Dr Hurley has extensive experience in the field of microplastic research, including monitoring contamination, assessing fate and transport, and evaluating environmental impacts. Her expertise concentrates on soil microplastic contamination, with a focus on agricultural environments, and the fate and transport of micro- and macroplastic contamination in rivers, with a focus on hydrological processes. Rachel is leading a project on Defining the Impact of Microplastics on Soil Resilience, funded by the Norwegian Research Council under the Younger Researcher Talent programme and is the deputy coordinator and a work package leader in the European Union Horizon 2020 project PAPILLONS, which brings together the European excellence in the field of soil microplastics. She has been invited to speak as an expert in the area of soil microplastic contamination at several national and international meetings and as an advisor for the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) and European Commission in relation to the development and revision of microplastic regulation in Europe. She is also actively involved in developing and innovating the production and characterisation of a wide range of microplastic standard reference materials, which have already been used in several interlaboratory calibration exercises run by international organisations. She is a key member of several large ongoing projects funded under the Norwegian Development Program to Combat Marine Litter and Microplastics, China, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.