Changing environmental conditions necessitate adaptations in Scottish agriculture. This project investigates the development of crop species that are resilient to combinations of environmental stresses whilst using resources more efficiently. We test the hypothesis that utilisation of latent diversity in crop species can improve both resource efficiency and stress tolerance. 

We explore the biological consequences and potential practical applications of natural genetic variation found in the primary barley genepool to address future priorities in low carbon cereal agriculture. This is a contemporary barley genetics, genomics and informatics research project focused on scientific discovery and impactful translational biology. 

This project is developing better targeted greenhouse has policies and industry initiatives, thus contributing to achieving Scotland’s net zero goal and reductions in the emissions intensity of Scottish food commodities. It combines scientific modelling and national scale data to improve the prediction of future greenhouse gas emission reduction scenarios in agricultural production, the cost-effectiveness of solutions and their wider environmental impacts. The specific focus of the project is ruminant systems, given their importance in Scottish agriculture, however, the tools and analyses...

This project applies different modelling approaches to assess opportunities and impacts of land use in Scotland. Synergies and conflicts in land use policy are explored to identify how multiple objectives can be achieved. The greenhouse gas inventory is being disaggregated to holding level to identify hotspots for emissions and mitigation potential. Farm business models are scaled up to regional levels to identify patterns of responses to policy and management change. And, natural capital is modelled spatially to explore ecosystem service supply and opportunities.