In April, Millie Mather stepped into the SCAF Communications Officer role. Millie will support the Alliance across its varied activities and contribute to the continued build of SCAF’s online presence across the websites and social media. She is looking forward to getting settled and working with everyone: 

“I’ve joined the team at an exciting and crucial point: the initial launch stages are over but there’s still a lot of work to do to ensure SCAF is reaching its intended audience and beyond. I’m enjoying the opportunity to learn about the nuances of food and nutrition from such a varied and experienced group of professionals and look forward to contributing to the first year and learning alongside everyone as we go.” 

You can find her on slack with the handle @Millie.

Millie is starting as the pace of our activities accelerate: our webinars are scheduled every 6 weeks; our first batch of SCAF pump-priming awards were announced here, spanning topics from hydrogeology and environmental impact assessment, food systems management, public health nutrition, food marketing and religious and cultural studies; and we also welcomed opportunities to explore how hybrid events can help the membership engage around thematic activities. 

With over 20 attendees joining online, our second webinar, held after hours, showcased Vertical Farming in the context of food production, food security, and opportunities for health and sustainability, with contributions from Prof Derek Stewart, Director of The Advanced Plant Growth Centre (APGC) hosted at The James Hutton Institute, and Prof Nicola Holden, lead of the Food Security Challenge Centre at the SRUC. The webinar recording has been shared on slack. The next webinar will take place in May and will explore livestock microbiota with Dr Laura Glendinning from The University of Edinburgh and Dr Mick Watson from dsm-firmenich.  

April was also a month for interactions. A small team, formed following a SCAF sandpit in 2023 and led by Prof Steve Euston, submitted a collaborative bid bringing 12 institutions together across Scotland and England – which we hope will be a useful practice case for future SCAF bids. 

We road-tested the potential for SCAF collaborative spaces with a drop-in event on 21/04, which led to very interesting, serendipitous conversations and event planning – this is a model we would like to replicate, across partner institutions, on a regular basis – watch out for the call! 

Finally, SCAF members gathered both in person and online to discuss their mapping activities at the hybrid event led by Dr Peter Alexander and Prof Rachel Norman at the Edinburgh Climate Change Institute, University of Edinburgh. The workshop produced useful outputs identifying what is happening, where the data is, strengths and gaps - follow-on gatherings are being planned, as well as strategies to exchange both data and ongoing work among members.  

First published: 10 May 2024

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