Funded Scoping Studies

In 2024 the Network funded 15 projects to help address the challenge of reaching net zero through agri-food. The projects address some of the critical challenges we face as we work towards a more sustainable food system. From improving access to healthy, low-emission food, to supporting farmers navigating the path to net zero, as well as working with industry, policymakers and the public sector to better integrate climate policies.

The projects were awarded up to £50k each and bring together multidisciplinary teams, with academics working alongside food system stakeholders.

Read more about the 2024 projects, as well as the projects we funded in 2023.

Breeding better beef and sheep: co-designed breeding strategies to achieve net zero (2024)

This project will work with beef and sheep farmers across the UK to reduce greenhouse gases by making better breeding decisions. By reviewing global breeding methods and collecting data from 20 case study farms across the UK, the project will identify practical and affordable breeding strategies to cut emissions.

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Roots of change: a just wilding transition for the agri-food system (2024)

This project will explore institutional barriers to agricultural wilding (introducing and conserving wild crops and plants for agricultural purposes) on upland and lowland farming systems. The project will explore the solutions to overcoming them and promoting agricultural wilding as a viable and fair solution at a critical time for farming and land-use policies in the UK.

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Triggering environmental transformation on large land holdings (2024)

This project will use an established conceptual framework for understanding transformational change in agriculture (the ‘Triggering Change Model’), to assess how substantive environmental changes in large land-holding trajectories can be enabled. Findings will be analysed to identify best practice in supporting the managers of large land holdings to make transformational change, enabling industry organisations to better support their members, and provide a foundation for future research which integrate social and natural sciences.

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Scoping the potential of insect protein in university student diets in the UK (2024)

This project will investigate the affordability, sustainability, and nutritional quality of insect protein-based diets compared to alternative protein diets for university students. Main meals and a dessert option will be developed using mealworms and crickets. The project will highlight the potential of insect proteins as an affordable and sustainable diet for university students.

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Empowering farmers: a participatory approach to soil organic carbon assessment (2024)

This project will empower farmers to estimate the level of soil organic carbon content in their fields, through the assessment of soil colour. By developing this new method, the project aims to raise awareness of soil health and carbon sequestration.

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Delivering regenerative agriculture in practice: a farmers-led prioritisation for net-zero (2024)

This project will explore and prioritise regenerative agricultural practices that can deliver net zero from a farmers’ perspective, by identifying the practices that can promote storing carbon in the soil and reduce GHG emissions while enhancing productivity.

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Expanding the big five: achieving zero emissions by increasing seafood consumption diversity (2024)

This project will explore how low-trophic seafood eg. mussels, can be integrated into convenience foods to increase their nutritional value, and help diversify diets and reduce carbon footprints, particularly for people on low incomes.

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Integrating local authority climate policies (2024)

This project will look at how local authorities and their partners can work together to integrate climate policies. Using Gloucestershire as a case study, it will identify actions that local councils and their partners can take to support positive changes for food and farming as well as, health and wellbeing, which are also an efficient use of public money.

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Environmental trade-offs in UK beef production (2024)

This project will work with Marks and Spencer, to evaluate the trade-offs in relation to the choices beef farmers make when trying to reduce the environmental impact of beef production, with the aim of limiting potential negative trade-offs.

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Exploring the implementation, impact, and acceptability of ‘planet friendly’ menus in Newcastle primary schools (2024)

Newcastle primary schools will provide vegan/vegetarian ‘Planet Friendly’ menus one day a week from the 2024-25 school year.  This project will lay the groundwork to design a future study looking at the delivery and impact of Planet Friendly menus.

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Developing an assessment tool to measure the outcomes of social prescribing of healthy food (2024)

This project will develop a tool which can measure, over time, a range of potential benefits from social prescribing of healthy food. The tool will support WellFed Cornwall to measure health benefits for individuals, such as reduced risk of type 2 diabetes and improved wellbeing. It will also evaluate wider benefits for society, such as reduced demand on the health care system or lower carbon emissions.

