What Happened This Month | December 2025
Published: 16 January 2026
In December, the theme was connections, online, with new members, in person, through participation in the NNEdPro Summit, and discovering emerging new teams who submitted applications to the QuantumxFood pump priming call.
December always comes and goes really fast – and the SCAF team made the most of the last month of the year to reflect, plan and continue to make connections.
Our membership keeps growing, and we met new members (and old!) at the December online networking meeting on Spatialchat – featuring conversations about studying the health benefits of fresh green tea leaves grown in Scotland, communication tools to facilitate conversations between members of the public and researchers, carbon accounting and more. No two events are the same, and we hope to see many members at the next online event on March 3rd. Info and registration here.
Whilst our online events are a sharp, fast way to meet new people, SCAF has had major success in bringing a tight-knit community together through residential events and focused activities. In December, the SCAF team met for a strategic review of 2025 events and activities to inform 2026 planning. During the session, the focus was on identifying activities most likely to add value for members. Key new initiatives were scheduled, including the ECN media training (in Glasgow, 17 to 18 March), alongside writing retreats in March (at Loch Insh Outdoor Centre, 9 to 12 March) and June (save the dates 1 to 4 June; watch for details coming soon). We hope these activities will support the progress of key outputs for the membership, including grants, collaborative projects, and papers.
With four rounds of pump-priming grants awarded, we are also planning another round in 2026, to follow our latest collaboration with the quantum technology ARC, which saw 5 proposals submitted. We are awaiting peer review and will announce in February which projects will receive dual-ARC support.
SCAF ended the year with an excellent display of Scottish hospitality at the JHI and Dundee Science Centre, which hosted the NNEdPro global summit (10-13 December 2025). This marked the first step in a new partnership with NNEdPro, building on prior discussions of synergies. It was particularly good to meet SCAF members supported by a small travel grant, and see colleagues from further afield discovering how well-connected the Scottish Food and Nutrition community is.
First published: 16 January 2026
<< Blog