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C C R I 2 0 1 8 - 2 0 1 9 A Y E A R I N R E V I E W | D I R E C T O R ’ S N O T E

W W W . C C R I . A C . U K

2018-2019 A Year in Review

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Looking back, Brexit has provided a particular and multi-faceted context for

CCRI work over the past year. Wherever we stand as individuals on the topic,

it has stimulated a renewed focus upon the policies that have shaped the

UK’s food system, rural communities and landscapes for many decades.

The CCRI, in evidence provided to Parliamentary Committees, Government

Departments and independent Commissions, in events hosted and attended,

in research reports completed and papers published, has been playing a

constructive role in scoping what comes next.

Our focus on understanding the everyday lived experience of individuals and

communities in varied social and environmental contexts has been central

to that effort. At the same time, our contribution to policy debates and

developments continues to grow beyond the UK, to include international

collaborations and initiatives with the FAO, EU and OECD and in Asia, Africa,

central Europe and the Middle East.

These developments make for a very dynamic research environment as

together, we build, share and co-develop new knowledge with our partners.

This mini-site show-cases some of our achievements in the year so that you

can see the range of work accomplished and delve into more detail wherever

you wish.

We were delighted to welcome four new colleagues to the team this year,

enabling us to conduct more research, across a broader range of topics and

in more countries than ever before. Our capabilities have grown as we add

new skills and techniques to the mix, building synergies in our research

methods between qualitative and quantitative disciplines and approaches

within contemporary social science.

As a team, we are ever more aware of the immense challenges facing society,

with a climate emergency now declared by Parliament and action set in train

on plastics and air quality, but an ever increasing inequality in incomes and

life-chances across much of the developed and developing world.

The ability to produce rigorous evidence and to present and discuss it openly

seems now more important than ever. I am thankful that many people have

confidence in the CCRI’s ability to play these roles effectively. I look forward

to reporting back to you next year about our progress.

Director’s welcome

Janet Dwyer

Professor of Rural Policy and Director of CCRI

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C C R I 2 0 1 8 - 2 0 1 9 A Y E A R I N R E V I E W | C O N T E N T S

ContentsDirector’s Note 3

Policy & Governance 6

Research & Innovation 14

About CCRI 29

Staff 30

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Section 1: Policy & GovernanceCCRI conducts agenda-setting research to aid policy makers who work at

the interface of agricultural, social and environmental issues in the UK,

Europe and beyond.

In 2018, we extended our hard-fought reputation for excellence in policy and

governance advice on rural and urban development. We covered topics ranging

from soil science and sustainable agriculture, to the culture of food, and the

limits of the food system.

C C R I 2 0 1 8 - 2 0 1 9 A Y E A R I N R E V I E W

Brexit: a time for strategy 2018 proved CCRI is well positioned to contribute to post-Brexit thinking and policy formulation

The one thing we know for certain about the UK’s

decision to leave the EU is that it will shape food, farming,

environmental and rural policy for the next 20 years. “After

a year of central government paralysis, with everyone

worrying about the implications of the referendum result,

2018 was the year new thinking around Brexit started

to emerge,” says CCRI Director Janet Dwyer. CCRI was

consulted on current political developments – drawing

on years of specialist knowledge – and worked on new

projects focused on the ‘beyond Brexit’ agenda.

House of Lords – the Rural EconomyThe report, entitled ‘Time for a strategy for the rural

economy’, covers a broad range of topics – the rural

economy, housing, service delivery and policies

impacting upon rural areas. Janet Dwyer was interviewed

as part of the consultation process. She spoke about

the uncertainty that has been created in the farming

community by Brexit and voiced concerns regarding

the effects of austerity measures, which have had a

disproportionate effect on rural areas. Many small family

businesses struggle to expand due to insufficient support.

This is an important issue that must be addressed if

government policy is to support a more sustainable

agricultural economy.

S E C T I O N 1 | P O L I C Y & G O V E R N A N C E

Welsh Affairs Select CommitteesCCRI gave evidence to two different committees in

Wales on what Brexit might mean for Welsh rural areas

and Welsh agri-economy, Welsh rural development

and environment. Janet Dwyer was commissioned by

the Public Policy Institute for Wales for a study on the

implications of Brexit for rural Wales.

The English ContextCCRI radio interviews and other media commentary

applied our knowledge of European policy and an

understanding of the likely consequences of different

Brexit scenarios. A CCRI press release highlighted the loss

of rural development in the policy agenda. “Research

has given us understanding of both what’s been difficult

about money coming from Europe but also what’s been

good”, comments Janet.

Brexit GeographiesDamian Maye published a paper on Brexit and Agriculture

in a special issue of ‘Brexit Geographies’. The paper

reflects one of CCRI’s broad ongoing goals – to connect

research on sustainable agriculture to live debates

in the policy arena. The subject matter links to ideas

incorporated in the EU-level SUFISA project (see below).

Brexit ConferenceCCRI held five workshops in early 2018. Across all five

there was a clear call for innovation both in policy, lines

of communication and in the synergy between food and

energy as well as land, water and biodiversity.

There is an urgent need for a new generation of

entrepreneurs and knowledge exchange around different

ways of working and achieving a resilient landscape.

Diversity is also key with a need to move away from a one

size fits all approach to policy and regulation, building on

the excellent examples that exist in Gloucestershire and

elsewhere in the country. The situation is complex but

we need to value food and highlight the social value and

well-being aspects of food and how it is produced.

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Sustainable agriculture, food and fisheries policyLast year saw us further improve our ability to support

future policy for more resilient agricultural systems

Agricultural production sits at the heart of major societal

concerns, spanning food security, nutrition and health;

livelihoods and development; the environment; and animal

welfare. By their nature, sustainable policies should support

primary producers, but these producers exist in a context of

multidimensional policy requirements, market uncertainties

and globalisation. Much of our work was focused on

improving, gathering and analysing knowledge and data

around these complexities in order to aid policy decisions.

Inshore fisheries and dairy farms2018 was the final year for SUFISA, an EU-level project,

spanning 11 countries and 22 regions. CCRI’s primary

role was to examine farmers’ and fishers’ perspectives on

market and regulatory pressures on inshore fisheries in

Cornwall and dairy farms in Somerset.

