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SEERAD Programme of Agricultural, Biological and Related Research 2002-2003
INTRODUCTION
This is the 2002-03 edition of the Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department (SEERAD) Programme of Agricultural, Biological and Related Research, which details the research programme commissioned and sponsored by the Department's Agricultural & Biological Research Group (ABRG).
The Group commissions a broad range of research from organisations within Scotland and elsewhere in the UK. The research programme reflects ABRG's aim:
"To support a high quality science base in agricultural, biological and related sciences, and to fund research of strategic relevance to, and in support of, policy areas of the Scottish Executive and the related end-user communities in Scotland and beyond."
The research described here is predominantly (85%) carried out within the core (grant-in-aid) programmes of the five Scottish Agricultural and Biological Research Institutes (SABRIs): the Scottish Crop Research Institute (SCRI), the Hannah Research Institute (HRI), the Moredun Research Institute (MRI), the Rowett Research Institute (RRI), and the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute (MLURI); and at the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE). The remainder of the programme (15%) is commissioned by contract from these and other research organisations across the UK using the Department's Flexible Fund.
The programme covers a range of agricultural and related biological, environmental, food-related and socio-economic research. The bulk of the programme provides medium to long-term strategic research in these areas, but there is also a growing component of applied research building upon it. The annual direct cost of the research programme as a whole is about 43.5 million. Projects accounting for approximately 39.6 million of this are listed and the aggregate cost of the RBGE projects is in the order of 2.3 million. The final 1.6 million is non-commissioned research (NCR), a percentage of grant-in-aid that SABRI Directors and the Principal at SAC can use for research outside their commissioned programmes.
In 1999 ABRG published its
Strategy for Agricultural, Biological and Related Research 1999-2003. This document is available on request or can be viewed on our web-site at www.scotland.gov.uk/abrg. The Strategy sets out five key objectives, summarised as follows:
To maintain a strategic research capability as part of the UK science base, building on strengths and responding to new opportunities.
To widen the range of end-uses of the Department's research programme and to ensure its continued relevance.
To enhance the quality of the research programme through an improved focus on co-ordination, collaboration and competition.
To foster knowledge and technology transfer.
To improve information dissemination from, and public awareness of, the Department's research programme and its outputs.
To assist in objective one, developing the strategic research capability, the research programme was revised in 1999 into five main "Themes". These Themes are described in this document, and are as follows:
Theme 1: Soil and Environmental Sciences
Theme 2: Plant Science
Theme 3: Animal Physiology & Product Quality
Theme 4: Animal Disease, Behaviour and Welfare
Theme 5: Systems and Socio-Economics
Under the second key objective, ABRG is committed to broadening the range of end-users of its research programme. The Strategy identified five end-use categories for the research programme:
Sustainable Agriculture (SA)
Environment and Natural Heritage (ENH)
Nutrition and Human Health (NHH)
Food and Bioindustries (FB)
Rural Communities and Development (RCD)
The relevance of the SEERAD research programme to these categories is highlighted in the introductory text that accompanies each Theme in this document. The main focus of the research programme has traditionally been on sustainable agriculture. However, a significant proportion of the programme now addresses issues relevant to the environment and natural heritage, nutrition and human health, and food and bioindustries. The rural communities and development end use category focuses specifically on economic development in rural areas and on the social and economic sustainability of rural communities, although the vast majority of the full research programme is in fact relevant to the rural sector. In future years we anticipate that as the involvement of, and utility to, end users is increased, the profile of the programme will shift with sustainable agriculture remaining the largest end use category, but with an increasing proportion being relevant to the other four categories.
ABRG is also committed to enhancing the quality and effectiveness of the research programme (the third key objective). Last year, ABRG launched a Flexible Fund Collaborative Competition to encourage Sponsored Bodies to work on joint projects with other research organisations where this enables more to be achieved than working separately. Approximately 3.4 million was awarded for collaborative projects, which are included in this document.
Since the publication of the 1999-2003 Strategy there has also been considerable activity within ABRG, the SABRIs, SAC and RBGE to further implement key objectives four and five. These key objectives are to improve knowledge transfer and technology transfer from the science base to end-users, and to improve dissemination of project outputs and public awareness of the research programme. Progress in implementation of the Research Strategy against each of the five objectives has been reported in the Group's annual strategy implementation reports, which can be found on the ABRG website.
This document lists all projects underway in 2002-03 as at 1
st August 2002. The projects are listed within the framework of the five scientific themes. Only commission number, title, end date and estimated recurrent cost for 2002-03 are provided for economy of space, but further information on any project, or area of the programme, can be provided by the ABRG-Research Management Unit: please telephone 0131-244-5230 or fax 0131-244-6566 for further assistance.
The following diagram shows the relationship between the five scientific themes and the end-use categories in the research programme:
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