An opportunity for an individual researcher, or small team of researchers, is available in the form of a new Fellowship, funded by SEFARI Gateway, and working in collaboration with Scottish Land Commission. This Fellowship will explore the reasons behind a drop in Scottish Land Fund applications for largescale community land acquisitions, particularly over the past 10 years, and propose solutions to overcome any barriers preventing acquisition.

 

Background

SEFARI (Scottish Environment Food & Agriculture Institutions) Gateway (“the Gateway”) is the Centre of Expertise for Knowledge Exchange and Innovation for the Scottish Government’s Strategic Research Portfolio for Environment, Rural Affairs and Agriculture (ENRA) 2022-2027. 

 

The Gateway provides access to the Strategic Portfolio’s expertise, such as from SEFARI Institutes themselves and via the commissioning of wider expertise across Scotland and the UK. We ensure scientific evidence helps inform policy and practice across Scotland’s environment, land use, agriculture, food, and rural communities. 

 

SEFARI Gateway Fellowships are bespoke, responsive opportunities aiming to develop a shared understanding between researchers and stakeholders, and to prioritise areas for common effort in addressing key priorities within Scotland’s National Outcomes. 

 

The Scottish Land Commission (The Commission) is a non-departmental government body, established in 2017 by the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2016, to provide leadership and fresh thinking, underpinned by sound research, analysis and advice, on land reform in Scotland. 

 

The Commission provides advice and evidence to inform policy, as well as providing advice and guidance to landowners, managers, advisors and communities to support the practical implementation of Scotland’s Land Rights and Responsibilities Statement. 

 

The Commission encourages bold thinking and changes to enable people to participate in and influence decisions made about land, to promote diversity in power and control in land ownership and governance, and to encourage sharing of the value and benefits of land to create national economic prosperity. 

 

Community ownership of land is an important means of achieving sustainable development and delivering positive social, environmental and economic outcomes. Land ownership gives communities the opportunity to control what happens in their area. It enables communities to deliver local housing, support business development, provide community and recreation facilities, maintain and enhance greenspace, and meet other needs identified by the people who live there. 

 

Community ownership in Scotland has developed significantly over the last 25 years with funding from the Scottish Land Fund (SLF) playing a key role in supporting communities to acquire a wide range of assets, from whole islands and estates, forests and woodlands, to buildings and small sites for development. 

 

Since the SLF began, more than £90 million has been invested in communities across Scotland. The first Scottish Land Fund was established in 2001 and was followed by a Growing Community Assets Fund. Further iterations of the Scottish Land Fund have been delivered collaboratively by HIE and the National Lottery Community Fund. SLF2 was open to community organisations in rural areas, while SLF3 and SLF4 are open to communities in urban and rural areas. Since 2001, the funds have supported the following:

 

Land Fund

Acquisitions supported

Total hectares acquired

SLF1

121

68,046

GCA

21

37,231

SLF2

50

34,302

SLF3

221

9,776

SLF4

170

2,742

 

As the table indicates, there has been a reduction in the number of hectares purchased with support from SLF grants in recent years. A number of high-profile large acquisitions took place in the early 2000s and into the 2010s but since the launch of SLF3 there has been a noted decline in applications for largescale buyouts, with many communities applying to purchase buildings and smaller sites instead.

 

In light of these changes, the purpose of this research is to examine the drivers behind this change to determine whether there is still an appetite from communities to purchase large landholdings, explore whether there are barriers in place that prevent communities from pursuing such acquisitions, and to identify changes that could be made to support systems, funding routes, or policies to enable more communities to buy large landholdings.

 

The Fellowship

 

The Fellow or fellowship team will:

  • Assess and understand the change in demand for largescale community land acquisitions, considering whether there is still community appetite for such acquisitions and whether there are regional variations in interest.

  • Engage with leaders in the community ownership sector to understand the challenges around acquisition of large landholdings and identify any policy changes or gaps in support that could be tackled to resolve these issues.

The following questions might be used to guide the fellowship:

  • Is the perceived lack of interest from communities in acquiring largescale landholdings a new phenomenon or have largescale acquisitions always been an exception?