We also investigated the strategies used at farm-level,

as well as collectively, to manage these pressures

effectively. “We spent the early parts of 2018 finishing

case study work and then translating the UK findings

report – which was over 200 pages – into two short

policy briefs outlining the relevant headlines about our

findings,” explains Damian Maye, who coordinated CCRI’s

activities on the project.

The team undertook a major cross-national comparison

of agri-food commodity arrangements for a variety

of case studies across Europe, drafting a large,

highly detailed report for the Commission. “From a

dissemination perspective, SUFISA is one of our most

significant projects,” says Maye.

Farm and forest managementIn 2018, we completed another major EU Horizon

2020 study called PEGASUS (Public Ecosystem Goods

And Services from land management – Unlocking the

Synergies). The work focused on new ways of thinking

about farmland and forest management. The broad

aim was to stimulate a long-lasting improvement in the

provision of public goods and ecosystem services from

agricultural and forest land in the EU.

The CCRI played a significant role in developing the

evaluation framework and the approach to analysis of

the project’s 34 case studies, including four in the UK.

“It’s interesting, Europe is now moving in the direction that

the UK has been advocating for some time,” notes CCRI

Director Janet Dwyer. The project has helped move the

conversation beyond the rhetoric of neoclassical economics

and its preoccupations with market failure and government

intervention. “The reality of rural business is that policy

comes in little silos,” says Dwyer. “You may get some money

for heritage, some for environment or some for economic


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growth and development of jobs”. Businesses must try to

juggle these different elements in a coherent way.

PEGASUS demonstrated that, if you want to deliver

environmental quality through funding rural land managers,

you need to think beyond targeting the environment alone.

Decision makers can achieve more cost-effective outcomes

for the environment by including local social, cultural and

economic factors in their policy design.

Quantitative Policy AnalysisMauro Vigani’s work for the European Commission’s Joint

Research Centre (JRC) and the UN’s Food and Agriculture

Organization (FAO) demonstrated just how effective CCRI has

been in its capacity building efforts in 2018.

The CCRI has a long-standing reputation for producing

rigorous qualitative policy-relevant research. Vigani’s

supportive work for the JRC has applied quantitative skills,

ranging from estimating demand elasticities for countries

like Ethiopia and Kenya, to investigating the production,

markets and regulation of microalgae-based food and feed

products in Europe.

The JRC is regularly charged with developing policy

scenarios at the request of the Directorate-General for

Agriculture and Rural Development and the Directorate-

General for International Cooperation and Development

in the European Commission.

Similarly, the UN’s FAO also relies on third-party research

institutes for quantitative analysis. In this instance, Vigani

analysed six farm support programmes run by the Ministry

of Agriculture in Georgia. The project represents a new

high watermark for CCRI’s quantitative evaluation impact.

Culture & HeritageCCRI’s work here focuses on opportunities to integrate

rural heritage into post Brexit rural development and

agri-environment policy

Sound policy relies on reliable evidence. CCRI actively

supports policy decisions by gathering and analysing

data around key culture and heritage issues, including

generational renewal, the built environment and land

use. Making the case for rural heritage is reliant upon

demonstrating not only the challenges it faces – but also

identifying the scale of these problems and the socio-

economic value that conserving it might bring.

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Generational Renewal in AgricultureEmpowering a new generation of young farmers is really

vital to the success of the rural economy at large. This has

been a very active area for CCRI in 2018.

An EU-funded project for the European Commission’s

Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development

to looked at the issue across all Member States.

“To some extent, all agricultural policies impact upon

generational renewal,” says John Powell. “Any measures

that impact the wider rural economy can affect the number

of young entrepreneurs and workers entering the market.”

The study involved a wide range of different activities:

analysis of EU statistical data, and interviews with EU-level

policy makers, as well as national workshops.

Seven in-depth case studies look at the impact of the

Common Agricultural Policy on farm succession and

generational renewal in very different countries and

regions. CCRI worked with partner organisations in Italy,

Austria, Belgium, Poland, Estonia and Hungary.

Through this work, we’re improving policy advice on factors

that drive farm succession. “This work will significantly

improve policy makers’ understanding of the local contexts

that affect farm succession,” Powell notes. “Our findings will

feed into the next round of EU agricultural policy.”

Natural capital and the historic environmentCurrently there is limited understanding of the role of

historic environmental assets in ecosystem services

and natural capital approaches, and the monetary and

non-monetary benefits they can provide to society.

To fill this knowledge gap, Historic England has

commissioned research to assess the benefits that the

historic environment can provide to people’s health,

wellbeing and prosperity. As part of this research, CCRI

is undertaking three projects to develop a return-on-

investment model to explore ways in which historic

environment values can be incorporated into the four

categories of ecosystem services.

As a result of this work CCRI has been able to set out

in the language of ecosystem services what public and

environmental goods and services the heritage assets

provide. The CCRI has developed a research methodology

for recording the public and environmental benefits

arising from the historic environment, and specifically

flowing from dry stone walls in the Peak District National

Park, linear features in the Lower Severn Vale and

historic buildings and their associated boundaries in

Gloucestershire, Shropshire and the Peak District.

Farmsteads and Landscapes StatementsHistoric farmsteads make a fundamental contribution to

landscape character, local distinctiveness and a sense of

place. They are also assets which, through agricultural

or new uses, can make an important contribution to the

rural economy and communities. Historic England has

led national research on this subject and has produced

guidance on the conversion and maintenance of farm

buildings. However, further work is still needed to

develop the evidence base, in the form of Farmsteads and

Landscapes Statements.


Historic England commissioned Jeremy Lake and CCRI

to create and publish a baseline statement for 159 of

England’s National Character Areas. The Farmsteads and

Landscapes Statements will inform decision-making

by all those involved in the conservation, reuse and

development of historic farmsteads and farm buildings.

The Farmsteads and Landscapes Statements will provide,

for the first time, an interpretation of the farmsteads and

farmed landscapes of England to inform research agendas.

Peer-to-peer farmer learningIn 2018-19, CCRI advanced its reputation for delivering

policy-relevant research on farmer learning and innovation.

Our work on EU project AgriDemo-F2F identified best

practice in providing on-farm demonstration activities, and

proposed effective ways for policy makers to support these

at local, regional and Europe national levels.

