Consultancy // Mentoring // Research services // Strategy

“Principles‑oriented evaluation and strategy review rooted in ecological intelligence and biocultural restoration. InverSE helps clients ask better questions, learn collectively, and design holistic business plans that are environmentally informed, ethically grounded, locally rooted, future‑oriented and socially just. The aim is not only to deliver projects, but to strengthen long‑term resilience and learning capacity within organisations and communities.”

Collaboration, supervision, mentoring, peer review and strategic advice based on deep insight and rapid evidence review have been central to Jon’s professional practice over two decades in the environment sector. The InverSE consultancy draws its name from Jon’s Scottish roots (inver meaning a ‘confluence of streams’ and alluding to the interface between social and environmental knowledge bases) as well as representing the ‘flip side’ of Jon’s career, moving from academia to real world practice.

Through InverSE, Jon offers his skills and experience across a range of key consultancy services:

Climate Change Risk Assessment

Each year that passes sees greater recognition that climate change is real and is happening now. This realisation makes tangible the importance of engaging with predictions about ongoing change into the future and understanding their potential impacts on people, organisations, assets, and ambitions. Minimising carbon emissions is a crucial step, however across society every organisation now also needs to be prepared to mitigate the severity of these impacts through adaptation to environmental change in the short, medium and longer term. Set within the latest UK Government frameworks (CCRA4), InverSE Climate Change Risk services scale from rapid desk review and scoping to an in-depth organisational audit aimed at facilitating you to identify and prioritise steps within an Adaptation and Mitigation Plan.

Ecological Intelligence Advisory

Ecological Intelligence is about extending strategic insight beyond financial or regulatory metrics and day-to-day activities to better understand where you are, when you are, and on what you depend. Developing your deep knowledge of your place, people and assets into an holistic, critical and systems-oriented intelligence is an essential step in the strategic decisions required to transition to sustainable, resilient and ethical futures in the face of an increasingly uncertain world. InverSE Ecological Intelligence Advisory services include ‘Ecological IQ’ audits, bespoke training for staff and stakeholders in the principles and tools of Ecological Literacy and one-off or longer-term retained ‘Critical Friend’ strategy support and review.

Evaluation

InverSE can deliver evaluation of project or organisational performance against indicators, targets and outcomes either working to specification or through the design and application of bespoke evaluation based on Ecological Intelligence principles. Jon has experience in the collection and reporting of data across a wide range of quantitative and qualitative indicators, from environmental data and surveys to document review, stakeholder interviews and facilitated group discussions.

Foresighting and Scenario-making

InverSE offers both training in and application of a suite of foresighting tools and techniques to support you to identify, assess and prioritise potential directions, opportunities, threats, or emerging contexts facing your work in the future. Grounded in years of postgraduate level teaching and using toolkits developed by the UK Government, Jon will work with you to identify objectives and approaches which are best aligned to your needs and develop bespoke, co-produced work programmes that embed foresight within your strategy.

Use the links in the drop-down menu above to explore showcases of each of these offers, and get in touch with Jon to discuss what InverSE can do for you.

Research services

Drawing on two decades of experience writing, reviewing, assessing and delivering grant-funded research projects at all levels from postdoctoral researcher to associate professor, through InverSE Research services Jon can provide empathetic, experienced and expert support across the full spectrum from individual mentoring on positioning, profile and research trajectory to research-group level critical friend advisory on research strategy, ECR training, internal peer review and panel preparation.

Find out more at the link in the drop-down menu above, and get in touch with Jon to discuss your projects!