United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI) have announced the next phase of the Land Use for Net Zero Nature and People (LUNZ) Programme, which aims to mobilise and support research that works in partnership with government and industry to tackle net zero through action in the UK land sectors.
Funding has been granted for five separate consortia of stakeholder and research organisations, that will carry out cutting-edge research into the interlinking themes of soil health, agricultural systems and land use change.
This is the second phase of the LUNZ Program, following the launch of the LUNZ Hub (in November 2023) which is tasked with convening a transdisciplinary, cross-sectoral community to co-develop pathways, advance research, integrate knowledge, identify routes to impact and fast-track evidence into policy to support the UK in the transformation towards net zero, while meeting other environmental and societal goals.
Reacting to the announcement, LUNZ Hub co-lead Professor Lee-Ann Sutherland (The James Hutton Institute) said: “These are groundbreaking and ambitious projects that address many of the critical research gaps and challenges behind how we transition UK land use for both climate goals and society as a whole.
“In their design these projects reflect many of the characteristics of the Hub: transdisciplinary, addressing social, economic and scientific challenges simultaneously, and with a strong emphasis on designing and imagining scenarios that explain the transition to Net Zero. Over the course of the program the LUNZ Hub will work closely with the LUNZ Projects to identify synergies and opportunities for collaboration, as well as potential drivers of change and viable policy levers.”