CCRI researchers have also been involved is the ‘Farmer-

led Initiatives Network (FLIN). This is just emerging as a

formalised network. It brings together NGOs, researchers

and agencies with a common interest in supporting

farmer-led initiatives in sustainable agriculture. The

motivation for the network is to share experiences and

to identify the best way to evaluate farmer-led initiatives.

We’re looking for ways to find evidence that counts for

policy makers and shows that such models work. This will

be particularly important given the emphasis on rewarding

collaborative provision of public goods post-Brexit.

An interview with Julie Ingram“We’ve continued to develop ideas that have emerged

in academic circles relating to learning and innovation.

Our particular interest is understanding how knowledge

processes operate in Agricultural Innovation Systems, the

complex and dynamic system of producers, innovation

support and advisory systems, commercial sector, supply

chains, researchers and educationalists, and policy makers.

“This is a particularly useful area of policy-relevant research

now the UK is thinking about its future as a competitive

food producer outside of the EU’s CAP. I think we’re quite

well placed to draw on our knowledge and experience from

previous projects on this to inform policy makers.

“Working with partners (academics and practitioners)

internationally has allowed us to explore a number of case

studies and develop some innovative ideas. We really have

been quite cutting edge in the work we’ve done.

“Many EU projects are now following the multi-actor

approach which means project partners are drawn from

farmers groups and advisory services, industry, NGOs as

well as academics. The focus is very much on working

together to solve problems and co-produce innovations

that are relevant, practical and will deliver impact.

These partners can act as gatekeepers for researchers

to stakeholders in the agriculture community. So this is

a great opportunity to really understand the realities of

achieving innovation on-farm.

“Working with stakeholders also allows us to bring

together our collective knowledge and co-create

knowledge on topics that stakeholders identify as

important. Whilst this can be rewarding for all involved,

but it also has its challenges.

“The complexities of implementing co-production of

knowledge is something worth noting. We have to take

care to manage expectations and to understand that,

while for researchers the research project is a top priority,

for stakeholders it is just one of the many demands on

their time.

“As researchers, we have to be reflective and think about our

responsibility to the stakeholders, farmers and advisors we

involve in these projects. That’s quite a progressive position

that we’re starting to explore in more depth.”

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Living LabsComplex problems, such as effectively managing an

ageing population or delivering sustainable mobility,

are often specific to a particular region and encompass

both rural and urban areas. Such challenges can only

be solved by taking a collaborative approach, involving

policymakers, researchers, businesses, service providers,

citizens and other stakeholders. But it can be difficult

to know what types of governance arrangements are

effective in different scenarios.

This is why we have been contributing to the EU’s

Horizon 2020 ROBUST project since 2017. ROBUST (Rural-

Urban Outlooks: Unlocking Synergies) brings together 24

partners from 11 countries to advance our understanding

of the interactions and dependencies between rural,

peri-urban and urban areas; and to identify and promote

policies, governance models and practices that foster

mutually beneficial relations. A key element of ROBUST is

exploring different governance arrangements in real-life

settings. Therefore, 11 case studies called ‘Living Labs’

have been chosen to cover diverse territorial contexts,

one of which is Gloucestershire.

Each Living Lab is a place-based form of experimental

collaboration that emphasises co-creation in a real-world

setting. The Gloucestershire collaboration partners CCRI

with Gloucestershire County Council. “It’s a bit different to

the sort of conventional way that you do research,” says

CCRI’s Damian Maye. “Normally, if we were working for the

Council, we would just go away and collect lots of data and

come back with a report. In a Living Lab scenario we deliver

co-produced innovation, working very closely together and

identifying what we each want out of the process.”

“In 2018, one of our main jobs on the project was to

develop a framework for how you do these Living Labs

– how you run them – and then to develop a toolkit of

“In a Living Lab scenario we deliver co-produced innovation,

working very closely together and identifying what we each

want out of the process.”Damian Maye


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methods that all the practice partners can then use,” says

Maye. “We also developed a monitoring and evaluation

framework to track the learning as the Lab goes through

its stages so that by the end of the project we can provide

evidence to the Commission and our peers of what this

type of ‘trans-disciplinary research’ can actually achieve.”

Beyond developing a robust methodology, work centred on

specific challenges in urban-rural governance. “To give you

a real example, there’s a food strategy for Gloucestershire

and within that we think we need to progress quite rapidly

towards a plant-based diet,” says Dan Keech. The CCRI

team is working with the Council to adapt their contracting

for local food provision of school meals. To make this

change, within ROBUST we are developing experiments

that challenge existing conventions, linking the work we

do on sustainable food strategies to inform the Council’s

thinking. “That’s going to affect the profile of agriculture in

the county and certainly the business models people might

need to think about as change happens; so you can see

how there’s a rural-urban relationship.”

Environmental land management in EnglandThe Exmoor Ambition is an initiative to design, trial

and test future approaches to environmental land

management in England.

At present, if farmers want financial support from the public

sector, they can face extraordinary levels of bureaucracy.

Consequently, some farmers have started to organise in

various ways and build capacity to win back some control.

Exmoor Hill Farmers and the National Park had previously

commissioned CCRI to survey Exmoor farmers, helping them

to develop capacity to make a difference at a local level.

Janet Dwyer then joined the steering group, developing the

initiative and contributing ideas on governance based on her

knowledge from other parts of Europe.

Dwyer also evaluated a small project called ‘Graze the

Moor’. This focuses on understanding how to regenerate

heather moorland. “We’ve realised that the traditional

prescriptions of agri-environment schemes weren’t

working; particularly in the southwest,” Dwyer says.

Landowner Christina Williams took her moorland area out

of the conventional scheme management and persuaded

Natural England to experiment with a different approach.

This involved establishing a grazing cattle herd that would

stay on the Moor in winter. “With centrally designed, top

down schemes, a simple narrative about what works can

become policy everywhere, when it was only appropriate

to one context,” Dwyer says. “This project was about

challenging that and building on valuable local knowledge.”

Future grazing managementIn Norway, rural land is facing change from second home

construction and residents who do not want to see

agricultural activities taking place on their doorstep. In

addition, some of those with hunting rights want to remove

sheep grazing entirely to offer hunters a more ‘natural’

experience. There are also wider structural problems arising

from the effect of state subsidies on sheep farmers, and

declining lamb consumption among Norwegians.

