She was co-Chair of the inaugural Circular Economy for Climate & Environment conference in 2023, and as a Chief Investigator of the ARC Research Hub ‘Nutrients in a Circular Economy’, Dana is investigating the governance and market barriers to scaling up circular nutrient value chains in the Australian food system.

As a global food security expert, Dana provides expert advice and commentary to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Australia's Chief Scientist and the UK Parliament. She most recently joined UNEP's Global Environment Outlook team as a global food security contributor. Dana's research contributions have led to numerous prestigious recognitions including one of Australia's top science prizes, the Eureka Prize for Environmental Research (2012) and a position in the 100 Women of Influence (AFR/Westpac, 2013) and Top 100 Most Influential People (Sydney Magazine, 2012). She is frequently interviewed for media, including Radio National, ABC Lateline and London's The Times.