Professor David Gowing is Professor of Botany at the Open University, responsible for overseeing the Floodplain Meadow Partnership.  David has studied floodplain meadows for 18 years. He has won numerous research contracts from organisations such as Defra, RSPB, English Nature, the Environment Agency, and the Natural Environment Research Council. He has published widely including seminal papers in the world’s leading scientific journals. He is regularly called upon to advise conservation organisations, statutory authorities and landowners within the UK and has numerous collaborations internationally (e.g. Netherlands and South Africa). He plays an important role in advocating for floodplain meadows including in discussions with Government. He has also worked as an academic advisor on numerous joint BBC series including the recent Green Planet series with David Attenborough.