Round-up – April 2025
This is our round-up for April 2025. Please note that this page is not updated, so deadlines may have passed and links may no longer work. To receive future newsletters, please join our network.
Webinar: Time to throw off ‘nanny state’ fears – what do UK citizens want from their food?
Friday 25th April 2025, 10:00–11:30am
For too long, government has been told that people don’t want things to change: “Nobody wants a nanny state, businesses only make what people want to buy, most people just want cheap food”…and so on.
But is it true? Or are these familiar tropes just lobbyist lines designed to undermine political will and confidence to lead change? The Food, Farming and Countryside Commission’s (FFCC) The Food Conversation set out to find out – over two years it hosted 12 assemblies with a diverse set of citizens from communities around the country. The overarching question was; “So, what do we really want from food?”.
A Citizen Manifesto was launched last month, outlining what people want from their food. And this month, FFCC will also publish its final report from this phase of The Food Conversation. The author of that report, Mhairi Brown, will present the report’s main findings in this webinar, a few days ahead of publication.
VIDEO: CCC answers your questions on net zero, farming, diets & land
If you missed our webinar last week with Indra Thillainathan and Sandra Bogelein from the Climate Change Committee (CCC), you can now watch the video. They’ve also kindly allowed us to upload their presentation slides too – access them through the video link.
News from the wider agri-food sector
Defra updates agriculture data
Defra has updated its data on the structure of the agricultural industry in England and the UK. The latest updated dataset now includes data to 2024, and can be downloaded from the Defra website.
Agricology publishes Living Mulches Technical Guide
Agricology has published the first in a new series of Technical Guides, which aims to support farmers in making informed decisions about adopting living mulches in arable systems. It draws together farmer experience and research from Innovative Farmers and the Organic Research Centre to answer farmers’ questions on how best to implement living mulches.
Broads Peat Initiative
The Broads Authority has published details of their Broads Peat Initiative, working alongside farmers and landowners via a number of projects to restore the landscape. The projects include:
- Watertable management projects
- Innovative cropping
- Supporting farm advisers
- Engaging with farmers
- Monitoring and research and
- Restoring peatlands
The role of local knowledge in enhancing climate change risk assessments in rural Northern Ireland
This interdisciplinary study maps the climatic risks relating to health and agriculture that are facing rural Northern Ireland. It merges quantitative datasets with qualitative data and local knowledge, to better inform and evaluate climate risk assessments. The paper argues that merging even a small amount of qualitative local knowledge with quantitative national modelling projects results in a more holistic understanding of the local climate risk.
Funding
GFI Research Program
The Good Food Institute (GFI) has announced its 2025 Request for Proposals for research projects in the field of alternative protein development. They are looking for proposals of up to $250,00 in two areas:
- Functionality from fermentation: ingredients for plant-based meats
- Pathways to propel cell line development
Deadline: 15 May 2025
Events
ADOPT Funding Opportunity Information Webinar
Wednesday 30th April 2025, 10:00am–12:00pm
The ADOPT funding programme will launch in the Spring (as part of the Farming Innovation Programme delivered by Innovate UK). Innovate UK have organised a webinar to explain more about this opportunity. ADOPT (Accelerating Development of Practices and Technologies) will support collaborative farmer-led, on-farm trials or experiments to generate, test and demonstrate innovative solutions to farming challenges.
There will be two kinds of grant available:
- A small Support Grant to access professional assistance from an industry expert to help develop an application to the Full ADOPT Grant.
- A full ADOPT Grant to support collaborative farmer-led, on-farm trials or experiments.
Webinar: Food Thinkers – Serving the Public: the good food revolution in schools, hospitals and prisons
Wednesday 30th April 2025, 4:00–5:15pm
Professor Kevin Morgan will highlight key food policy issues from his new book – Serving the Public. His book addresses the challenges of public food provisioning in three very different public food systems, drawing on evidence from the UK, Sweden and the US.
Innovate UK: Farming Futures R&D – Precision Breeding consortium building
Thursday 1st May 2025, 10:00am–4:00pm, Peterborough
Ahead of Defra’s upcoming Farming Innovation Programme precision breeding competition, Innovate UK is holding an in-person event designed for businesses, research organisations, farmers, and growers. The event is designed to connect potential applicants, facilitate collaboration, and provide valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities associated with Precision Bred Organisms (PBOs).
The day includes:
- Business support from Innovate UK Business Connect.
- Information about the Farming Futures R&D – Precision Breeding funding opportunity, part of Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme, delivered by Innovate UK.
- Insights into regulatory updates, including Defra’s secondary legislation framework and perspectives from the Food Standards Agency (FSA).
… and much more
Exploring research priorities for the IPCC Seventh Assessment Report
Wednesday 14th May 2025, 10:00am–5:00pm, Central London and Online
The IPCC has recently approved the outlines of the three Working Group contributions to its Seventh Assessment Report (AR7). These outlines must now be translated into robust and impactful assessments. This event will bring together the UK climate research community to explore the AR7 outlines and identify research priorities and evidence gaps that can be addressed in the coming years to strengthen and support the IPCC assessment. The event is open to UK-based climate researchers, ranging from early career researchers to experienced IPCC contributors, and actively seeking engagement across many disciplines.
Webinar: Exploring the Value of the Farm Treescape through Whole Farm Tree Planning
Wednesday 30th April 2025 6:00–7:30pm
Organised by the Soil Association, this webinar will hear from Anna Biesty, farmer at Deepdale Farm in North Norfolk, about her experience as a pilot project farmer on the Whole Farm Treescape project. Deepdale Farm is an organic arable farm focusing on natural fertility building and soil health, exploring agroecological principles such as the integration of trees and livestock.
BES Symposium 2025: Nature, Farming and Food: How we value our land
19–20 June 2025, University of Oxford
Evidence and data about what we eat, where and how it’s grown are some of the most contested scientific debates in the public sphere. This year’s British Ecological Society Symposium will tackle the debates and their politics head-on.
Groundswell
2–3 July 2025, Lannock Farm, Hertfordshire
The Groundswell Festival provides a forum for farmers, growers, and anyone interested in food production and the environment to learn about the theory and practical applications of regenerative farming systems. The AFN Network+ will again be having a stand, with a variety of sessions throughout the two days. Tickets for this year’s event are now on sale.
Agroforestry Show 2025
10–11 September 2025, Maple Cross, Hertfordshire
Vacancy
Research Fellow (Land Use Net Zero), University of Gloucestershire
The University of Gloucestershire are seeking an ambitious postdoctoral social science researcher to support delivery of a major new transdisciplinary research project. The successful candidate will play an important role in the ‘to zero fifty’ greenhouse gas accounting living lab, one of only five projects funded by the UKRI in its flagship Transforming Land Use for Net Zero, Nature and People programme.
This post would suit an ambitious early career researcher with a PhD in a relevant subject area with proven social science skills, including developing and operationalising conceptualisations, coordinating large scale qualitative data collection and analysis, and writing academic papers. The successful candidate will have a good understanding of land use for net zero policy, practice, science and theory and familiarity with the relevant literature and stakeholders.
Deadline: 28 April 2025
