What connects doughnut economics, the Scottish Eatwell Guide, community fridges and sustainable solutions for food industries in Nigeria? These are not just niche interests, but topics that were part of our ongoing conversations at the SCAF online networking series, with the 3rd instalment in April welcoming 17 participants. These speed networking sessions create space for curiosity and connections that may not happen in more formal settings. Join us at the next meeting on 28/05 at 6pm.

These events are also great at creating the spark for new event or activity ideas, and building teams to apply for SCAF funding. In April, we awarded our first event and activity fund to the Soil Association, who are hosting an event “Organic for All” at the Scottish Parliament on June 4th (contact scaf@glasgow.ac.uk to see if spaces are still available). The event aims to bring together farmers, caterers, retailers, and policymakers to address barriers in the organic sector, fostering engagement with MSPs. We continue to welcome applications for the mentorship travel bursary supporting applicants to connect with mentors for career development (from applying for promotion, to developing networks, working on a fellowship or grant application, or connecting around an existing project).

Beyond online events and funding support, SCAF also goes on tour to meet members in their institutions, and extend the reach of the network. This month, we thank SCAF Theme lead Peter Alexander for welcoming us at the Edinburgh Futures Institute. The open day featured the Food Lens Exhibition and the hybrid webinar exploring corporate power in the food system and biodiversity policy. Our first speaker, Dr Jay Burns, asked the critical question “what does nature means to us?” and presented scenarios and modelling for achieving global biodiversity goals and targets with outcomes that include global impacts on biodiversity patterns, food security, human health and ecosystem processes. Our second speaker, Dr Kathrin Prager, explored corporate power in food systems governance and illustrated why corporate power presents a core challenge to food systems transformation, using meat consumption as an example. You can catch up on the webinar on our YouTube channel. 

A topic that SCAF has (so far) less often explored is corporate finance, and financing the food system. Our SCAF director Emilie was a panellist at the Bank of Scotland Breakfast discussion on “Finance as a Catalyst for a Resilient, Affordable and Healthier UK Food System”, alongside banking and food production experts. This was an opportunity to highlight:  

1) research not being a luxury or afterthought, but a necessary and critical lever to unlock a broad range of solutions and innovations, 
2) a deeper commitment to curiosity, collaboration, and courageous funding, especially where it empowers long-term, equitable change.

Given how central communicating about food is to creating a nuanced responsible debate, it was timely that out 11th webinar explored what “Scottish food” might mean, and who decides. With 32 very engaged participants, the webinar led by Dr Lindsay Middleton, Peter Gilchrist, and Dr Ana Tominc focused on Scottish food heritage and culinary culture. Ana presented her new book, Communicating Scotland through Food, due to come out next year, which explores how food informs our identity through multiple lenses from tourism to politics and education. Lindsay and Peter built on this further with a discussion on using food heritage as a vehicle to educate, connect and celebrate. A recording is available on our YouTube channel.

Spring is the time for governance and strategic planning, and our fourth governance meeting focused on how to increase early career professional involvement, membership engagement, and how to align activities to support the development of large bids. If you have ideas of potential SCAF activities or mechanisms to support research development, we are welcoming suggestions here. 

First published: 8 May 2025

<< Blog