This knowledge exchange will bring together the research of several Future of UK Treescapes projects and apply it to a forest and woodland creation project - The Forth Climate Forest (FCF), which will act as a case study, to improve understanding of how to maximise the benefits of forest and woodland expansion and creation through better public engagement and involvement. We will synthesise the research of the Treescapes projects Connected Treescapes, TreE_PlaNat, AFFORE3ST and Branching Out and apply them to community engagement workshops, with the aim of developing and testing new and dynamic ways to involve local communities in tree planting and woodland creation and expansion. We will produce practice notes for policy makers and practitioners and resources for the public will apply Treescapes research to maximise the benefits gained from forest and woodland creation and expansion. FCF is a new, 10-year project in the Forth Valley area of Scotland aiming to increase canopy cover, forest area and connectivity, provide carbon storage for climate change mitigation, support biodiversity and provide diverse ecosystem services. It centres on communities, aiming to be implemented both for and with local people. FCF is an ideal case study because of its relatively large, regional scale, the diverse communities its range encompasses and because of the range of partners involved in its implementation, allowing us to explore a variety of perspectives and knowledge types and to produce results with broad application. Maximising the benefits of tree planting can be difficult and while forest creation projects aspire to effective community engagement, local support can be variable - forest and woodland creation can involve radical landscape change, and this can lead to conflict with local people. This could be avoided if practices to consult with and involve locals were improved. In this project, we will work with the FCF and partners in The Woodland Trust, Scottish Forestry and Stirling and Clackmannanshire councils to understand the benefits and challenges associated with forest and woodland creation for different public and community needs, including reductions in pollution exposure and well-being benefits. We will work with local community groups and will explore new ways of communicating to understand and integrate diverse public perspectives. To achieve this, we will: 1) facilitate an initial workshop to synthesise research across the collaborating Treescapes projects and understand how best to apply this to the needs of afforestation projects, using the FCF and partners as example stakeholders. 2) run 3 field-based workshops with local communities where knowledge and perspectives on forest and woodland expansion and creation will be exchanged between researchers, project partners and local people. These workshops will each have a main theme (Histories, biodiversity and multiple benefits; Service provision in urban environments; Cultural and social connections), as directed by the leading Treescapes project. 3) host a final workshop with all collaborators, projects partners and stakeholders where the results of the synthesis and field workshops will be summarized and finalised into a plan for 3 outputs. Our findings will be communicated through two practice notes on: 1. managing benefits and challenges of forest and woodland expansion and creation and 2. best practices for community engagement and via a website and information leaflet on the benefits of woodland creation and expansion made for and with the local community. This project will increase the impact and reach of the participating Treescapes projects by providing them with new opportunities to engage with members of the public and to apply their results to a new regional example while directly influencing policy makers and practitioners at local and national scales.

This research addresses urgent questions faced by Scottish Forestry, alongside forestry agencies across the rest of the UK, Europe and internationally, who want to know how they can respond positively to global challenges for sustainability and human health while satisfying demands for more tree cover. In addition, public health policy-makers and planners, land managers, spatial planners and land development agencies and third sector organisations want to know how to invest scarce resources in ways that maximise benefits for people as well as planet. So our focus is on urban forestry and how to provide better evidence of the contributions it can make to human wellbeing, child development and health equity. Our increasingly urban population is experiencing rising levels of mental illness and non-communicable disease; in addition, there is concern about the long-term effects of urban living on the kinds of environments children experience. There is evidence that access to natural environments such as woodlands can offer health benefits, especially in relation to mental wellbeing, and support healthy child development. In addition, it appears that more socially disadvantaged people may gain most from improved opportunities to visit and enjoy urban forests and other natural environments. We plan to provide evidence on the effectiveness of practical ways in which forestry can be used to benefit such populations. Our study examines whether existing programmes for urban forestry, such as Scottish Forestry's (formerly known as Forestry Commission Scotland) Woods In and Around Towns (WIAT) programme, are effective in their aims of improving community wellbeing and quality of life by bringing neglected urban woodland near deprived urban communities into active management and working with local people to help them use their local woodland. We are taking advantage of new opportunities to link existing population, health and child development data for a large number of people, together with data on WIAT projects that have been undertaken near where these people live at any point in a ten year period (2005-2015). This will be done in a secure and ethically approved manner so that there is no risk of individuals or their personal data being identifiable. It is an exciting opportunity because of the high quality data available across a representative sample of Scotland's population; for the first time we can link information such as prescriptions data for anti-depressants, or child gross and fine motor skills development, with data on the location, cost, timing and extent of a national urban forestry programme. The results will indicate whether, for example, the extent of new footpaths and improved forest entrances, alongside activities to bring children and adults into the forest, makes a difference to health and child development outcomes for people living near the urban forest. We'll look at whether benefits from WIAT are experienced only by those living very close to the forest, how long it takes for any benefits to appear after a WIAT project is completed, whether benefits are sustained and whether there are differences in benefit according to people's age, gender, or socio-economic status. Our findings will be published not only in academic journals but also in ways that are most helpful for different stakeholders, from forest and land managers and environmental agencies to health and child development policymakers. We will be working closely with Scottish Forestry and other public agencies across the UK and Europe to find the best ways of doing this. We'll also make our findings accessible to local communities and the wider public. Ultimately, we hope that urban communities will benefit from better evidence as to how government departments and public and private agencies can support people's access to urban forests to support their, and their children's, wellbeing and quality of life.