  • What are the drivers for community acquisition? Do communities want to buy assets for different purposes now compared to the 2000s and 2010s?

  • What are the barriers to acquisition of large landholdings for communities and what policy interventions might help to tackle those?

  • Are there cultural or geographical issues that impact appetite for largescale holdings in some areas, such as the Northern Isles and North East?

 

Approach

The successful applicant(s) will compile the evidence base and draft the strategy under the direction of a project steering group. This will be chaired by Scottish Land Commission and composed of members from SEFARI Gateway and the Scottish Government.

 

They will iterate a final approach in agreement with the steering group and SEFARI Gateway.

 

Required Outputs

  • A report examining appetite for and barriers to large-scale community land acquisitions faced by communities in Scotland.

  • The draft will form the basis for an in person or hybrid workshop bringing together stakeholders from across the community ownership sector to sense check the findings and agree recommendations for next steps. 

  • A case study to disseminate findings across stakeholders, which will be published on the SEFARI Gateway website, that will link to the above reports.

 

Duration and Time

  • The deadline for final report from the Fellowship is 20 March 2026.

  • The distribution of time on the project will be jointly agreed by the Fellow(s), the project Steering Group and SEFARI Gateway.

     

Resources

  • The Fellowship supports up to a maximum of 28 days FTE (funding up to a limit of £22,000) for an individual or team of (maximum 3) researchers. 

  • Travel and subsistence and to support any workshop costs will be agreed and funded separate to the FTE costs, and up to a maximum of £5,000.

  • Costs should be submitted net of VAT recovered by the applicant. Applicants should seek advice on appropriate VAT treatment of proposed funding. 

 

Practicalities

The details of the final Fellowship work plan will be developed, and agreed, between the successful Fellow(s) and a project management team involving two representatives from SEFARI Gateway, and representatives from Scottish Land Commission and Scottish Government. This will include such details as the number of days to be worked and work pattern through the week.

 

The project must report by 20 March 2026.

 

Eligibility and further details

  • The central focus of this Fellowship is to the ENRA Portfolio. The Fellowship is open to applicants from staff:

    • from any SEFARI Organisation

    • ENRA Portfolio Centres of Expertise

    • Staff within any UK Higher Education Institution (or Research Institute)

    • Please note, you do not need to have been previously funded by Scottish Government via the Portfolio to qualify for SEFARI Gateway funding.

  • Applicants must have the support of their organisation

  • Sign-off should be at the level deemed appropriate for each organisation (please talk to your line manager), but Directors/Chief Executives of your Institute (or University school as appropriate) should be made aware.

The taking of such an opportunity should not result in a candidate going beyond the end of any agreed contract they may have with their employer.

  • It is recognised that individual circumstances are different and support levels will vary depending on salary, distance from the opportunity and so on – the support level will be kept under review to try and maintain a fair and equitable competition and process. The organisation of the successful fellow(s) should not expect to meet any costs beyond that paid for by SEFARI Gateway.

  • The successful candidate(s) will be expected to contribute to relevant meetings or outputs for the project partners as the Fellowship progresses and to generate knowledge exchange related content, including a case study, for SEFARI Gateway.

 

Applications

Applications must be made to: info@sefari.scot, copying in jenny.fyall@sefari.scot, and should include a cover letter (two pages of detail on your suitability or that of the team) and a two-page CV (or up to 6 pages for a team). Decisions on who to interview will be based solely on this letter and CV.

 

The cover letter should include:

  • why you are interested in this opportunity and what you hope to get from it;

  • what skills and experience you would bring to this role;

  • how you propose to address the objectives of the Fellowship;

  • what you would do to take the learning back into your organisation and to maintain links with the project’s stakeholders, SEFARI Gateway and the ENRA Portfolio.

  • Team-based applications should demonstrate how they propose to manage individual contributions to satisfy the degree of multi-disciplinary integration required.

 

The deadline for applications is November 21 with an expected start date of early December.

 

If you have any questions on this, or any general aspect of the SEFARI Fellowship scheme, please contact Jenny Fyall, research and communications manager, SEFARI Gateway, at: jenny.fyall@sefari.scot