Research

Novel Crops: To address opportunities for producing alternative protein and carbohydrate crops in Scottish agriculture for fish and crustacean feed, bioenergy, bio-refining, animal feed and human consumption, and to develop design criteria for integrating suitable alternative legume and non-legume crops as sole and intercrops within rotations whilst also accounting for agronomic and ecosystem services.

There are two main areas of research:

To develop novel tools and approaches to improve diagnosis of the most economically important endemic diseases of livestock in Scotland, the UK and Europe. The research will lead to the development of new and more versatile technologies for the accurate diagnosis of infectious disease and investigation of complex disease syndromes (such as reproductive and respiratory diseases), which will help to determine the interaction between the microbes (bacteria and viruses) present and the animal hosts they infect.

The aim of this work is to develop novel approaches to greenhouse gas mitigation in the crop and livestock sectors though improved understanding of underlying processes, and to assess the mitigation potential of new measures using field experiments and modelling in order to extrapolate the findings.  The work also aims to provide policy and practical guidelines to greenhouse gas mitigation in Scottish farming, through a wide process of engagement with key stakeholders.

The aim of this RD is to develop safe, highly effective, optimised, novel vaccines for the control of the most production- and welfare-limiting endemic diseases of Scottish livestock. The key drivers for this research are:

Place-based policy and rural Scotland: To improve current understanding of (i) the main reasons for differences in economic performance and social outcomes across rural areas and small towns of Scotland, and (ii) how policies can help to deliver positive outcomes and address these disparities.

Improved risk management and control of plant diseases: to be achieved through an understanding of key epidemiological parameters and optimal ways of manipulating them. These parameters underpin the development of epidemiological models that can be used to predict the effect of management strategies, including crop protection and host resistance. This work aims to define the parameters for problematic and economically important diseases of crops of particular importance to Scotland in order to deliver practical disease control solutions.

A major constraint on achieving food security is crop loss due to pests and diseases. The main aim of this work is to develop a better understanding of the plant-pest interactions that threaten arable crop production in Scotland and elsewhere. Understanding the mechanisms that pathogens use to invade and colonise host plants, in parallel with the processes by which plants resist infection, will provide key insights to drive long term plant protection strategies.

Plant, Soil, Water Interactions: To identify the interactions between plants and soils that can be exploited to achieve food security and sustainable production of sufficient, safe and nutritious food. Crop yield and quality, biodiversity, and soil health are largely determined by the interactions between plant roots and the soil. The focus is on understanding, and modelling, the physical, chemical and biological interactions between plant roots, soil and water, which could improve crop and grassland production efficiency and sustainability.

The aim of this research is to evaluate the potential to manage trade-offs and deliver multiple benefits from natural assets at the landscape scale. Focussing on agri-environment and woodland expansion schemes, together with integrated catchment management, the research uses practical examples to explore trade-offs and impacts taking into account social and cultural values as well environmental considerations in relation to land use and land use change.

The aim of the proposal is to undertake an assessment of food waste along food supply chains (dairy, fruits and vegetables) and consumption in Scotland, and provide coherent and robust strategies to reduce food loss and waste across the chain and, where waste cannot be reduced, identify valorisation routes for coproduct/income generation.