Biochar is a circular and ecological solution to manage waste that is not recyclable. It is a charcoal-like substance, produced by heating organic biomass from biodegradable municipal, agriculture and forestry waste in the absence of oxygen (pyrolysis) to make it carbon-rich and chemically-stable offering enormous potential to combat climate change. Many forms of biochar use and application are emerging including its use as a building material. The use of biochar as low as 1% replacement of the fine aggregate in cementitious composites has been found to improve the compressive strength by approximately 10%. As well as having excellent insulating properties, improving air quality, being able to soak up moisture and protect from radiation, biochar also allows buildings to be turned into carbon sinks. The project vision is to provide a decision support framework to enhance the use of biochar within the UK building industry to make a significant contribution to fight climate change. The aim is to increase the level of awareness of biochar and its commercial, healthy revenue generation potential, carbon credits and environmental benefits for the building industry. We will carry out detailed analysis of the inclusion of different types of biochar in varying quantities in cementitious composites such as concrete, bricks, plaster, and grout. The physical, mechanical, and chemical properties of these composites such as concrete will be studied to understand their performance, overall durability and thermal conductivity for applications within buildings. In parallel to this these biochar composites would also run through building modelling to investigate contribution to energy savings and enhanced thermal efficiency in buildings. We will compare carbon savings with standard building construction for chosen building archetypes. The savings achieved will help us to assess the value of biochar in construction. Our interdisciplinary approach includes the participation and collaboration of stakeholders to generate qualitative and quantitative indicators to express, holistically, the value of biochar in modern low-carbon construction. Through an integrative stakeholder approach, this project aims to explore (a) the awareness of the commercial and revenue generation potential of biochar (b) its potential to realise carbon credits and environmental benefits for the built environment as well as (c) subjective perceptions of the overall value attached to biochar and the interest and motivation to increase its usage within the built environment sector. To share the outcomes of our research and to identify next steps for promoting the use of biochar in the UK we will use qualitative approaches to carefully design a series of events and workshops. True innovation in the built environment is highly dependent on national policy, building standards, urban regulations, construction codes, market conditions and financial mechanisms which facilitate or obstruct the emergence of innovative solutions. We will be therefore speaking to multi-stakeholders including policy makers, energy ministers, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and to understand the effectiveness, readiness, cost, social acceptability and limitations of biochar as the building material. We will illicit concerns, attitudes, challenges and opportunities for the biochar application within buildings and identify ways of how best to adapt legal regulations regarding production and usage of biochar and associated carbon credits. The final outcome being a decision support framework for practitioners in adopting biochar as a sustainable construction material with indicators proposed would be transferrable to other new (or less used) materials.

