Scottish Alliance for Food

SCAF’s third online webinar featured Dr Laura Glendinning (Chancellor's Fellow at the University of Edinburgh) and Dr Mick Watson (Principal Scientist at dsm-firmenich) for a discussion on livestock microbiota and data-driven approaches to innovation in the food system. Most interestingly, attendees discovered the scale of what gut microbiome can do for the health and well-being of livestock, an essential criterion for consumers. The recording is now available on Slack. 

SCAF webinars will take a break over the summer and resume in August for a session with David Thomson (Food and Drink Federation Scotland) on who really has the power to change the food system and how can those early in their careers make sure their work counts.  

SCAF members joined the Brain Health Alliance and Glasgow Caledonian University for a two-day workshop exploring the impact of lifestyle factors on brain health. With speakers joining from as far as South Australia, the workshop offered break-out sessions, input from voices in academia and social enterprise, and a collaborative space for grant writing. The Brain Health Alliance is a sister ARC to SCAF, funded by the Scottish Funding Council, which is open to all people interested. 

Our membership spotlight in May is on Dr Ada Garcia, Senior Lecturer in Human Nutrition at the University of Glasgow, whose research aims to generate scientific evidence for the promotion of optimal nutrition in childhood through food and nutrition surveys, feeding interventions, and evaluations of community-based programmes to reduce diet inequalities.  

You can discover more member spotlights on SCAF’s showcase website. 

Ada was one of the participants and presenters in the hybrid SCAF workshop held in April on mapping the Scottish Food Landscape, which formed part of our work Theme 1 (Mapping). Read her blog about the workshop, highlighting the necessity of working in partnerships across institutions and disciplines to create a food mapping system. 

It was also a month for pushing SCAF out to a wider audience. SCAF Director Prof Emilie Combet presented our alliance and its ambitions to members of the A3 Group (Animal Health, Agritech and Aquaculture. As a subgroup of Life Sciences in Scotland, the AAA maintains an industry and academic community of engagement across Scotland for positive impact). Emilie showcased the diversity of the SCAF membership: In May, it crossed the 350-member threshold, across 154 institutions, nine broad sectors, and all career stages.

Thank you to all members, new and “original”, for your continued support. As we plan out our annual event on the 19th of August, we hope to see many of you there. 

 

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First published: 5 June 2024