Such change has led to concern about the voice and lack

of power and influence that traditional graziers have in

the mountain and forest regions of Norway, prompting

the Norwegian government to initiate a three-year project

called FUTGRAZE.

Beginning in 2018, FUTGRAZE investigates how the local

common land associations are adapting to environmental,

political and economic changes and why it seems that

some are more able to adapt and avoid conflict than others.

“We’ve been chosen as a partner to look at some of the

UK’s management of those spaces and look at traditional

voices,” says CCRI’s Chris Short. “They’re looking to us in a

sense because we’re more populated and we’ve got fewer

of those areas, so they tend to be under more pressure.”

CCRI’s knowledge of both legislation and local mechanisms

of self-governance and resilience in the UK will help to

shape future best practice arrangements in Norway.


Section 2: Research & InnovationCCRI conducts and publishes world-class research that forms the

foundations for a deeper shared understanding of rural life and leads to

actionable insights on issues relevant to rural and urban development in

the UK, Europe and beyond.

2018 saw us collect detailed evidence and grow our knowledge base in various

key areas, including sustainable agriculture, fish and food; farmer influence;

and culture and heritage.


We have completed nuanced analysis of sustainable

practices for building resilient agricultural systems in

complex regional dynamics

Needing to satisfy a growing world population and

demand from a wide range of industries, agriculture,

fish and food systems are under intense strain. At the

same time, these industries are facing pressure to

abandon intensive practices that harm the environment

long-term in favour of a more sustainable approach

that manages natural resources effectively, all while

contributing to equitable regional development. In

2018, we have been adding unique and valuable insights

to the UK and European knowledge base that are

helping to facilitate a sustainable food system.

Inshore fisheries and dairy farmsPrimary producers—that is agriculture, fisheries and

aquaculture—are the foundation of the food system. But

that system faces many economic, environmental and

social challenges as well as opportunities following socio-

economic and technological developments, that are not

equally distributed.

To make sense of this complex landscape, SUFISA was born.

The EU-level project spanned 11 countries and 22 regions

and ended in 2018. Its aim was to identify sustainable

practices and policies in the agricultural, fish and food

Sustainable agriculture, food and fisheries policy

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sectors that support the sustainability of primary producers

in the context of complex policy requirements, market

uncertainties and globalisation.

As part of this work, we examined farmers’ and fishers’

perspectives on market and regulatory pressures on inshore

fisheries in Cornwall and dairy farms in Somerset. This

analysis was conducted using a combination of methods,

including focus groups, interviews and a survey of 200

producers (in the dairy case only) to understand the key

market and regulatory conditions, and the strategies and

arrangements that primary producers are utilising to

manage difficulties and risks.The research exposed various

conditions that influence food producers’ strategies and

performances, and provided a unique insight into differing

supply chain arrangements and mechanisms that are

allowing farmers to deal with these pressures.

At a wider EU level, the CCRI team ran a producer survey

across 22 regions of the EU, each of which involved up to

300 producers. From this, we compiled a large database

which was then subjected to a comparative cross-regional

econometric and descriptive analysis. “In order to develop a

coherent understanding of the impacts of multi-dimensional

policy requirements, market uncertainties and globalisation,

scattered knowledge must be centralised and integrated

with new insights,” says Damian Maye, who led the CCRI

contingent. “In November 2018, the team delivered a

number of very large qualitative and quantitative datasets to

the European Commission, including the massive producer

survey report, analysis of which made sense of a very broad

dataset, reporting evidence of new arrangements emerging

around contracts in commodity sectors.”

Flood ManagementCan natural land-based measures be used to reduce the

risk of flooding for communities? This is the question

LANDWISE—a Natural Environment Research Council

(NERC)-funded project that ends in 2021—seeks to answer.

LANDWISE studies measures like crop choice, tillage

practices and tree planting, that have been identified by

people who own and manage land to have the greatest

realisable potential of reducing the risk from flooding from

surface runoff, rivers and groundwater in groundwater-fed

lowland catchments. These natural methods can reduce

the amount of water that runs off the land surface, while

also improving soil structure to allow more rainwater to

infiltrate below ground.

The LANDWISE research focuses on the West Thames River

Basin area, where around 112,000 properties are at risk of

flooding if rivers burst their banks, almost 10,000 are at risk

of groundwater flooding, and many more are in danger of

surface water flooding.

CCRI’s Chris Short is co-investigator on the project, led by

Reading University: “Modelled data suggest that natural

land-based activities on lowland agriculture catchments

are useful for reducing risk in small-scale events but this

tails off for bigger events to the point that they might

actually become more problematic than beneficial,” he

says. “There are a small number of people that say that’s

wrong, but there’s no evidence – so, that’s why this project

is really interesting.”

Alongside a paper on natural flood management

highlighting the multiple social, environmental, economic

and benefits, Short’s role heavily involves community

and farmer engagement in the Upper Thames region. As

Chair of the Upper Thames Catchment Partnership, he has

encouraged a high level of farmer engagement, secured

through various projects to learn about the benefits and

drawbacks of flood mitigation measures these farmers

employ. “I think it’s a real plus for a CCRI project to be

involved in the sort of work in which farmer engagement

produces new knowledge,” he adds.

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Farmer learning and innovation

CCRI investigates farmer behaviour and influence across

a range of themes

Networks that facilitate farmer-to-farmer learning accelerate

the uptake of knowledge and innovation to make the

industry more competitive in the global marketplace.

But to tackle the economic, environmental and social

challenges facing the sector and their potentially complex

interconnections requires a broader range of expertise.

Knowledge needs to be exchanged between farmers,

researchers and other stakeholders to bridge the gap

between academic findings and the farm. Knowledge

co-creation fosters innovation towards keeping agriculture

and food production competitive and sustainable, and

rural areas vibrant in the 21st century. 2018 saw us

actively encourage knowledge co-creation by deepening

understanding of the importance of farmer learning

networks and how knowledge processes operate in

agricultural innovation systems.

Risk management and resilience“Policy analysis is a longstanding specialism of CCRI,”

says CCRI’s Mauro Vigani. “But the focus on risk

management and especially resilience is a rather new

aspect of the policy debate.”

