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Publication - Strategy/plan

Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Research: Strategy 2027 to 2032

Published
5 March 2026
From
Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands
Directorate
Environment and Forestry Directorate, +2 more … Agriculture and Rural Economy Directorate, Energy and Climate Change Directorate
Topic
Economy, Environment and climate change, Farming and rural
ISBN
9781806437252

The Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture (ENRA) Research Programme is our major science research funding programme. This strategy outlines our vision, priorities and mechanisms for the next cycle of multidisciplinary research covering the period 2027-2032.

Part of

View supporting documents Supporting documents

Footnotes

  1. The Research Portfolio Board is the lead governance body for the programme. Its members represent the users of research in Scottish Government and external stakeholders.

  2. The ENRA Science Advisory Board (SAB) provides independent challenge and scrutiny of the research delivered through the programme.

  3. The purpose of the First Minister’s Environment Council is to advise the government on international best practice and keep us at the forefront of tackling the climate emergency and ecological decline. First Minister’s Environmental Council - gov.scot

  4. 2016-22 Rural Affairs Food and Environment Research Programme Evaluation

  5. James Hutton Institute, Scotland’s Rural College, Moredun Research Institute, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland and Rowett Institute

  6. Rural affairs, food and environment research programme 2016 to 2022: evaluation report - gov.scot. As the current programme cycle (2022-2027) is not yet complete, a full evaluation has not been undertaken. However, a mid-programme review was conducted in 2023-24 to provide assurance of deliverability, efficacy, and direction of the programme - Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture (ENRA) research programme 2022-2027: mid-programme review report - gov.scot

  7. Living labs are key to enabling peer-to-peer learning, the importance of which was highlighted in the recent Knowledge Transfer and Innovation Fund Evaluation (2025).

  8. Decision support tools assist individuals/groups make more informed decisions, by providing structured guidance, analysis or insights. This could range from simple checklists to complex models and software programs that analyse large data sets and predict outcomes.

  9. Mayne, J. (2017). Theory of change analysis; Building robust theories of change. Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation/La Revue canadienne d’évaluation de programme 32.2 (Fall/automne ), 155-173 doi: 10.3138/cjpe.31122

  10. Case Studies | SEFARI

  11. Saidi, N (2020) (PDF) Evaluating the anticipated policy impact of research outputs: introducing the SPEIDY framework - March 2020.

Contact

Email: RESASScienceAdviceUnit@gov.scot

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