The Strategy for Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Research 2022-2027 (the Strategy) sets out how the vision of the Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Research Programme (the Programme) will be achieved, the mechanisms to fund research, and the operational changes to governance and reporting mechanisms which will be made during the next cycle. The Strategy extends funding research on topics not previously included in the Programme, these include: air quality; the circular economy; and land reform. Along with the introduction of new areas the Strategy aims at enhancing and maximising the programme impact. This includes plans to establish a Scottish Centre of Expertise in Biodiversity.
The Programme's vision is “to support research that is relevant, respected and responsive to Scotland’s environment, communities, its people and to the rural economy". The Strategy's objectives are: 1) We will refresh the research programme to ensure that it better captures new and growing policy priorities. 2) We will continue to support the underpinning research capacity, the platform of skilled and connected researchers, data and infrastructure upon which more responsive research can be developed. 3) We will provide the Scottish Government with greater flexibility to respond to emerging needs, through more short-term, responsive research. 4) We will access the best research available by engaging a wider range of research providers, by collaborating with other funders, and by fostering an interdisciplinary approach. 5)We will maximise the impact of our research through engagement with stakeholders and horizon scanning. 6) We will update our funding and governance mechanisms, to ensure that they support these objectives throughout the funding cycle.
The five research themes are: Theme A: Plant and Animal Health. Theme B: Sustainable Food System and Supply. Theme C: Human Impacts on the Environment y Theme D: Natural Resources. Theme E: Rural Futures. For each theme the Strategy identifies topics and goals; the themes and topics are helpful to give structure to the programme and are not intended to create boundaries between research areas.
To help eliminate hunger and food insecurity, the Strategy main proposals are under Theme B Sustainable Food System and Supply. Among the goals for this theme we can highlight the commitment of creating resilient, sustainable, high quality crop production systems that support the rural economy, climate change mitigation and adaptation, food security and the circular economy. The Strategy also commits to identify opportunities for change to Scotland’s food supply chains to meet the nation’s needs and to maximise the efficiency, value, sustainability and resilience of food supply. Moreover is supports approaches to persuade consumers improve their diet and food safety.
In order to make agriculture, forestry and fisheries more productive and sustainable, the Policy envisages many measures in each sector, such as measures aimed at support innovative crop improvement research, including crop breeding and fasttrack selection of desirable traits, to facilitate high quality crop production, support farmers to adapt to future trade and production challenges so that they can continue to produce quality crops as part of a thriving rural economy, research outputs that inform and drive a change in policies, businesses and the supply chain towards sustainability, productivity and GHG reduction.
To enable more inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems, proposed interventions aim to identify improvements to the support mechanisms for rural businesses, including those which sit outside of agriculture and those linked to the ‘green economy’, to drive improvements in equality and inclusion in rural businesses,
To increase the resilience of livelihoods to disasters, main actions are directed to gather evidence to support policies around the development of community ownership, community engagement, and better understanding of the role of land ownership in achieving net zero emissions and reversing biodiversity decline for Scotland.