This new focus has required an equally new approach to

knowledge gathering, requiring the consideration of more

dynamic elements such a farmer behaviour around learning,

risk management and resilience. “Some members of the

Institute studied how farmers learn in the past, but perhaps

not as intensively as we’re doing now,” explains Vigani.

“We’re now in a very strong position in this area.”

A big step forward was made in 2018 by developing a more

refined understanding of individual and regional farm

resilience instead of relying on a single economic measure.

“We’ve taken this dataset called the Farm Business Survey,

which is a massive annual survey of about 3000 farmers in

the UK,” says CCRI’s Robert Berry. “From this, we’ve come

up with a number of indicators that we think demonstrate

how resilient the economics of each farm is, and then

mapped it out to show the difference in farmer resilience in

different regions of England and Wales.”

A CCRI team has extended farmer risk and resilience

knowledge further in the EU-funded project SURE-

Farm. SURE-Farm aims to analyse, assess and improve

the resilience and sustainability of farms and farming

systems in the EU. “Part of that is understanding how

important the farmer learning network is to farmers,

particularly when they want to make changes on their

farm,” explains CCRI’s Damian Maye. “So, it’s building

upon the theme of farmer influence to understand: what

are the kind of influences? Who influences farmers? What

are the types of knowledge networks that they use when

they’re making changes on their farms?”

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The project aims to develop a comprehensive framework

to identify the conditions that enable farming systems to

become and remain resilient to a broad range of current

and imminent stressors. It will address determinants of

resilience, potential improvements of risk management

strategies, drivers of farm demographics, and strengths

and weaknesses of the existing policy framework.

Within the wider aims of the project, the CCRI team

uses a mixed quantitative and qualitative analytical

approach to focus on farmers’ adaptive behaviour and

learning capacity, the enabling environment for farm

demographics and farm labour, and the assessment

of the capacity of the Common Agricultural Policy to

enhance resilient and sustainable agriculture.

As part of this, the team is conducting one of 11 case

studies across Europe. The case study involves co-

creating knowledge with arable farmers in the East

of England. Just like other farmers across the UK,

these farmers face considerable challenges in terms of

uncertainties surrounding Brexit, together with ongoing

pressures of responding to consumer preferences, public

perceptions of agriculture and balancing farm business

performance with environmental sustainability.

Farm and forestry managementThe EU-level PEGASUS project has taken a methodological

approach that’s emerging from ecosystem services

literature and the work of Elinor Ostrom, 2009 Nobel

Laureate in Economic Sciences

CCRI investigated initiatives that were trying to improve

the provision of public goods and ecosystem services from

agriculture and forestry. Each case study had a different

approach to unlock the synergies between economic,

social and environmental benefits for society. With case

“This is a crucial time for British agriculture and a deeper

understanding of what makes farms resilient will be important

to safeguard UK farming and food production into the future.”

Mauro Vigani

18


studies from all over Europe, we were able to showcase

pioneering initiatives for sustainable management of

farming and forest land that deliver public goods and

ecosystem services using the concept of a holistic and

sustainable system.

CCRI used a social-ecological systems approach as a

way of analysing how these kind of actions work at the

local level. The analysis showed clear links between the

three pillars of sustainability –the social, the economic

and the environmental – are needed to bring about

beneficial change.

The CCRI’s work aids policy makers by looking beyond

outcomes to understand the underlying processes that

work. “Understanding the social process makes all the

difference,” says CCRI Director Janet Dwyer. “Policy

can too easily go wrong when people have bright ideas

about what they need to achieve but a naive approach to

designing ‘instruments’ to achieve it, without considering

the social context.”

The way in which monetary support is offered or

regulations are applied – and the choices made about who

has the power to make decisions and tailor instruments for

local needs – makes a huge difference to a policy’s success.

This research was completed in 2018. “We held a policy

conference in Brussels followed by more discussions

with commission officials arranged by an officer

from the Directorate-General for Agriculture and

Rural Development,” says Dwyer. New draft Common

Agricultural Policy regulations propose a radical move

towards a more flexible approach to delivering public

goods and ecosystem services through land management

beyond 2020. When the Commission was looking for

ideas, our research was on hand. “The big message was: ‘if

you want this to work, you give people at a local level more

say over what happens; give farmers a stronger voice; and

encourage collective action,’” Janet says, “these features

should now all be stronger in the new CAP.

Co-producing social dataHere, the team at CCRI looked at the policy needs for

social data. With fisheries, for example, this is limited

to demographic data like gender, age, education

levels in the fisher population. “Policy makers really

want to understand fisher’s perceptions and attitudes

towards regulation and policy, or what influences

their behaviour,” explains Julie Urquhart. “The fisher

stakeholders want a better understanding of things that

directly impact them, like health and wellbeing.” Part of

that social data is cultural, so we’ve also looked at the

cultural identity of fishing communities,”

Tree pests and diseases is another area we’ve conducted

some really meaningful, innovative work. This is quite

a new area within research and policy. The social side

of the tree health area has really only come to the force

since ash dieback hit the headlines in 2012.

The team is working on a Defra project concerning

policy options that support land managers to better

deal with pests and diseases. This included workshops

and interviews with a broad range of landholders. “The

next step is to develop these policy options through a

co-production process,” says Urquhart, “getting together

with land managers to identify formats for support and a

grant system that would help them.”

Since 2012, the government put a number of tree

health projects under the health and plant biosecurity

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initiative that were a combination of science (such as

genetics) and social dimensions.

A number of projects have come on the back of that.

The biosecurity work we’ve conducted with the plant

health social scientists in Defra has developed into an

ongoing research theme. “This is quite a new area for

CCRI because I only joined 18 months ago,” Urquhart

says. “Damian Maye’s worked on biosecurity and animal

health, and I’ve worked on tree health. So, we now have

this biosecurity strand at CCRI,” she says.

Urquhart has been involved in setting up an international

work of social science and tree health researchers. “In

the summer of 2018, we published a book that’s the

first international collection of work on the human

dimensions of tree health,” she explains.

Peer-to-peer farmer learningBuilding on our long history of researching how farmers

learn from their own on-farm experiences and from other

farmers, a CCRI team has been advancing knowledge in

the EU H2020 project Agridemo-F2F. Agridemo-F2F aims to

deepen understanding of effective on-farm demonstration

activities in order to enhance farmer-to-farmer learning.

