Defra group research and innovation interests – GOV.UK

Introduction

The Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra) has, as its name suggests, a broad range of responsibilities. It runs programmes to deliver much of the research and monitoring needed for policy development, both nationally and internationally.

[Credit: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew]

Working with a wide range of centres of scientific expertise, including Public Sector Research Establishments, universities, industry, and national and international organisations, Defra sets policies to ensure a healthy and sustainable environment and to achieve production of food at high standard for consumption at home and for trade.

Defras policies are evidence-based and rely on research to ensure they are effective and take account of up-to-date understanding. This document describes the broad areas where Defra needs further research and innovation to inform its programmes and policies.

This research will help Defra realise the goals set out in important government strategies, respond to the climate crisis and make progress following the exit from the EU. It will also inform legislative commitments of the devolved administrations, such as those of the Environment (Wales) Act 2016.

These research and innovation interests are presented in this document at a high-level, giving an overview of the breadth of Defras enquiry. They are expected to be areas of interest for at least some years. In many cases they represent long-running fields of research endeavour and span more than one discipline. These research needs have been influenced by the substantial perturbation of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. This document includes early consideration of the new and altered research needs that will arise.

Identifying the departmental research and innovation needs will ensure Defras evidence activities inform, and are driven by, policy and operational needs. Enabling greater strategic oversight of the evidence activities.

Research to address these areas of interest is delivered by a range of organisations and people. Some of the research is undertaken in the Public Sector Research Establishments (PSREs) in the Defra group which have extensive specialist research expertise. But Defra also works with a broad range of universities, research institutes, industries and industry bodies, charities and volunteer organisations, and with other government departments. Defra benefits from the global excellence of UK environmental science and research.

Research that contributes to Defras policy making and programmes is funded through a variety of routes. Some is funded and commissioned by Defra directly and targets specific short-term evidence needs in the department. Some is more extensive research funding by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). This includes novel and innovative research to inform Defras strategic research interests. Relevant UKRI research is delivered in a variety of programmes, including those in the Strategic Priorities Fund.

This document does not present a view of the structure or processes by which research is commissioned and used in Defra, nor of the breadth of research undertaken in the PSREs in the Defra Group. But the document structure includes a section which discusses research interests in each of the five Outcome Systems that Defra uses internally. This section is preceded by sections that consider research needs in areas that cut across Defras portfolio, such as climate and land-use, and a section about important research tools and approaches.

Defra Group System is structured around five outcome systems listed below:

The department actively seeks connections with relevant external research. Defra experts attend conferences and take part in research programmes; Defra runs more than 20 specialist advisory bodies to consult leading external experts; Defra runs a number of intern, studentship and secondment programmes; and Defra commissions research teams to address particular problems. We are always seeking new approaches to learn about research in the areas outlined in this document. That research is fundamental to the evidence-based policy making that the department prides itself on.

The eight Public Sector Research Establishments in the Defra Group. Seven of these are Defra arms length bodies. Fera is a Joint Venture between Defra and Capita PLC.

Other scientific arms length bodies in the Defra group are:

Several key themes cut across Defras domain. These often involve consideration of the complex and multifaceted interaction between the environment and human activity, and the application of multiple disciplines.

Adaptation and resilience: Defra is the lead government department for climate adaptation, responsible for the assessment of appropriate action to protect and enhance natural and human systems in a changing climate. Also, for increasing resilience and mitigating against risk. Such assessment is used in many areas, including for the statutory requirement of the Climate Change Act to produce a 5-yearly, Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA) and National Adaptation Programme (NAP).

Although Defra has overarching responsibility for producing the CCRA and is responsible for managing several climate risks (such as impact on the natural environment), a number of climate risks (such as the impact on transport, health, business) are the responsibility of other government departments (for example Department for Transport (DfT), Department for Health (DfH), Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).

Areas of interest in adaptation:

Achieving Net Zero: To limit future warming requires rapid reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and achieving net zero by 2050, as required by UK legislation. Climate mitigation is led in government by the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). But Defra is responsible for efforts to reduce GHG emissions from four sectors: agriculture, waste and wastewater, land-use, and fluorinated gases (F-gases). Defra also has responsibility to promote forestry, which acts as a carbon sink. Together, the four Defra sectors represent 15% of the total net UK GHGs, with agriculture being the biggest contributor (about 10% of UK emissions).

Defra has research interests in reduction of emissions, the removal of GHG from the atmosphere, and in understanding the impacts of mitigation activities on other environmental outcomes:

In the densely populated UK, competition for land between urban, rural, food, energy, recreation, environmental outcomes, industry and other uses is a fundamental issue. Our interaction with the natural environmental is often through our use of land.

We need to assess, in a changing society and climate, how best to sustainably use available land area as well as the full suite of natural environment considerations in that use:

How can we effectively protect, manage and restore natural and modified ecosystems to help address societal challenges? Whilst also providing biodiversity benefits and human wellbeing from abundant wildlife to green jobs to clean water?

