A new report, conducted at the Centre for Mountain Studies at UHI Perth and funded by SEFARI Gateway, has called for a fundamental shift in how research involving community landowners is conducted, warning that stronger collaboration and resource investment are needed to ensure research benefits communities, decision-makers, and researchers.
The research highlights the wealth of knowledge held by community landowners and argues that their experience provides evidence for understanding how local ownership contributes to sustainable development and community resilience. However, it concludes that too often research can place significant demands on communities, especially when respondents see very little benefit or meaningful outcomes in return.
The report calls for coordinated action across research institutions, funding bodies, policymakers and community organisations to improve practice. Its recommendations include giving communities greater influence over research design and priorities, improving communication between researchers and communities, addressing institutional barriers – such as funding - that can limit good practice, and recognising that ethical research demands long-term collaboration rather than simply one-off engagements.
Catriona Mallows, Research Associate at the Centre for Mountain Studies, said:
This research has confirmed that there are many positive research engagements with community landowners in Scotland. However, there are instances of poor practice, including repeated requests to participate in research, communities having little influence over research questions, methodologies or outputs, and researchers failing to share their findings. Our report sets out ways to change this pattern and support better research with community landowners.
The research, which has taken place since early 2025, drew on multi-sectoral workshops, literature reviews and secondary data analysis to explore experiences of research across Scotland’s community land sector.
Among its recommendations, the report calls for researchers to engage with communities earlier in the research process and to undertake background work before approaching organisations and individuals. It also recommends that long-term, trusting and respectful relationships are prioritised over transactional engagement, that research findings are shared in accessible ways beyond formal reports academic outputs, and that ethical approval is viewed as an ongoing commitment rather than an administrative step.
The research also highlights governance approaches that can strengthen research partnerships, including the use of Memoranda of Understanding and community steering groups. It further recommends recognising and, where appropriate, compensating community members for their time, experience and knowledge, whether through financial means or otherwise.
The findings suggest that many of the challenges experienced by both researchers and communities arise not through individual failings, but because of wider institutional pressures including limited funding, tight project timescales and academic expectations that can make meaningful engagement difficult.
Project lead, Catriona Mallows, added:
...researchers often find themselves balancing the expectations of communities, funders and their own institutions, sometimes at the centre of a complex set of demands and drivers. Our report demonstrates that there are practical principles that can make research better for those involved. This includes building trusting relationships, ensuring open and clear communication between all parties, having those difficult conversations about data ownership and use, and always respecting community experience and knowledge. As part of supporting more ethical and sustainable research, we also encourage universities, research institutions and funders to examine how their own structures support more mutually beneficial research.
Charles Bestwick, Director at SEFARI Gateway, said: “This work is timely and its recommendations identify the crucial need for research centred with communities to prioritise the building of mutual understanding and cooperation. It recognises the critical need for communities to be partners in honing research where it is focused to delivering for communities: research that is done with – and not to – communities.
The research concludes that ethical research is a shared responsibility and that coordination across the research sector can create more relevant, impactful and trusted evidence while also reducing unnecessary burdens on community landowners.
The full report sets out a series of recommendations for researchers, funders, policy makers and community organisations themselves in order to support more equitable research on community landownership.
Ends
Notes to editors
- Research was conducted by Catriona Mallows at the Centre for Mountain Studies at UHI Perth and Bobby Macaulay, Community Landownership Academic Network
- Project ran from 2025 – 2026
- Full report available here: https://sefari.scot/document/beyond-ethics-research-engagement-scotlands-community-landowners-final-report