Although usually based at the University of Exeter’s Penryn campus in Cornwall, where he holds a Chair in Natural Environment and involved in a wide range of interdisciplinary research projects in wildlife ecology and management, Robbie is currently on secondment to The Office for Environmental Protection as Chief Scientist. Robbie’s research career has focused on mustelids and he completed a PhD on weasels and stoats. He has also worked on Californian sea otters, martens, badgers, mink, ferrets and New Zealand and Irish stoats, and currently collaborates with VWT on marten and polecat research projects.

He has held a Fulbright Scholarship, Jones Fellowship, Royal Society postdoctoral fellowship, and has worked in universities, NGOs and in government agencies. He led Quercus, the Northern Ireland Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Biology, a partnership between Queens University Belfast and NI Department of Environment. He was then head of wildlife science and Deputy Chief Scientist at the Food and Environment Research Agency. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology. Robbie joined the Board of Trustees in 2017 and became Chair of the Board of Trustees in 2024.