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AgForC: carbon accounting in agroforestry to meet net zero (2024)

This  project aims to help UK farmers improve their ability to monitor and report carbon storage in agroforestry systems by developing a model called AgForC to estimate the carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere and stored in soil, trees, and hedges. This model will be integrated into the Cool Farm Tool.

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Net zero transitioning: redefining assumptions behind access to low-carbon food in resource-constrained communities (2024)

In partnership with the Planet Card initiative in Cardiff, this project will explore how access to local alternative food networks such as farmers’ markets can help people facing food insecurity whilst also promoting a just transition to net zero.

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Monitoring farmland interventions for carbon capture and nature recovery (2024)

This project will create a program to monitor and understand how soil carbon stocks and biodiversity improve when moving from traditional farming to more regenerative methods.

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Agroecological food production for health and net-zero: exploring implementation pathways for an agroecological urbanism (2024)

This project will work with farming businesses in Leeds and Bristol, to gather evidence on the benefits and barriers of transitioning to agroecology. The aim is to give policymakers practical steps to accelerate the transition towards more agroecological food systems.

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Regenerative agriculture and net-zero: mapping the evidence (2023)

This project aims to use systematic mapping methodology to collate and summarise existing evidence for the impact of five representative RA practices on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and agricultural yield.

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Circular fertiliser: assessing the potential of digestate for indoor farms (2023)

This project will examine the effectiveness of plant based and animal slurry based digestate on an indoor basil farming system.

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Developing an interactive web app for personalised forecasting of slurry emissions (2023)

This project aims to develop a free web-app that provides farmers with personalised forecasts of emissions from manure using farm weather data.

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Harvesting insights to increase UK consumers’ awareness and acceptance of alternative proteins (2023)

This project aims to provide the foundation for a better understanding of consumer preferences, attitudes, and behaviours regarding alternative protein.

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Farmers as empowered intermediaries in natural capital markets (2023)

This project explores a cooperative governance model where farmers are organized to represent their members to buyers of natural capital products.

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Mapping incentives for change in the transition to net zero (2023)

This project will identify and analyse the motivation and incentives of UK livestock farmers and food processors.

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On-farm optimisation of faba beans for use in poultry diets (2023)

This project aims to make UK faba beans into a poultry feed material that can be used in place of soya.

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Quantifying the net zero potential for regenerative agriculture (2023)

This project will conduct a synthesis of UK net zero agricultural interventions, determining barriers, opportunities and impacts.

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Developing a sustainability data map for the UK dairy food chain (2023)

This project will develop a map of data collected along the milk food chain enabling environmental and nutrition data to be analysed

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Kingston community food growing: towards net zero through inclusion (2023)

This project aims to study the effects of urban-community food growing on achieving net-zero targets, improving local food systems, and benefitting communities.

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A community-based venture to reframe household food waste and transform it to fertiliser (2023)

This project aims to examine the impact of community composting schemes to aid in reaching net-zero targets.

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Moving towards net-zero through improving animal health (2023)

This project aims to review literature on emissions and disease for ruminant and monogastric systems and identify existing data sources for health and emissions.

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GROW (2023)

This project aims to equip farmers with the necessary skills and knowledge to practise regenerative agriculture and other low-carbon farming practices.

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Changing chicken for net zero: practices and beliefs from the poultry industry (2023)

Through a workshop this project brings poultry industry employees and consumer-citizens together to understand existing beliefs and practices in the industry.

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What happens on the farm, does not stay on the farm (2023)

This project will explore the design of a new model of collective insurance for farmers trying new climate-smart practices as a cohort, across a catchment.

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​Scope of regenerative agriculture practices in the UK – who is doing what and where (2023)

This project aims to assess farmers’ perceptions, knowledge, and practice of regenerative agriculture in the UK via a nationwide survey.

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