“The simple idea is that farmers themselves are at the

centre of their own innovation systems,” says Julie Ingram.

The CCRI team developed a demonstrator interview schedule.

The interview is designed to identify the characteristics of a

good farm demonstration, so best practice can be replicated

elsewhere. “I think we’re quite well placed to be able to give

them knowledge and experience from the projects that we’ve

worked on,” says Ingram. “So, we really have been quite

cutting edge in the work we’ve done.”

Farm-to-farm NetworksSocial media in an urban context is well studied. 2018

was the year we really started to establish some in-depth

understanding of social media use in rural contexts. CCRI

produced a paper on farm-to-farm networks on Twitter. We’ve

observed small face-to-face networks of this type. This year, we

were able to establish the types of networks that have evolved

over social media. “Part of our success stemmed simply

from having the awareness and relevant tools to analyse this

phenomenon,” explains Matt Reed. “A lot of social media

analysis is quantitative, based on big datasets; this work was

principally qualitative analysis of a specialised network. That’s

quite different from a lot of social science in this area.”

“The work challenges perceptions that these rural

groups aren’t sufficiently networked to use digital media.”

Dr Matt Reed

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This work has very clear policy implications. “The work

challenges perceptions that these rural groups aren’t

sufficiently networked to use digital media,” says Reed.

“From some of the surveys we’ve conducted, we know

that’s emphatically no longer the case in many instances.”

Soil threats in EuropeAlthough there is a large body of knowledge available

on soil threats in Europe, this knowledge is fragmented

and incomplete, in particular regarding the complexity

and functioning of soil systems and their interaction

with human activities. This is why the EU-funded project

RECARE was conceived: to save our soil.

RECARE, which ended in 2018, aimed to do this by

developing effective prevention, remediation and

restoration measures using an innovative trans-

disciplinary approach, actively integrating and advancing

the knowledge of farmers and land managers with those

of scientists and other stakeholders in 17 case studies,

covering a range of soil threats in different biophysical

and socio-economic environments across Europe.

An important element of RECARE was dissemination and

communication. Alongside running the RECARE final

policy conference, a CCRI team worked on dissemination

throughout the project, ensuring that project results were

disseminated to a variety of stakeholders at the right time

and in the appropriate formats to stimulate renewed care

for European soils. “The response from partners across

Europe and the Commission has been really positive,”

comments CCRI’s Nick Lewis.

Already RECARE has reached those who directly manage

the land and soil, enabling and encouraging them in

sustainable soil management techniques. The hope is

that RECARE results can influence the design of future

European policies on soil protection too.

“The response from partners across Europe

and the Commission has been really positive.”

Nick Lewis

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22

Culture & Heritage


CCRI’s work on culture and heritage doesn’t just provide

a foundation for sound policy decisions, it’s pushing

research boundaries.

Capturing social and cultural data related to changing

rural and agricultural contexts is challenging. In 2018,

CCRI built on its wealth of experience in this area to

develop and apply a range of innovative approaches to

cultural and heritage data. These include frameworks

that allow policy makers to consider broader social value

that is generally missed when employing traditional

economic frameworks.

Social valuePaul Courtney has continued to cement CCRI’s

reputation as a centre of excellence in social value.

Many definitions of ‘social value’ don’t conceptualise

it properly. “That’s one task I’ve been working on,”

Courtney says. “I conceptualised social value for the

3rd sectors; taking the idea of a research framework for

psycho-social changes and making it more meaningful

by looking at the different paradigms it draws on.” These

paradigms include, among others, social innovation,

a participatory deliberative democracy and localism.

To capture the psycho-social changes that happens to

people’s lives Courtney has been using a methodology

called ‘Social Return on Investment’ (see below).

That work included an evaluation of the ‘Going the Extra

Mile’ programme – an employment programme designed

to bring socially disadvantaged, isolated or hard to reach

groups closer to employment training or education. The

programme, which is funded by the National Lottery and

the EU, involves 70 organisations known collectively as

the Gloucestershire Gateway Trust.

In collaboration with fellow University of Gloucestershire

colleague Colin Baker, the CCRI produced an interim

evaluation report. The report includes measurement

of distance travelled in these psycho-social changes.

The work helped the Gloucestershire Gateway Trust

to win another £2.7 million to extend the programme

for another two years (until the end of 2021). The work

is important for the county and, in turn, CCRI’s role

monitoring and evaluating the project from start to finish

has been important for the University.

CCRI also evaluated the Bristol City Council’s physical

health programme using this suite of social value tools,

including SROI. “We’re capturing the physical health

benefits but also the psycho-social benefits alongside

from participating in the programme,” Courtney notes.

The Council understood the wider value created by the

programmes. They’re aware of the indirect benefits – for

example, participants can meet like-minded people,

they’re less isolated, they join in with community more

and so on. “We’ve provided a framework for measuring

those benefits,” Courtney says.

CCRI provides each project with a bespoke social value

framework, but the basic underlying framework is

“Our work helped the Gloucestershire Gateway Trust

to win another £2.7 million”Paul Courtney

23W W W . C C R I . A C . U K


transferable between projects and even sectors: that’s

vital. The team published a paper on the methodology in

a journal called Research for all, an up and coming open

access journal.

The team is also working with Natural England to develop

indicators for environmental stewardship schemes. We

work with farm level indicators but we’re also developing

a robust, validated set of indicators for individual farmers.

Organisations like Defra and Natural England can then

use these indicators in conjunction with environmental

and economic indicators.

This comes back to the fact that social indicators are

difficult to capture, measure and value. Policy decisions

are made on the basis of environmental and economic

considerations, while important social factors are left

out. Much of our current efforts focus on bringing social

considerations further into the mainstream. The broader

goal is to support more informed policy decision making.

Social Return on InvestmentSocial Return on Investment (SROI) allows you to capture,

measure and financially value social change. CCRI has

developed an accessible toolkit, so third sector organisations

can capture and measure their own social value.

“SROI was initially developed so small organisations like

NGOs could better measure the impact of their work,” says

John Powell. “We’ve taken that model and developed it in

several significant ways.”

Historic England funded 10 projects on methodologies for

valuing cultural heritage. CCRI won three: one on dry-

stone wall in the peak district; another investigating linear

features in the Seven Vales; and a third on built structures.