Although agroforestry (integrating trees or shrubs on pasture or crop farmland) has great potential to provide ecosystem services and address multiple climate change challenges, it is not widely practiced in the UK. Strategic planning and successful implementation require more knowledge on achieving optimal environmental benefits, balanced with information of the associated socio-economic, cultural and policy incentives, barriers, and challenges to increasing agroforestry. Bringing together a strong multidisciplinary team of social and environmental scientists with partners who are practitioners and stakeholders in woodland and agricultural organisations, the FARM TREE project addresses these needs by exploring which planting scenarios might work best under different combinations of environmental and socio-economic conditions. Hereby, we will evaluate planting strategies (e.g., regional or landscape priority areas or species), as well as farm level planting designs (species and spatial organisation of planting) within the context of different strategies. Providing knowledge on which planting scenarios realistically work best where, combined with tools and pathways on how to achieve this will: (1) improve farmer decision making, (2) aid the development of better targeted and more flexible policies and grant schemes, and (3) ultimately lower barriers for tree expansion on farmland. We take a holistic approach to benefits and inherent trade-offs and consider that tree planting decisions are subject to diverse factors, from the personal to the policy level; but also focus in on carbon sequestration and water use solutions, alongside wider environmental benefits. We will provide an interactive web-based decision support tool to guide tree expansion on farmland; and identify how public policies (regulations, grant schemes) and market-based measures interact to incentivise (or deter) planting. The research will be articulated around three integrated work packages (WP). In WP1, we will collate socio-economic incentives and barriers from the land manager perspective, building on existing UK initiatives and farmer networks of project partners in agroforestry. Using participatory research methods, WP1 will identify farm level opportunities and constraints to integrate trees using designs that fit well into farming systems. At the national level, we will focus on insights relating to strategic policies that create opportunities for agroforestry expansion. WP2 will investigate the spatial and temporal effects of agroforestry strategies and designs on water and carbon cycling at the national/landscape and farm scale, while also considering soil health and biodiversity. For diverse landscape and farm settings, it will identify planting scenarios that deliver optimal ecosystem services, now and under future scenarios. This will be achieved via integrated ecohydrological and carbon modelling and build on previous woodland landscape capability mapping for ecosystem services and data from demonstrator farms. Integrating outcomes from WP1 and WP3, it will also deliver a set of scenarios that consider socio-economic constraints alongside the environmental benefits. WP1 and WP2 are fully integrated via WP3, which involves the iterative development of viable tree planting scenarios on farms that consider socio-economic and environmental aspects within UK landscapes. Co- developed with project partners and stakeholders, decision support tools (interactive website for farmers; policy briefings; and recommendations for long term farmer-led innovation monitoring labs) form key outputs.

"Sustainable food production" - the process by which we feed the ever-growing world population - is at the top of every agenda. To deliver sustainable food production, it is essential that livestock live in excellent conditions and are healthy throughout their lives. Gastrointestinal parasitism is a direct challenge to this due to negative consequences on animal health and welfare and on the environment. In addition, parasitic disease directly results in a 30% increase in greenhouse gas emissions, which exacerbates climate change and so also threatens food production. Drugs are often used to treat parasitic disease, but resistance to the drugs that kill these types of parasites is now widespread throughout the world, with a prevalence of nearly 100% in many countries. This leads to worldwide costs for food soaring by billions of pounds. In other words, the continuous use of drugs in livestock over the last 60 years has been positive in that it has increased livestock productivity and profitability, but the positive effects of the current generation of drugs (known as anthelmintics) is under threat due to global challenges, including antimicrobial resistance, climate change and maintenance of biodiversity. This project therefore directly addresses the impact that parasitism has on sustainable food production. It does this by using a low-value by-product for the UK's forestry industry and by incorporating this by-product into a next generation natural dietary supplement for livestock. Natural compounds extracted from plants (often called plant secondary metabolites (PSM)), are known to disrupt the life cycle of parasitic nematodes both in the animal and in the environment. PSM can therefore act as anthelmintics, controlling the disease these parasites cause. However, using a single pure PSM is expensive. Attention has therefore turned to PSM-rich extracts that contain a complex mixture of PSM as this is cheaper. However, this approach is hampered by large variations in the PSM content. Variability in PSM-content across different extracts leads to irreproducible biological activity. Whilst studies have demonstrated the anthelminitic effects of individual PSMs and/or plant extracts, the use of PSM-rich extracts is still understudied. There are insufficient reports on the effect on biological activity of combinations of PSMs or the contributions of individual PSM. Repeatable production of extracts (and thus consistent biological activity) requires a more detailed understanding of both the chemistry contained within PSM-extracts and the biological interactions of the active compounds in PSM-extracts with the parasites. Tree bark is particularly rich in antiparasitic PSM and it is very likely that the UK forestry industry creates enough bark waste to treat the UK livestock population, so long as the PSM-extract is administered at key times of parasite susceptibility. This project therefore brings together the forestry, livestock and bioprocessing industries with academic experts in parasitology, chemical biology, analytical and statistical analysis to understand the full extent of the interaction of the parasites with the tree bark extracts. In doing so, it will identify, and isolate compounds present in the bark extracts that demonstrate anthelmintic activity. This will enable the creation of an "Activity Index" - a tool to predict the anthelmintic activity of any future bark extract. This Activity Index will subsequently guide the characterisation of future large scale bark extracts, predicting their anthelmintic potential and optimise their inclusion in parasite control strategies. To achieve this, we will identify and test compounds for their presence in bark extracts and their anthelmintic activity. We will select potentially bioactive compounds on literature reports, preliminary evidence already available to us from previous work and novel work described in this proposal.