Societal challenges include mitigating and adapting to climate change. These could be addressed by supporting ecosystem functions that deliver services such as carbon sequestration, coastal resilience, and natural flood management:

The wide range of products harvested from nature and produced by agri-food and forestry industries represent a significant proportion of UK GDP. Ensuring that these products are produced and traded sustainably to the financial and broader benefit of the UK, without damage to the environment, involves a range of critical research questions:

Human and animal health are closely entwined, often via the environment in which they interact. The COVID-19 pandemic has provided a forceful demonstration of this interaction. Human and animal health is also strongly influenced by the health of the environment. These interactions, considered as a system, define the research field, One Health:

The research areas identified in this document rely on a wide range of research tools and approaches, spanning disciplines across the sciences and social sciences. This section is not an exhaustive list of the tools and approaches of interest to Defra. It identifies some areas of particular relevance and change, which will be important in addressing the challenges faced by Defra and represented throughout this document.

Societies demand resource from the environment and shape that environment. The social science of human-nature interactions is of fundamental importance to Defra:

Defras areas of responsibility cover a wide range of interacting natural and human systems. Changes that affect one outcome are often likely to have knock-on implications for others. Policy in areas such as land management, biodiversity conservation, pollution prevention, food security, fisheries, and waste management, need to be designed in the absence of perfect knowledge of how human and natural processes interact. It can be particularly difficult to attribute cause and effect in such complex systems where evidence is often partial and fragmented.

Consideration of the issues that Defra deals with as parts of systems, i.e. in terms of relationships between the parts can help us to unpick complex or seemingly chaotic situations, and better deliver robust positive outcomes for society. To facilitate more effective decision making, a range of approaches and specialties need to be applied to the above challenges. Research is required in the following areas:

Geospatial data: Effective use of modern data architecture and analysis to make full use of data collected in the Defra Group and other relevant sources (for example from satellites, climate observations/models, and from other government departments).

Measuring change enables us better target action to secure a healthy environment and support our rural communities and economies. It also helps us to evaluate the effectiveness of those actions. As well as meeting legislative and policy commitments to report on the state of our environment, both domestically and internationally:

To achieve resilience to climate change, halt biodiversity loss, sustainably manage land and support rural communities and economies, we need informed and targeted policy development, interventions, and enforcement. These must engage appropriate actors (individuals, communities, businesses, and government) and be at the right scale and place. We also need to evaluate the impacts of our interventions:

Adopting a natural capital approach improves understanding of economic, social, cultural, and environmental values. Helping to encourage behaviours and practices that support stewardship and sustainability:

Climate change is increasing the threat of flooding. We have already committed to reducing the risk of harm from flooding through improving resilience, expanding the use of natural flood management, and putting in place more sustainable drainage systems. To achieve this outcome we need a strong evidence base which can help us optimise our approaches to achieve resilience and maximise the use of natural methods where they work:

Clean and plentiful water underpins human activity and supports natural ecosystems. A robust evidence base is required to develop policy to ensure there is a plentiful supply of water in the long term and to significantly enhance the quality of water available to all forms of life:

Defra is responsible for providing advice, guidance and access to capability to remediate areas from chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear (CBRN) and major hazmat incidents. The evidence we gather ensures that we can do this using the latest, most efficient technique:

We want UK science in the areas of animal and plant health, food, and farming to be internationally respected, impactful, and of a collaborative interdisciplinary nature.

We need research to develop a world-leading resilient food and farming system which enables the sector to grow and be more productive sustainably. Research and innovation will help champion trade of British food, produced to the highest environmental and animal welfare standards, in global markets. It will also maintain food safety, providing consumers with healthy, sustainable and affordable food choices:

We want to protect the nation from the effects of animal and plant diseases and pests, to enable sustainable production, trade, and a vibrant natural environment. Our focus is on building resilience to prevent, detect, adapt, and enable risk-based control:

We need to protect the marine environment from pollution and improve measures to reduce impacts by better process, methods, novel technology, and communication to support marine policy. Research is required to:

Our knowledge of the function and resilience of marine ecosystem services needs strengthening. Research questions include:

The UKs ambition is for sustainable growth and to manage the impact of COVID-19 on the wider marine economy. Research is required to:

Effective measures for adaptation and mitigation to climate change risks are needed to be developed by research to:

We need research to articulate the health and environmental costs and benefits of complex policy interventions that influence air and soundscape quality. This includes the environmental impacts and human health related ones. Research is required to:

Defra seeks to increase the circularity of our economy through greater resource efficiency, waste prevention, and maximising recycling. Research is required on:

We need to understand the risks associated with the chemicals we use as well as their impacts on the environment, and the role of government and others to prevent harm, in line with the goals of the 25 Year Environment Plan:

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Defra group research and innovation interests - GOV.UK