Rural Economy and Land Use Programme

• Project Dates: 2003 - 2013
• Project Leader: Philip Lowe
• Staff: Jeremy Phillipson, Anne Liddon
• Sponsors: ESRC, NERC, BBSRC, Defra and Scottish Government.

The Relu project was led from the Director’s Office, based within the Centre for Rural Economy. The Programme aimed to advance a holistic understanding of the major social, economic, environmental and technological challenges facing rural areas. Its specific objectives were:

• to deliver integrative, interdisciplinary research of high quality that will advance understanding of the social, economic, environmental and technological challenges faced by rural areas and the relationship between them; 
• to enhance capabilities for interdisciplinary research on rural issues, between social, environmental and biological sciences; 
• to enhance the impact of research on rural policy and practice by involving stakeholders in all stages, including programme development, research and communication of outcomes.

It was the most comprehensive interdisciplinary programme funded by the UK research councils bringing together 500 social and natural scientists. The Relu programme was steered by research and activities of the Director’s Office at CRE, and pioneered the promotion of interdisciplinary collaborations between social scientists and natural scientists. It was also ground breaking and experimental in the involvement of over 4000 stakeholders throughout the research. Relu ran interactive events that broke out of the usual mould of academic conferences and produced publications, particularly its Policy and Practice note series, that targeted non academic audiences and received consistently positive feedback.