Pastures new - Farming Futures moves to a new home

Farming Futures enters a new phase this month. As you know, we were looking for a new host after our five-year Defra funding came to a close. So we're very pleased to announce that the project has a new home! The Centre of Excellence for UK Farming (CEUKF for short) is taking it on.

The existing partners of the project will continue to be involved and the new team at CEUKF - Tina, Stuart, Tamsin and Colin - are keen to work as widely in the industry as possible. And that includes you. So they'll still be keen to receive your blogs, read your tweets, welcome you at the events, and receive your emails.

In the wake of this year’s Foresight report on the future of food and farming it is now widely recognised that a broad process of change will be needed to support a thriving and sustainable UK farming and food supply sector, whilst managing the impact of climate change and threats to our natural resources. All the organisations that are partners of Farming Futures believe the project has an important role to play in creating this change.

The CEUKF-Farming Futures partnership will broaden the focus on climate change to embrace other aspects of sustainability, and increase emphasis on knowledge exchange directly with farmers. The CEUKF is able to draw upon research and development within its founder institutes to add to the experience and knowledge available through the Farming Futures partners.

The CEUKF was formed in 2010 by Aberystwyth University and NIAB TAG and Waitrose and coordinates a growing network of expertise and partners. As well as providing an independent voice on Sustainable Efficient Production, it has begun practical work to relate farm-level management and performance to sustainability criteria, in order to help develop practical tools for guiding best practice.

So it's a bit of a sad day for us at Forum for the Future. We've managed the project for five years, and seen it grow from a small, awareness raising project, to a well-recognised and valued part of the agricultural scene. But we're really pleased that our friends at CEUKF have taken it on. We know in their hands Farming Futures will continue to grow and provide not only information on how to respond to our changing climate, but inspiration too. We'll still be on the sidelines keeping in touch with the project, and look forward to seeing it develop.

Madeleine Lewis is Creative Communications Manager at Forum for the Future