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Research
A multi-million pound programme of strategic research delivered over five years providing science and evidence to support policymakers and its partners. Informed by strong partnerships and the needs of a broad range of stakeholders. Science at the heart of society contributing to the health, wealth and wellbeing of Scotland and beyond.
Explore our research projects
Providing environmental enrichment (EE) aims to allow animals to gain positive experiences by engaging in and completing rewarding behaviours. However uncertainties exist surrounding EE use for farmed species including how to assess use of EE in practice and whether EE has other benefits such as promoting greater resilience including decreasing disease susceptibility. This project seeks to address these uncertainties. Engaging with stakeholders and using welfare assessment tools, such as qualitative behavioural assessment (an animal-centric welfare indicator) we are determining levels and...
- Animal Welfare
- 2022-2027
Agricultural practice is plagued by intractable and challenging welfare issues, which are increasingly the focus of consumer attention and legislative restrictions, such as separation of mothers and offspring, use of painful procedures, chronic disease issues and the confinement of animals in limited space or with limited opportunities to express natural behaviour. This work seeks to resolve these chronic issues through adoption of new techniques, novel approaches and implementation of innovative technology.
- Animal Welfare
- 2022-2027
This project investigates the use of practical methodologies (including wearable sensors or strategic use of diagnostics) to assess and improve welfare, leading to improvements in animal husbandry on-farm in sustainable farming systems in Scotland.
- Animal Welfare
- 2022-2027
This project aims to understand how marine and terrestrial protected areas can best conserve biodiversity under current and future climates.
- Biodiversity
- 2022-2027
We aim to address the risks posed by pathogens and pests for sustainable production of potato and soft fruits that are of great importance to Scotland. The project is highly interdisciplinary and utilises established expertise in plant and pathogen genomics, genetics, phenotyping and cell biology, through to breeding.
- Crop Improvement
- 2022-2027
This project is developing rapid, sensitive and specific tests for the detection, quantitation and characterization of protozoan parasites affecting humans in Scottish drinking water.
- Water
- 2022-2027
This project seeks to both understand and facilitate change in remote, rural and island communities working with stakeholders at local, regional and national levels using a combination of qualitative, quantitative and modelling approaches.
- Rural Communities
- 2022-2027
This project investigates how aspects of environmental settings, users, mechanisms for benefit and investment relate to possibilities and constraints for building capacities for reciprocal nature engagement. Although more people, from more population groups, doing more outdoor activity, more often, has been identified as a route to greater and more equal benefits to human wellbeing, this contention requires critical appraisal. Given the multiple drivers, a key research goal is to work with stakeholders from across sectors to generate timely, consequential and solutions-oriented...
- Use of Outdoors & Greenspace
- 2022-2027
This project combines large-scale citizen science through a new Rural Exchange, secondary data analysis, in-depth qualitative work with stakeholders and rural and island communities, policy reviews, and international learning. The project provides recommendations for new and re-designed policy interventions to ensure sustainable, inclusive and just futures for rural and island communities.
- Rural Communities
- 2022-2027
Fibre is an important part of a healthy diet, as it is fermented by gut microbes to health-promoting compounds. We investigate whether agricultural and food-processing waste materials can be modified to increase their fermentability by gut microbes,. The aim is to explore whether food production waste materials can be developed into a novel source of fibre, thus improving the sustainability of agricultural practice. This not only contributes to reducing the environmental impact of Scotland’s food and drink sector, but will also identifies opportunities for innovation in the Scottish food...
- Human Nutrition
- 2022-2027