Our team used an SROI model to place values on these

features. For dry-stone walls, for example, we looked at

the cost of maintenance, provision, restoration, etc., over a

50-year time period. We also consider the benefits from an

ecosystem services perspective, i.e., what are the benefits

of dry-stone walls? What are the benefits of sheltered

habitat? Considering these questions purely from a

cultural heritage perspective is very progressive.

“In one sense it’s not new: this idea of using proxies to

measure values and non-market goods has been around

for a while,” Powell notes. “But, the actual model for

doing it is new.”

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In Europe, interest is growing in using social value and

SROI to capture psycho-social outcomes alongside

economic or medical outcomes has big international

potential. There’s growing appetite for social indicators

and more meaningful ways to capture social value.

CCRI is in a really strong position thanks to a long track

record in this area. “The next stage is for us to develop the

indicators and test them through a pilot survey and then

get enough cases in the sample,” says Courtney. “If we can

get 400 cases, we can validate the indicators, which would

put us in a really strong position.”

Generational renewal2018 saw the arrival of a major framework contract from

the European Commission. The goal is to evaluate the

impact of the European agri-policy on ‘balanced territorial

development’ – one of the three strategic objectives of the

current CAP. We’re conducting evaluations over six years

in partnership with two other consultancies; one based in

Belgium, one in Austria.

The first project started in June 2018 and ended in July

2019. “That project is evaluating the impact of the CAP on

generational renewal, focused mostly on farming but also

looking beyond farming to rural areas more generally,” says

Janet Dwyer, CCRI Director. “So, how do you encourage

young people to stay in rural areas? How do you create the

conditions that they can live and work by?”

These projects are an interesting prospect for CCRI. “We have

to deliver a service contract where we’re working very closely

with the policy makers,” Dwyer explains. “So, any criticisms of

policy decisions must be based on robust evidence.”

Social indicators for environment schemesWe worked on a UK-based project for Defra and Natural

England which started in October to develop social

indicators for agri-environment schemes. The indicators

are designed to help monitor and evaluate the schemes.

Normally, Natural England focus on monitoring

the environmental impacts of a scheme. They now

recognise that some environmental impacts may take a

long time to reveal themselves and that farmers’ level of

engagement with a scheme can be a good indicator of

environmental outcomes.

Building on CCRI research undertaken over the last

decade, we are developing a set of indicators that can

be used to identify the quality of engagement a farmer

has with their agreement and also the social outcomes

that result from the agreement. Social outcomes

could include, for example, increased social networks,

increased confidence as a result of gaining new skills and

knowledge, or increased stress due to demands on time.

All these factors could have an influence on how farmers’

engage with any future agri-environmental work.

The work of a joint Natural England/CCRI PhD

studentship undertaken by George Cusworth ‘Exploring

the long-term social and land management impacts on

participants of the Entry Level Stewardship Scheme’ has

helped to inform this project.

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Place and cultureCCRI continues to develop its cultural research of local

distinctiveness with external partners. Building on

work reported on in previous reviews, our collaboration

with Otto-Friedrich University in Germany in the

two UNESCO World Heritage Cities of Bath (UK) and

Bamberg (Germany) has critically examined eco-

technical potentials of urban horticulture. These include

green space protection, water resource management

or the potential of urban food production to improve

household nutrition.

Such perspectives, often linked to the rapid

urbanisation experienced in global cities, are driven by

the need to make city food systems more sustainable

in the light of climate and economic challenges ahead.

But they can also overlook distinctive social details and

long-established cultural traditions and knowledge

about food in smaller cities, where the rural-urban

divide is often blurred.

A better understanding of crucial social-cultural contexts

may help avoid standardised approaches to urban

sustainability and play a key role in multi-stakeholder

decision-making concerning future land use planning.

Working with the School of Fine Art at the University of

the West of England (UWE), we have analysed a mixture

of lived and archival impressions of the severe floods

in the Somerset Levels and Moors in the consecutive

winters of 2012 and 2013/14.

Contrasting the responses to the flood emergency

and the unwelcome consequences of the water, with

small details of living through and with the flood water,

revealed unexpected subjective feelings and experiences

that have had little attention in climatological or

policy-facing literature or news reporting from the area

since that time. Again, we discern an eco-technical

dominance, driven, of course, by the desire to avoid

future inundation, but over-shadowing the multitude of

different perspectives about what should happen in the

area in the future.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) hold immense

potential for gathering, managing, and analysing

geospatial data in rural contexts.

Led by Dr Rob Berry, CCRI’s research activities are at the

forefront of applied, open-source GIS for rural research. GIS

techniques can be used to map processes and networks

across rural areas. Through these maps, researchers

can construct narratives that integrate qualitative and

quantitative data, text, maps and multimedia to tell

‘stories’ of particular aspects of rural regions.

Technology

Assessing the heritage value of linear landscape with GISThis project is aimed at developing a GIS-based

methodology for identifying and calculating the public and

environmental benefits (goods and services) arising from

the historic environment, and specifically flowing from linear

features in the Lower Severn Vale area of Gloucestershire.

The methodology builds on existing techniques for valuing

the benefits of market and non-market goods and services

and a recently completed CCRI project on dry stone walls

in the Peak District National Park. The method essentially

brings together valuation approaches with ecosystem

services and GIS analysis. The outputs are monetary values

for ‘benefit streams’ generated over time by the ‘capital

stock’ made up of the existing systems of boundaries and

linear features in the Lower Severn Vale.

Natural Flood Management with GISHere, we developed and evaluated a Google Earth

virtual globe tour for communicating spatial data and

engaging stakeholders in the early stages of a Natural

Flood Management (NFM) planning scenario. The project

centred on a rural UK river catchment that suffered

significant flooding in 2007.

With a range of diverse stakeholder interests to consider,

early engagement and the development of trust before

decision-making is essential for the long-term success of

such catchment-wide projects. A local catchment group

was consulted to identify key information requirements,

and from this a virtual globe tour was created.

The process involved specialist skills and expert leadership,

but the end result was accessible to a range of audiences.

User evaluation indicated that the virtual globe tour was

easy to navigate, and can be used to stimulate interest and

engage stakeholders. The Google Earth tour was developed

by CCRI MRES student Kate Smith, under the supervision of

Robert Berry (CCRI) and Lucy Clarke (Geography).


