LUNZ Hub Celebrates First Year of Groundbreaking Work Towards Net Zero Land Use Transition
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November 2024 marks the one-year anniversary of the launch of the Land Use for Net Zero (LUNZ) Hub, a pioneering initiative aiming to equip UK policymakers, industry, civil society and communities with the evidence they need to drive transformational change in land use.
Led by the James Hutton Institute and the University of Leicester, the Hub brings together a consortium of 32 members, including research institutes, farmers groups, advisory services, non-governmental and arts organisations into three Work Packages and four National Teams. We’re supported by 62 partner organisations who have written letters of support, and our reach extends well beyond into the wider sector, with seven Topic Advisory Groups consisting of Hub members, external experts and government policymakers.
The Hub is spread out across the UK, so much of our work is remote. In person consortium meetings in January and September have helped us to learn about working together, and we’ve developed our values as part of the collaborative, transdisciplinary approach.
Although the LUNZ Hub’s official launch took place in January 2024, collaboration with government started in November, when Cranfield University hosted the opening of the Hub’s policy interface, introducing representatives from Defra, DESNZ, and the devolved administrations to the Hub. This Agile Policy Centre is at the heart of the LUNZ Hub, and has so far received 18 draw-down requests for research work. In its first year two requests have been completed, 11 others are in various stages of definition and resourcing, and one has been made public; our report on the role of Major Landowners in the net zero land use transition.
Through TAGs and Work Packages the Hub has hosted 6 workshops, on topics ranging from approaches to national soil monitoring to knowledge gaps in the green finance sector. These have helped us extend our reach to the diverse groups of stakeholders interested in net zero land use transitions, culminating this year with our first big tent event.
The big tent was based around two films made by the PLACE Collective, who interviewed land managers on their opinions about net zero. More recently the PLACE Collective launched the Resonance project through the transdisciplinary community and capacity building work package.
Alongside detailed reports of these events, we’ve been hard at work creating resources in other formats to convey LUNZ Hub work to a wider audience. This has included talking head interviews with experts in soil health, and interviews with farmers about their views of net zero. We’ve also published a number of blogs from Hub members and external partners, providing a forum for sharing perspectives on current developments in land use research.
Finally we’re glad to be joined by five separately funded LUNZ research projects, which will be delving into specific topics coving the same themes as the Hub: agricultural systems, soil health and carbon dynamics, and land use change.
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