Applications were reviewed based on the following criteria:

1. Potential of the research to help the UK meet its net zero 2050 target through agri-food
2. Relevance to the research priorities
3. Appropriateness of the methodology
4. Diversity including:

• Quality of the food system stakeholder partner integration into the project
• Promotion of equality, diversity and inclusion with respect to protected characteristics
• Integration across disciplines

5. Clear pathway to further development of the project (e.g. future external funding, industry involvement), and impact pathway
6. Achievability of management plan
7. Value for money

The AFN Network+ is committed to supporting the development of early career researchers (ECRs).  An ECR is someone who is either: within eight years of their PhD award (from the time of the viva), or equivalent professional training; or within six years of their first academic appointment. These periods exclude any career break, for example due to family care or health reasons and are pro-rata for any periods of part-time work.  We welcomed applications either led by, or involving, ECRs.

For any questions about this call, please contact us  or take a look at some frequently asked questions and answers.

Evidence suggests diets that are good for individual nutrition and health also involve lower greenhouse gas emissions.  Independent bodies such as the Climate Change Committee and National Food Strategy advocate a shift away from animal-based production towards more plant-based proteins.  Providing healthy and sustainable diets for a growing population ─ by 2050 the UK population is projected to be 74 million ─ is at the heart of agri-food system transformation, which must take place while the UK’s climate and international supply chains are also changing.  The relationship between consumer preferences, producers’ practices and the supply chains in-between are continually changing and need to be better understood.

1. How could the economic and policy framework governing UK food production better incentivise domestic production of healthy foods (e.g. fruit, vegetable and salad crops) and address the market failures that inhibit growth and investment in these crop categories? What are the retailing and supply chain management systems that shape sustainable and unsustainable production practices, including procurement?

2. How can accessibility and affordability challenges around healthy and sustainable foods be overcome?

Discussions about issues affecting future UK land use often seem to assume we have much more land than we do.  There is a general commitment to at least maintain levels of domestic self-sufficiency, but also a need for considerable additional land for establishing trees and growing energy crops.  A growing UK population will mean stronger demand for food and other land uses.  Environmental targets also require land for nature conservation and biodiversity.  The net zero transition raises fundamental questions about how land is used optimally, and how UK consumers’ demands for food can be met from less agricultural land while not increasing imports, and all while the climate is changing.

3. How can we best improve yields and productivity in a sustainable way?  How can technological advances in animal breeding and data science be harnessed to improve productivity and reduce emissions, including using individual animal data?  What are the obstacles to adopting emission-reducing breeding measures among farmers and land managers and how can they be addressed?

4. What are the best strategies for mixing above-ground sequestration measures (e.g. trees and hedges), biomass crops and food production on farmland? How can above-ground sequestration be most effectively guided to ensure optimum co-benefits (sequestration, flood risk, biodiversity, recreation) and to manage the risk of future forest fires? How can market failures be corrected through tax, subsidy and regulation? How can the restoration of peatland for emission-reduction purposes be most effectively balanced with food production priorities?

The UK’s food security will continue to depend heavily on imports but there is uncertainty about how geopolitical and environmental change will affect future trading relationships and international supply chains.  Within the UK, the balance between food production for domestic consumption and for export affects how we think about optimising UK land use for food production and other purposes.  The majority of farmland is used to support livestock farming, including grazing land for farm animals and the arable cropland used to grow animal feeds.  Recommendations to reduce livestock numbers are about the release of land for other purposes as well as reducing direct emissions from the animals themselves.

5. How do we avoid UK food consumption increasingly off-shoring emissions? What does a resilient and adaptive food supply and trade system look like?  How can we build resilience into food supply chains which are able to adapt and withstand pressures from external political, environmental or economic instabilities?  What pathways, enablers, and support arrangements could help advance the transition?  What is the relationship between building domestic resilience and strengthening export prospects?  How can fairness in commercial practices in food supply chains be strengthened?

6. What novel crops and production systems might contribute to optimising the UK’s land resource under conditions of climate change?  How might changes in rotations and cropping patterns help improve diets, reduce food security risks and enhance the productivity of land?  What would be the implications of developing alternative proteins to replace processed meats for food security and land use? How can we address the higher cost of sustainable animal feedstock alternatives? What workable trade incentives/policy instruments are needed materially increase sustainably fed meat into the supply chain?

Soil and land management can help sequester carbon.  There is therefore increasing interest in how land management practices might be encouraged to contribute to reducing net emissions while still farming the land.  This is partly about establishing trees and hedgerows, but carbon can also be sequestered through better soil management.  There are questions about how such sequestration may be made more durable and how it might be monitored, audited and financially rewarded.  There is also increasing interest in the technologies and instrumentation for authenticating and governing sequestration through land and soil management, as well as concern about farmland being taken out of food production for trees in a non-strategic way.

7. How can net zero policies work to reduce emissions from land management, while also improving biodiversity and supporting livelihoods? How can the post-CAP support schemes across the UK be developed to ensure net zero UK by 2050 goals are sufficiently met?  What should be the role for regulation in establishing baselines of sound land and soil management from an emissions point of view?

8. How can the R&D, knowledge exchange and advisory system be developed to support the scale and systemic nature of change required of UK land use and land management practices for the net zero transition?  How can an understanding of the drivers of farmer decision-making help improve the efficacy of the knowledge exchange and advisory system?

Circular food systems can mean mixed crop and high nature value farming, but other strategies for circularity may be easier to scale (such as the use of agricultural side-streams and waste as feedstocks for cellular agriculture, or processing into plant-based foods, or greater incentives for mixed rather than specialist farming landscapes).  Research into processing and side-stream utilisation on-farm could improve the economics of growing certain crops.  There is also growing interest in the potential benefits of more mixed farming systems as a means of reducing reliance on manufactured inputs such as fertilisers, while also reducing agricultural pressures on the soil and water environment.  It is less clear what this might mean for overall levels of production and productivity.

9. How can the true cost of food be included in the financial operation of the agri-food system, including of nitrogen and phosphorus pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, so that environmental and public health externalities are properly incorporated?  How do food waste cycles operate, how significant is their potential, and how can their environmental efficiency be improved?

10. In developing healthy soils, how can effective baselines be established, and how can networks of farmers best demonstrate and share good practice?  What can be learned from best practice in the use of nutrients within the farming system to reduce emissions? What models of adoption/diffusion are most effective? How can supply chains be re-engineered to better capitalise on biowastes as a nutrient source?

Science and technology have a vital role to play in supporting the transformation of the UK agri-food system.  However, an over-reliance on technological solutions risks diverting attention from the crucial role of the practices of individuals and institutions.  Changing mind-sets and everyday practice will prove challenging for individuals and institutions alike.  Important questions arise over how social values may be influenced to align with net zero objectives and how basic human values and motivations might also be effectively harnessed.

11. How are farming culture, identity and values evolving over recent decades? How are net zero concerns influencing how farmers and land managers are valued by others?  What financial and non-financial barriers are preventing the required changes in farming and land management practices?  How will the removal of the Basic Payments Scheme affect the viability of farming businesses in different parts of the UK, and with what implications for land management for net zero?   How can research and policy development best engage with farmers and stakeholders?

12. How can fiscal measures incentivise good practices (among farmers and food companies) and disincentivise harmful practices?   What can be learned from the success of the Soft Drinks Industry Levy in stimulating beneficial behaviour change by manufacturers?   What is the most effective balance between targeting behaviour change measures at manufacturers, retailers and consumers?