Her research is motivated by the following research questions:

• When might it make sense to adopt new concepts and instruments for environmental management? How can we best understand the challenges and consequences of implementing such new concepts, especially those (such as the 'Ecosystem Approach') that encourage a systemic approach to connect multiple issues?
• How are different knowledges produced and used in collaboration and decision-making for environmental management? If and how do concepts (such as ecosystem services) or tools (such as scenario-planning) influence processes of knowledge co-production, including in science-policy interfaces?
• How can we better enable stakeholder participation in environmental management, including Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) ? What are the social and environmental consequences of doing so?

Kerry's main ongoing research projects

• Exploring narratives underpinning European policies and how these affect environmental management, within the project MAGIC 'Moving Towards Adaptive Governance in Complexity: Informing Nexus Security', running 2016-2020 and funded by EU H2020.
• Identifying how interacting policy instruments shape consideration of tradeoffs in natural resource management, and will explore opportunities to use new instruments such as Payments for Ecosystem Services.  This is funded by the Scottish Government RESAS Strategic Research Programme 2016-2021.
• Managing a package of work on 'Effective Water Management', and within this leading work to explore if and how multiple goals may be appraised and delivered.  This is funded by the Scottish Government RESAS Strategic Research Programme 2016-2021.

Kerry's current work predominantly uses qualitative research methods, e.g. collecting data from semi-structured interviews, workshops, participant observation, analysed using both inductive and deductive approaches.  She also has expertise in quantitative methods e.g. design, deployment and quantiative analysis of paper and online surveys for primary data collection, design and deplyment of systematic reviews and meta-analyses to analyse secondary data. To communicate research she uses varied written, visual and oral approaches -see outputs list below. She has an established track record in project management, line management, student supervision, data management and research ethics.

Kerry currently co-supervises 1 PhD student: Kirsty Holstead, who is building understanding of community water governance, funded by a Hydronation scholarship, with Dr Shona Russell at the University of St Andrews. She previously co-supervised Sam Poskitt, who is exploring the potential of scenario-planning to support learning for sustainable development, joint funded by ESRC and the James Hutton Institute, with Dr Andrew Ainslie at the University of Reading. Sam obtained his PhD in March 2018 and now works at the University of Reading on the participatory extension work in developing countries.

Kerry is a trustee of the Orskov Foundation, a charitable foundation that supports students and communities to develop sustainable land use to support livelihoods in lower-income countries. She is also a research associate of CECHR, the Centre for Environmental Change and Human Resilience at Dundee.   Within the Institute, Kerry has led the 'Society Institutions and Governance' sub-group of SEGS, and she also founded the SEGS blog.