Maureen Wakefield 

Principle Scientist

Maureen is a research entomologist, with over 33 years’ experience, whose current research interests focus around integrated pest management of agriculturally important invertebrate pests and invasive species and the potential use of insects as a novel source of protein for animal feed and other high value materials .

Maureen has spent her career on research to improve understanding of insect behaviour and chemical ecology, in particular with regard to detection and monitoring and the development of novel control methods, including the use of biological control agents such as parasitoids, predators and entomopathogenic fungi. More recently her research has focussed research on insects as a novel source of protein for animal feed and for other high value materials with an emphasis on insect rearing methodologies and nutrition

After launching our Insect Research Unit in 2022, Fera has been working hard over the last year to develop the R&D services, that will help a variety of industries to evaluate the feasibility and scale up processes by which they can best adopt the technology.

This expert research and development (R&D) facility will support the rapid growth of insect bioconversion to upcycle biomass residues into valorised products. 

Fera has led insect bioconversion R&D in the UK and EU for the past 10 years. The laboratory, which is the first of its kind in the UK and one of the first in Europe, enables Fera to help meet the needs of global clients from across the food industry by expanding the scope and scale of its current insect services to ‘twin’ the process of insect bioconversion at factory production scale.