RELU Shadowing Grants
As part of the 'Growing risk' RELU project, awarded to Warwick HR (Principal investigator), Imperial College, Central Science Laboratory and the CCRI in the last (third) round of RELU projects, Professor Brian Ilbery and Dr. Damian Maye were awarded two small Work Shadowing grants - each worth up to £2,000.
This aim of this scheme is to introduce RELU research staff to the action-contexts in which their research may be used. These contexts may be commercial organizations, voluntary bodies or public agencies. Such a scheme can be helpful in informing RELU research projects, developing 'stakeholder' links, and sharpening projects' relevance and impact.
The first grant with the National Farmers Union (NFU) involved a series of visits to observe the role the NFU plays for farmers in relation to plant diseases and risk communication. In particular it concerned observing their lobbying activities with ministerial agencies and food chain representatives, and Brian and Damian were able to follow the NFU lobbying activities during the European vote regarding proposals to ban currently available pesticides and fungicides. These proposals, which have now been voted on, are likely to have a significant influence on how crops are grown and diseases managed in future years. This activity was completed in February 2009.
The second grant was with the Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD), which hosted Defra's Food Chain Centre, to learn more about their work on value chain analysis, the food chain and marketing. Meetings with the IGD helped to identify resources and useful contacts for later case study work on supply chains dedicated to wheat, potatoes and mushrooms, and to learn about different methods used to map and understand food chain dynamics. This activity was completed in December 2008.
These grants proved to be very useful in terms of learning more about the activities of the respective institutions and to help with the next stages of the main project, which involves a series of interviews with growers and other actors in the food chain.
For information: RELU's Work Shadowing scheme aims to introduce RELU (Rural Economy and Land Use) research staff to the action-contexts in which their research may be used. These contexts may be commercial organisations voluntary bodies or public agencies. Such a scheme can be helpful in informing RELU research projects, developing 'stakeholder' links, and sharpening projects' relevance and impact.
