Environment, natural resources and agriculture research - draft strategy: consultation

4. Our Research Priorities

The high-level drivers of global climate and nature crises, EU exit and economic growth and wellbeing will drive the Scottish Government's needs for research and evidence during the lifetime of this strategy.

With this in mind, the following research areas have been identified for funding and are presented here under five themes, each of which contains a number of constituent topics. Each theme addresses one or more of the high-level drivers. These themes will be used as a single conceptual structure to steer research across our entire research portfolio and all funding streams, whether that is through our Main Research Providers, our Centres of Expertise, or other contractors.

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
• Theme D: Natural Resources
• Theme E: Rural Futures

The five themes, and the constituent research topics which sit within them are illustrated in figure 2. Full details of each component are set out in Annex A.

The Scottish Government expects to support research across all of the research topics, though we recognise that we will need to prioritise and allocate resources between them, in line with the Scientific Advisory Board's consistent challenge. The early priorities that we propose are: climate change; land use; biodiversity; the rural economy; animal and plant disease; water and flooding; food supply. These reflect the Scottish Government's high level drivers, and where there is substantial support from other funders in some research areas. Programme-wide prioritisation will be an important signal to research providers and potential funding partners. We propose that the scientific strand of the proposed governance structure regularly updates the prioritisation (please see Governance and Reporting).

Each theme has a core set of research questions that draws its area together. We recognise that there are overlaps and linkages between them where information and ideas should be exchanged. Some linkages are best informed by researchers, for example SEFARI's broad interpretation of 'One Health' research including ecological, plant, animal and human health. Government policies such as the Regional Land Use Partnerships^[7] will also catalyse new research linkages across our themes to match their need for integrated evidence and decision support. We also continue to expect multidisciplinary approaches to bring together a fertile mix of natural science, social research and economics, which is necessary if we are to address the complexities and realities of policy challenges in the real world.

This structure reflects a number of changes in our research priorities compared to the current funding cycle. For example, climate change is now recognised in the programme as a discrete research topic rather than as an element of other topics. Whilst many of these topics reflect the continuing need for evidence in existing policy areas, following the advice of the Strategic Advisory Board and broader consultation, we will introduce four research topics which were not previously included in the programme, with a corresponding reduction in research priorities in other areas.

• Air quality. This is an important environmental issue with impacts upon life and health outcomes. Scotland's strategy to reduce air pollution in Scotland is due to be revised and is likely to increase the focus on this issue, and the corresponding need for additional research.
• Land reform. Previous research cycles have not had a specific research programme on land reform, but with ongoing changes in Scottish land policy this new element will ensure that we can cement expertise in this important policy area into the programme.
• Circular economy and waste. New funding on this area addresses previous gaps in the programme. This is a naturally cross-cutting policy challenge, working across behavioural, social, economic, and environmental issues, to drive down Scotland's overall negative environmental impacts, and we expect it will be of wide policy and industry interest in the years to come.
• Large scale modelling. Opportunities from new data sources and modelling applications are emerging across the UK, and evidence needs are arising within a number of Scottish Government policy areas. Given the technical skills and challenges involved, we anticipate benefits from taking a strategic approach to data integration and modelling at scale. This work should contribute across policy areas, and will likely involve collaborative projects with other funders.

Two further, cross-cutting activities have emerged, in the methods of data science and in understanding behavioural change. Past and current funding has supported skills and expertise in these areas, for example providing dedicated support from BioSS for data-rich research, modelling and machine learning. Both activities seem likely to become a natural part of high-quality research delivery across our programme. We therefore expect to fund these activities throughout the research themes, remaining open to opportunities that broaden their adoption, for example informed by the science strand of Governance.