Funding body UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has announced investment of £30 million in five interdisciplinary projects around the country and a central hub at the University of Oxford, to conduct research on greenhouse gas removal over the next four years.
Letters of support
The NFU previously offered letters of support to four of the winning bids, on perennial energy crops (Aberystwyth), biochar (Nottingham) and enhanced mineral weathering (Sheffield), plus the central coordinating hub, and will attend project steering group meetings, contributing to the roll-out of Pillar 3 of our net zero strategy.
Translating research into practical recommendations
The NFU believes these projects address important applied research and policy needs, underpinning some of the national ‘net zero’ land-use decisions that will be made in the near future. Our role in sitting on expert advisory boards for each project is to provide the context and realistic expectations of the farming community, to help translate research into practical recommendations for the policy and governance frameworks required, and to disseminate research findings to the agricultural industry.
Capturing carbon
Demonstrating that agriculture and land use is uniquely a sink as well as a source of greenhouse gas emissions is fundamental to the delivery of our NFU net zero ambition, showing our capability as a sector to capture carbon dioxide through photosynthesis and couple it to carbon capture and storage technology, through the energy sector, the bioeconomy and novel soil amendments.