Research

Using large datasets related to trade, launching of products, and consumer purchases, this project is studying current trends in markets relevant for the Scottish food and drink sector. 

This project reviews existing community interventions designed to support healthy eating, identifying effective elements that people from low-income households value and engage with. These elements combine with strategies shown to effectively helping people to change behaviour, and used to create a new holistic healthy eating intervention for delivery to clients from low income families through the social prescribing service.

We explore dietary choices people make when they switch to a more plant-based diet. Plant-based diets are viewed as healthier and sustainable, but little is known about the plant-based foods people choose in place of meat and why. We conduct a series of studies to explore personal and social barriers, both perceived and real, to eating less meat and the health and environmental impacts when meat consumption and purchasing patterns vary.

This is project identifies and evaluates interventions and approaches which facilitate transformative change in how Scottish biodiversity is framed, valued, and managed. It also explores how the benefits of Scotland's biodiversity can be harnessed and more equitably distributed.

Providing environmental enrichment (EE) aims to allow animals to gain positive experiences by engaging in and completing rewarding behaviours. However uncertainties exist surrounding EE use for farmed species including how to assess use of EE in practice and whether EE has other benefits such as promoting greater resilience including decreasing disease susceptibility. This project seeks to address these uncertainties. Engaging with stakeholders and using welfare assessment tools, such as qualitative behavioural assessment (an animal-centric welfare indicator) we are determining levels and effectiveness of EE. This is providing information on practical welfare improvements helping create ‘good life’ environments for farm animals.

Agricultural practice is plagued by intractable and challenging welfare issues, which are increasingly the focus of consumer attention and legislative restrictions, such as separation of mothers and offspring, use of painful procedures, chronic disease issues and the confinement of animals in limited space or with limited opportunities to express natural behaviour. This work seeks to resolve these chronic issues through adoption of new techniques, novel approaches and implementation of innovative technology. 

This project investigates the use of practical methodologies (including wearable sensors or strategic use of diagnostics) to assess and improve welfare, leading to improvements in animal husbandry on-farm in sustainable farming systems in Scotland.

This project aims to understand how marine and terrestrial protected areas can best conserve biodiversity under current and future climates.

We aim to address the risks posed by pathogens and pests for sustainable production of potato and soft fruits that are of great importance to Scotland. The project is highly interdisciplinary and utilises established expertise in plant and pathogen genomics, genetics, phenotyping and cell biology, through to breeding.

This project is developing rapid, sensitive and specific tests for the detection, quantitation and characterization of protozoan parasites affecting humans in Scottish drinking water.