Francisco's research focuses on the interaction between agriculture, the environment, economics and society by developing and applying statistical and econometric methods to answer questions of policy relevance for agriculture and the environment.

Francisco is currently working on developing farm sustainability indicators; developing econometric methods to account for social connectivity (e.g. interdependence of individuals’ preferences) and unobserved heterogeneity in consumer's and producer's choices.

Francisco is currently leading a WP analysing consumer preferences at UK scale, as part of SUS-Health, a UKRI awarded collaboration between Newcastle University and Queen's University Belfast, that aims to increase sustainability and healthiness of food in UK food consumption led by Prof. Lynn Frewer (Newcastle University).

Francisco is also leading a WP on Barriers and incentives linked to farmer adoption of agro-forestry practices, as part of AF Futures, a UKRI awarded project led by Prof. Lynn Frewer (Newcastle University)

Francisco has recently led a project on achieving sustainable intensification using remote sensing in China funded by Agri-Tech in China Newton Network.

Francisco has also worked on a wide number of nationally and internationally funded projects in the past including FP6-SIGMEA, FP6 CO-extra, Defra's funded Sustainable Intensification Platform, and Innovative UK funded Knowledge Transfer Partnership with Aramajaro, amongst others. Recently, Francisco has worked on an EU funded project, SOILCARE, leading a WP on social aspects influencing the adoption of soil-improving innovations. In this project, Francisco analysed the individual's willingness to pay for soil quality improvement. 

• Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
• Towards stability of food production and farm income in a variable climate, Harkness, C., Areal, F., Semenov, M., Senapati, N., Shield, I., Bishop, J. 1 Feb 2023, In: Ecological Economics
• Editorial: Spatial Dependency, Spillovers and Farm Efficiency, Areal, F., Pede, V. 18 Feb 2022, In: Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems
• Measuring Sustainable Intensification Using Satellite Remote Sensing Data, Areal, F., Yu, W., Tansey, K., Liu, J. 5 Feb 2022, In: Sustainability
• Soil-Improving Cropping Systems for Sustainable and Profitable Farming in Europe, Hessel, R., Wyseure, G., Panagea, I., Alaoui, A., Reed, M., van Delden, H., Muro, M., Mills, J., Oenema, O., Areal, F., van den Elsen, E., Verzandvoort, S., Assinck, F., Elsen, A., Lipiec, J., Koutroulis, A., O’sullivan, L., Bolinder, M., Fleskens, L., Kandeler, E., Montanarella, L., Heinen, M., Toth, Z., Hallama, M., Cuevas, J., Baartman, J., Piccoli, I., Dalgaard, T., Stolte, J., Black, J., Chivers, C. 25 May 2022, In: Land
• A ridge regression approach to estimate the relationship between landfill taxation and waste collection and disposal in England, Panzone, L., Ulph, A., Areal, F., Grippo, V. 15 Jun 2021, In: Waste Management
• Eu inspections of gm content in food and feed: Are they effective?, Areal, F., Riesgo, L. 1 Sep 2021, In: Agriculture
• Improved rice technology adoption: The role of spatially-dependent risk preference, Ambali, O., Areal, F., Georgantzis, N. 22 Jul 2021, In: Agriculture (Switzerland)
• Modeling Spatial Interaction in Stochastic Frontier Analysis, Areal, F., Pede, V. 4 Jun 2021, In: Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems
• On spatially dependent risk preferences: The case of nigerian farmers, Ambali, O., Areal, F., Georgantzis, N. 25 May 2021, In: Sustainability (Switzerland)
• Stability of farm income: The role of agricultural diversity and agri-environment scheme payments, Harkness, C., Areal, F., Semenov, M., Senapati, N., Shield, I., Bishop, J. 1 Feb 2021, In: Agricultural Systems

• Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
• Invited talk: Sustainabilty of Bt maize in Spain (1998-2021) 2023

• Other Courses Other Qualification February 01 2023
• PCAP July 01 2013
• PhD July 01 2010
• MSc July 09 2003
• BSc January 22 2001