Building Focus and Connections: Reflections from SCAF's Third Writing Retreat
Published: 31 January 2026
Our third SCAF residential writing retreat took place in November, bringing 28 members together from across Scotland for three days of uninterrupted writing time and networking with others from across the food and nutrition landscape.
Writing retreats are one of SCAF's key investments – delivering on our mission to enable the planning and delivery of transformative research projects. Time is one of our most scarce resources – and SCAF members have reported how much they value the ability to dedicate sufficient time to reflection and putting pen to paper.
Building on the success of writing retreats #1 and #2, SCAF headed to The Burn in Aberdeenshire with 28 participants keen to make substantial progress on projects or bring clarity to new research directions. Manuscripts, grant proposals, business plans, and book chapters were progressed, spanning a wide range of disciplines and topics including nutrition, ecology, social sciences, plant biology, medicine, anthropology, and marketing.
This heterogeneity is a key feature of the SCAF retreats: a common, overarching interest in food, delivered through a mosaic of specialisms, making every conversation an opportunity to discover a different approach, methodology, or position on the topic.
With conversations during writing breaks, countryside walks, shared meals, and after-dinner games, new connections and unexpected avenues for collaboration soon followed. In this retreat iteration, participants generated ideas for joint papers, explored new approaches to transdisciplinarity, and developed greater awareness of other parts of the system.
For many early-career researchers, the SCAF's travel bursary made attendance possible, whilst supporting progress on major research outputs, and gaining career guidance that will shape their next steps.
Across all reflections collected after the retreat, four themes stood out: focus, community, clarity, and connection. Participants left the retreat feeling more confident in their research direction, energised to move their projects forward, and encouraged by the generosity and interdisciplinary spirit of the group.
One participant, Azlinda Hamid, Nutritionist for the Ministry of Health Malaysia/University of Liverpool, said:
The SCAF writing retreat was an incredibly productive and enriching experience. The structured writing sessions helped me maintain focus and make significant progress on my manuscript, while the supportive environment encouraged deep reflection and clearer articulation of my research findings.
I also gained valuable insights from discussions with other participants, whose diverse backgrounds broadened my understanding of interdisciplinary approaches within food, health, policy and research."
Lei Bian, a Policy Fellow at London School of Economics and Political Science, said:
This was my first time participating in an academic writing retreat, which offered invaluable networking opportunities and a deeper understanding of food expertise in Scotland.
Food security, the environment, health, and communities are critical challenges that require cross-cutting expertise to foster collaboration and develop new solutions. We are passionate and optimistic that our closer collaborations will help reduce health inequalities in the most deprived communities in Scotland and across the UK."
Debabrata Dutta, Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow, Heriot Watt University, said:
The retreat was an extremely valuable experience. It allowed me to step away from my busy academic schedule and focus on thinking strategically about my research results and long-term project ideas. I drafted major sections of a new grant proposal and received thoughtful feedback from peers and senior academics, which helped strengthen both my writing and future planning.
The SCAF Writing Retreat highlighted a growing community of practice, strengthening Scotland's food research landscape through shared ideas, supportive networks, and the simple power of writing together."
The next writing retreat will take place from 03-09 March at Loch Insh, Inverness-shire. More information here.
First published: 31 January 2026
<< Blog