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27W W W . C C R I . A C . U K


Education & Communication

CCRI fosters a vibrant research culture that includes a

range of training and intellectual exchange

In 2018, we broadened the Institute’s capacity as an

EU-level dissemination partner and developed a range

of higher education courses and modules. On the

dissemination side, we’ve repeatedly demonstrated our

ability to develop Dissemination and Communication plans

for EU Horizon 2020 Framework projects, which ensure that

the outputs of projects have a significant impact both on

the ground and at policy level. Our course development

work includes Rob Berry’s efforts to meet demand for GIS

modules and courses, and a cutting-edge collaboration

with the Royal Agriculture University in Cirencester.

Soil science communicationCCRI completed work on the RECARE soil protection

and remediation project in 2018. The success of this

and previous dissemination activities means we’re

establishing a strong reputation in the field for facilitating

knowledge exchange and managing dissemination

packages. We developed an effective communications

strategy for the project, including a website and social

media presence. This work involves translating the

science emerging from the project into a language that

it understood by the end users, such as the farmers and

policy makers. Beyond those established competencies,

we took on responsibility for organising and presenting

the final conference in Brussels.

Led by Jane Mills, CCRI is now managing dissemination

activities for another EU Horizon 2020 project called

SoilCare. “We recently published a paper on the use of

Twitter for science communication,” Mills says. “Our

research is interested in the various approaches to

dissemination people take and how it really impacts

audiences.” Analysis of the SoilCare project Twitter

account identified UK farmers’ increasing use of Twitter

and how active they are in using this medium to share

knowledge and information between themselves.

Postgraduate GIS moduleGIS is a framework for gathering, managing, and analysing

data. For years, archaeology students have been requesting

more GIS. At Masters level we now offer a postgraduate

Geographic Information System (GIS) module. Students

from applied Archaeology and Landscape Architecture have

taken that module. We’ve now developed another four

modules, creating a new course: ‘Conservation GIS’.

The Conservation GIS course gives students a

Postgraduate Certificate qualification, opening the

opportunity to progress on to study for a Postgraduate

Diploma or a full Masters. Archaeologists and people

researching wildlife conservation can be the first in

the world to take a course completely focused on

conservation GIS. “It’s all Open Source and won’t involve

any proprietary software,” notes Berry.

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Mixed Methods GISCCRI has taken on a PhD student specialising in Mixed

Methods GIS. “That’s qualitative GIS,” explains Berry,

“so we combine qualitative data in a GIS framework

to help better represent people’s knowledge of their

surroundings. So, how do you take an interview transcript

or audio-visuals into GIS? And how do you map that to

show people’s emotional experiences of the landscape:

it’s quite cutting edge.”

Royal Agriculture University curriculum developmentA number of staff at the CCRI are collaborating with

the Royal Agriculture University in Cirencester to

launch a new suite of postgraduate and undergraduate

courses in sustainable, Brexit-proof agri-food futures in

September 2019.

These aim to develop people with appropriate leadership

skills to be creative and transform all areas of agricultural

practice: rural leadership, entrepreneurship and

sustainable land management.

The course will use blended learning, with a suite of

novel online resources and teaching approaches. The

first courses were launched at Masters level, and are

recruiting well. The undergraduate ones will follow later,

but we’ve been involved in development and thinking

about new ways of doing things.

Undergraduate programmes include one in food,

environment and society, the other in business

management. Our contribution is to help develop new

teaching tools and modules which draw on our research

skills and knowledge.

29W W W . C C R I . A C . U K

About CCRI

The CCRI is one of the largest social science centres in the UK, working at the interface of agriculture, society and the environment on issues relevant to rural and urban development, in the UK, Europe and further afield.

Working with colleagues and partners in the natural

as well as social sciences the CCRI has placed itself at

the centre of a nexus of knowledge and innovation

embracing soil science, sustainable agriculture, through

to the culture of food, and the limits of the food system,

community capacity and culture.

Our principal research interests are manifested in a

rigorous, dynamic and inclusive approach to deepening

our shared understanding of rural life. As we prepare for

the technological and environmental challenges before

us, we look to work with those engaged in policy, in

agriculture, in food and environmental management as

well as rural communities.

In addition to extensive research in the rural arena, our

recent research has also considered the role of cities

in the future of agricultural food production and has

highlighted changes in the conceptualisation of the rural-

urban continuum.

Emerging technologies such as renewable energies and

universal broadband access are reshaping rural areas;

our research is at the forefront of these topics. We have

woven novel approaches to management, notably through

common and participatory approaches, into our on-going

commitment to investigating our shared resources.

The CCRI has benefited from considerable research

investments from the EU through the Horizon 2020

programme, UK national agencies and departments,

as well as third sector bodies and other change agents.

Through our dedicated team of researchers and

professionals, we are always looking to further our insights

into rural challenges and changes which affect us all.

C C R I 2 0 1 8 - 2 0 1 9 A Y E A R I N R E V I E W | A B O U T C C R I

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Staff

Dr Robert BerryResearch Fellow

Dr Jasmine BlackResearch Assistant

Dr Dilshaad BundhooResearch Assistant

Dr Hannah ChiswellResearch Fellow

Paul CourtneyProfessor of Social Economy

Janet DwyerProfessor of Rural Policy and Director of the CCRI

Dr Peter GaskellSenior Research Fellow

Dr Julie IngramReader in Agri-environmental Systems

Dr Dan KeechSenior Research Fellow

Nick LewisResearcher

Damian MayeProfessor of Agri-Food Studies

Dr Nenia MichaSenior Research Fellow

Jane MillsReader in Agri-environmental Behaviours

Dr John PowellSenior Research Fellow

Dr Matt ReedReader in Food Citizenship

Chris ShortReader in Environmental Governance

Isabel FieldenProject Support Officer

Carol MarkeyAdministrator

Chris RayfieldBusiness Manager

Dr Julie UrquhartSenior Research Fellow

Dr Mauro ViganiSenior Research Fellow

Amr KhafagyResearch Assistant

Katarina KubinakovaResearcher

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Countryside and Community Research Institute

University of Gloucestershire

Francis Close Hall campus

Swindon Road, Cheltenham

Gloucestershire

GL50 4AZ, UK

Telephone: +44 (0) 1242 714122

E-mail: [email protected]

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