Associated organisationsEarth in Common · IND Adam Wilkinson 69122 · IND Simon Pringle 235514 · Nourish Scotland · Soil Association · University of Cambridge · University of EdinburghEurope PMC affiliations are not treated as award recipients or mapped locations.
Funding£2.0M
PeriodAug 2023 — Aug 2026
In plain English
AI plain-English summary
Scotland’s new Good Food Nation Act, which became law in July 2022, gives the country a legal framework to reshape its food system around public health and net zero emissions—and this project will help make that law work in practice. The problem is that ambitious food policy often stalls between legislation and real-world change. The Act sets broad goals—healthier diets, lower carbon footprints—but lacks the detailed metrics, community expertise, and cross-sector coordination needed to deliver them. This project fills that gap by creating a “Living Lab” that connects academics, the Scottish Government, and local food-system practitioners. If successful, the lab will produce a clear set of progress indicators—simple, measurable benchmarks for health and emissions—and identify the specific barriers and enablers that determine whether the Act’s goals are met. It will also train a skilled community of practice across Scotland, ensuring that the people who run school meals, manage supply chains, or advise on agricultural policy share the same tools and language. The result could be a replicable model for how other nations turn food-system legislation into measurable, equitable outcomes.
View original technical description
A seminal moment in Scottish Food Policy, the new Good Food Nation (GFN) Act (became law on 26th July 2022, expected to formally commence Spring 2023) has been hailed as a ground breaking, progressive attempt at transformational food systems legislation, providing the statutory and policy conditions, and independent scrutiny mechanisms, required to drive forward health centred, net zero aligned food systems transformation in Scotland. Using an innovative “Food Systems Living Lab” model with 4 interconnecting units, this proposed transdisciplinary consortia of academic and policy partners (including the Scottish Government), cultivated during the GFN Bill process, will work to build connections between, and skills across, the Scottish food systems transformation community, provide essential analytical support to relevant authorities, advise on the effective delivery of the GFN Act, and showcase the value and importance of innovative metrics and partnerships in delivering health centred, net zero aligned food systems transformation. It will foster a skilled, agile, diverse community of practice, establish a basket of valid, easy to understand and far reaching indictors of progress and uncover the barriers to, and enablers of, positive health centred, net zero aligned food systems transformation. Key Words: Food, Systems, Transformation, Community of Practice, Health, Net Zero, Policy
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