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Venue: Edinburgh Training and Conference Venue, 16 Saint Mary's Street, Edinburgh EH1 1SU

Programme:

12:30 – 14:00     Buffet lunch / SEFARI PhD student poster session
14:00 – 15:00     Science for Life Lecture by David G Farquhar FRGS 
15:00 – 15:30     Discussion & prize-giving for SEFARI PhD student showcase
15:30                   Close

The event is free to attend, however spaces are limited.

Please register by using the following link by Friday the 17th October - Science for Life Lecture Tickets, Fri, Oct 24, 2025 at 12:30 PM | Eventbrite
 

This study investigated whether peatland restoration increases liver fluke (Fasciola hepatica) risk to livestock. Conducted in Shetland with NatureScot and local crofters, the research combined diagnostic testing (faecal egg counts), habitat surveys, and molecular testing of mud snails (Galba truncatula). Restored peatlands were found to be acidic, waterlogged, and largely mud-free, making them unsuitable for the snail host. Consequently, infection risk on restored sites was low, with fluke presence confined to marginal grazing areas such as paths and drains. The research demonstrates that peatland restoration can deliver significant environmental benefits—including carbon sequestration and biodiversity gains—without endangering animal health, provided livestock are regularly monitored. By providing evidence on actual risk and informing grazing management strategies, this work directly supports Scottish Government policy, guides producers and land managers, and underpins conservation grazing schemes, illustrating a clear pathway from research evidence to practical policy and environmental impact.

We show how much Scotland’s climate has already changed and how it may potentially change in the future, including extremes what this means for Scotland’s Natural Capital. Outputs achieved substantial impact through raising awareness amongst policy teams, agencies and businesses. It achieved capacity building within policy teams and politicians and associated conceptual change though recognition of urgency for action due to improved understanding of the scale of change and spatial and temporal variability of climate impacts and consequences. There is instrumental change evidenced by the emphasis for action now reflected in the Scottish National Adaptation Plan and Climate Change Plan.

SPICE (Social Prescribing for Improving Communities’ Eating Practices) explores the feasibility of embedding a brief, MAP-informed (Motivation–Action–Prompts model) healthy eating intervention within Aberdeen’s social prescribing service. Co-designed with Link Practitioners and informed by GP questionnaires, as well as interviews with community food providers and their service users, the intervention addresses food insecurity and poor diet through person-centred, non-judgmental conversations. This poster presents the co-design process and resulting intervention plan, showing how practitioner and community insights shaped practical tools to support small, achievable dietary changes. The next phase will test its feasibility in practice. By equipping Link Practitioners to integrate structured dietary support into routine appointments and strengthening connections with community food initiatives, SPICE highlights a clear pathway to impact: reducing dietary inequalities, reaching groups less responsive to conventional interventions, and informing scalable models of social prescribing for healthier eating support.

Living Labs (LL) seek to enable people living in remote, rural and island communities to tackle place-based challenges. Through an inherently action-based and participative approach, the research supports dialogue between different layers of governance. LLs respond to the needs of communities and aim to understand the effectiveness of interventions implemented in them, revealing new insights into well-known problems and including lesser heard voices. Impacts include working with Urras Thiriodh (Tiree Community Development Trust) to model the relationship between population change and the availability of vital skills and roles, which will allow the Trust to seek appropriate support and design interventions that secure the future vitality of the island; and with the community in Hoy to understand and mitigate the processes that are impeding action to tackle youth depopulation in the island.

The assessment of carbon stores, flood mitigation potential and bird, bat and small mammal occurrence within characteristic upland farmland, semi-natural and natural habitats is allowing the multiple environmental benefits arising from different habitats on upland farms to be better understood. A particular focus has been put on the innovative use of acoustic sensors and camera-traps to assess biodiversity and digital sensors to monitor water levels. The value of these approaches has been recognised by others involved in large-scale habitat restoration (such as Forestry & Land Scotland, the Wild Strathfillan Initiative and the Resilient Farm Network being established by Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park). The RESAS funding has also helped lever complementary UKRI (Grassland resilience for Net Zero: sustainable practices for shaping the future of UK land use) and Horizon Europe (Digital innovation and data technology network for rangeland livestock farming systems) funded research.