Rural Affairs and the Environment (RAE) Consultation on the Research Strategy for 2016-2021.

7. Research Themes for the future

7.1 Current research strategy themes (2011-16)

The current portfolio of research is structured around two Strategic Research Programmes and eight Research Themes:

I. Environmental Change

1) Ecosystem services

2) Water and renewable energy

3) Land use

4) Economic adaptation

II. Food, Land and People

5) Food

6) Health and welfare

7) Healthy safe diets

8) Rural communities

Annex A sets out this structure schematically.

7.2 Business change drivers

The SG's focus on its single purpose has helped to establish an approach where all sectors can contribute to its high level priorities in a transparent and coordinated way. For example, the SG has set demanding targets for reductions in Scotland's greenhouse gas emissions and policies and schemes have been established to ensure that the farming sector can contribute to these including 'Farming for a Better Climate'. Other examples include the coordinated and whole production chain approach adopted for Scotland's 'Food and Drink' policy.

'Real world' societal challenges are inevitably inter-related and multi-faceted in nature. Achieving sustainable outcomes for the long standing and well established primary production sectors requires an approach where decisions are made in full recognition of the associated compromises and trade-offs. For example:

• How can agricultural productivity be maximised without using more land while adapting to climate change, reducing emissions and maintaining biodiversity and other ecosystem services?
• How do we use our knowledge of current and emerging strategic risks from animal and plant disease to reduce the risks to agricultural and forest productivity and the wider environment?
• What opportunities are there to increase the long-term health prospects of the individual by adopting diets that are healthy, nutritious and affordable and at the same time reduce the load on our health services and support Scotland's food producers?

Over the period of the current portfolio a number of examples can be identified to illustrate how funders and the scientific community have come together to mobilise the necessary resources and to build the teams required to address such complexity. These include:

• The well-publicised challenge represented by the requirement to produce sufficient food to feed a growing population against the backdrop of a finite land resource and the unpredictability associated with climate change has resulted in concepts including 'food security' and 'sustainable intensification';
• Humanity is ultimately reliant on a planet where the natural processes and services on which we depend, but often take for granted, continue to function. Recognition of this has led to concepts including 'ecosystem services' and the more readily quantified 'natural capital', the latter being defined as the stocks of natural assets which include geology, soil, air, water & all living things;
• The societal, economic and environmental challenges associated with responding effectively to outbreaks such as Ash dieback have emphasised the need to develop more integrated responses to understand the future risks to animal and plant health in the context of economic, social, and environmental impacts. This includes the way we use emerging technologies and develop future capability for evidence and knowledge management;
• There is also increasing recognition that, on their own, the weight of facts and evidence are often insufficient to persuade individuals and communities to 'do the right thing' and to contribute to the delivery of goals of wider societal benefit, e.g. around diet, health, energy, climate change, animal welfare, the economy etc. Delivering effective policy therefore requires a greater understanding of the opportunities and approaches to influence behaviours.

7.3 Proposed research themes (2016-2021)

The need to evolve from a functional/structural view of systems to one that acknowledges the complexity of the challenges in terms of unpredictable causes and effects is considered essential. The next portfolio must consequently adopt a whole 'systems thinking' approach if it is to generate the new knowledge and insights and deliver research outputs that contribute to meeting the SG's vision and outcomes.

This has long been recognised by the scientific community, as has recognition of the need for an inter- and multi-disciplinary approach to delivering outputs that are of practical use in helping address such complex societal issues. These are characteristics of the current portfolio that will need to be retained and reinforced for the next. The 2016-2021 research strategy needs to be positioned so that it can take full advantage of the approaches embodied by 'systems thinking'.

The strategy should consequently be structured in a way that supports and encourages collaboration across the scientific community and maximises the amount of inter-disciplinary work within and across research themes. Consequently we propose to move from the two programme, eight themes structure to just three strategic high-level research themes that support a number of specific policy outcomes:

• Health & Wellbeing - about ensuring we have healthy and vibrant communities that are built around community led innovation, good local environmental quality and secure supply chains. The outcomes sought include:
  • Resilient communities;
  • Safe food and secure food supply chains;
  • Healthy and sustainable diets;
  • Encouraging the uptake of key low carbon and other behaviours contributing to broader societal wellbeing;
  • Diverse and resilient energy supply chains.
• Productive and Viable Land Use - supporting a diversity of rural industries, food and other primary production, helping Scottish businesses innovate, using the best available tools and knowledge, generating and adapting new options and solutions for Scottish agriculture. The outcomes sought include:
  • An innovative and competitive rural economy;
  • A profitable and sustainable food and drink industry;
  • Productive, profitable and sustainable agriculture built on;
    • High health and welfare livestock; and
    • Appropriate land use;
  • Integrated pest and disease management.
• Ecosystem Services - using our natural capital within a framework that helps ensure the integrity, health and functionality of key ecosystem services are maintained while at the same time maximising their contributions to the high-level outcomes sought. The high level outcomes include:
  • Optimised climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies;
  • Food security and sustainable intensification;
  • Development of low carbon and efficient waste management systems;
  • The integrated management of water and land resources including;
    • Sustainable flood risk management for rivers and coastal erosion risks.

The schematic in Figure 1 includes these proposed themes and sets them within the framework of the three enabling principles identified earlier. While each theme has its own particular focus it must also be outward facing and reach out to the others. Adoption of the enabling principles will be crucial to successfully building effective interface areas between the themes - symbolised by the overlapping areas.

Figure 1

Strategic Priorities

Question 3: Are the high level outcomes sufficiently clear, if not, what changes would you propose?

Question 4: Are the three broad themes identified an appropriate way of structuring our work? If not, what alternatives should be considered?