A team at CRPR have been successful in bidding for a project developing a social monitoring and evaluation framework for the Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier (CSHT) agri-environment scheme. Led by the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and in partnership with eftec, the project involves the CRPR team (Matt Lobley, Steve Emery, Becca Wheeler, Catherine Broomfield, Maeve Leith and Carolyn Petersen) developing a set of tools - social indicators and a survey - for monitoring and evaluating the scheme going forwards.

Source: Photo by Veronica White on Unsplash

The project will therefore contribute to improving the effectiveness and impact of the CSHT in future. This builds on previous work by CRPR staff Matt Lobley, Becca Wheeler and Catherine Broomfield and others on developing social indicators for previous agri-environment schemes (e.g. ELMS Test and Trials) as well as for the Heaths to Sea Landscape Recovery Scheme.

Maeve Leith has been granted the  prestigious NFU Mutual Charitable Trust Centenary Award. Focusing on Dartmoor National Park, Maeve’s research will explore the voices of farmers, conservationists and other stakeholders to understand how land use decisions are made. By exploring both conflict and common ground, she aims to help understand approaches that enable people and nature to thrive together.  Please click here to read the full details.

Thanks to our friends at Clinton Devon Estates some of the CRPR team, along with a range of external colleagues, spent a couple of days discussing the ACCESS project task force on Nature Recovery (https://accessnetwork.uk/nature-recovery-task-force/?highlight=taskforce). ‘Nature’ and ‘recovery’ remain contested terms but we are making good progress and enjoyed a visit to the Lower Otter Restoration Project.

Matt Lobley CRPR University of Exeter Co-Director was interviewed on Monday's Farming Today (from 8 mins in) on the multiple policy, economic and global challenges as well as uncertain futures family farmers are facing and how the important role they play in rural communities may be at risk leading to uncertain consequences for our society, environment and economy more widely.

On 1 December, a book launch was held at the SOAS Food Studies Centre in London to mark the publication of "Food Beyond Terroir: Tasting Place and Placing Taste in Global Perspective” (Berghahn). The volume was edited by Anna Colquhoun and Katharina Graf (a CRPR Honorary Research Fellow), pictured. CRPR co-Director Harry G West co-authored the introduction with Colquhoun and Graf, and all three authored chapters—West along with CRPR Honorary Research Fellow Simon Pope. The book is freely available via open access here, where it can also be purchased at 50% off using the code COLQ1872. 

The newest member of the CRPR team, Maeve Leith, has had her co-authored publication 'From fire to forest? Observing tree regeneration in gorse-dominated moorland' published in the Conservation and Land Management Magazine. Click here to read the article.  

Congratulations to Caroline Nye for her publication: End of life, a good death? Navigating end-of-life decisions for working mules (Equus asinus × Equus caballus) in Nepal: Ethical, cultural, and practical perspectives in the JRS. 

Paul Cleave has had  his article 'Rural Devon cuisine has a rich history – from the origins of cream teas to squab pie’  published in the Conversation. 

Charlie Masquelier, CRPR University of Exeter researcher published a report about the challenges as well as solutions from farmers/land managers on implementing nature recovery and engaging with environmental land management practices as part of RENEW Theme 3: Land Managers. Title - BogTalk: Insights from engagement with land managers in the High Peak. https://zenodo.org/records/17464097

Harry G West has co-authored the Introduction and another chapter in the newly published FOOD BEYOND TERROIR: Tasting Place and Placing Taste in Global Perspective.

Sarah Nyczaj Kyle, CRPR University of Exeter researcher has published an article highlighting the mediating role that resilience plays in mental well-being and ameliorating loneliness amongst UK farming communities.  Please click here to read in full. 

The funding will be awarded to the candidate/s who can best demonstrate an exceptional track record and future potential for work in this field, and whose career ambitions will be best supported by their participation in the course. For full details please see the scholarship listing here - https://www.exeter.ac.uk/study/funding/award/?id=5701

The Glanely Food & Farming Scholarship (MA Food Studies)

The University of Exeter is pleased to offer this scholarship, a fee reduction worth £5000, to up to five full time students enrolling on our MA Food Studies programme in 2026/2027. This scholarship is open to home and international students and, as such, is intended to support the most promising applicants to the MA Food Studies programme with the cost of their tuition fees, regardless of where they are from.