Linking Environment and Farming (LEAF) will open the Caroline Drummond Scholarship for Innovation in Sustainability will open for applications in March 2024.
The scholarship is named in recognition of LEAF’S founder and former chief executive, Caroline Drummond, who led the organisation from its inception in 1991 until her death in May of last year.
The LEAF Caroline Drummond Scholarship for Innovation in Sustainability aims to specifically support innovations that are judged by a panel of specialists as having the potential to facilitate the adoption of commercially and environmentally sustainable farming and food production, at pace and scale.
The scholarship will support individuals and organisations to carry out pioneering research and innovative projects which advance more sustainable farming practices, that can be adopted and replicated at scale, LEAF said.
Applications will be open to researchers or developers from universities, institutes, commercial companies and start up enterprises, farmers and individuals from relevant non-profit organisations and charities.
More details of the LEAF Caroline Drummond Scholarship opening date will be announced at LEAF’s annual conference on February 1, 2024.
LEAF chair, Phillip Wynn, said: “Caroline was the driving force behind LEAF for over 30 years. She was an inspirational thinker, innovator, collaborator and communicator.
“She was a catalyst of great change and pivotal in driving forward more sustainable, regenerative and climate positive farming – both in the UK and globally.”
“Her work was driven by research and the development of novel ideas and practical approaches to accelerate the uptake of more sustainable farming through Integrated Farm Management. We are delighted to have set up this new Scholarship in her name.”
By supporting scholars, Wynn said LEAF will further add to the body of research contributing to the more widespread practice of IFM at an increasingly global scale along with its ongoing development in addressing current climate change challenges.
Supporting the next generation
LEAF demonstration farmer and farm manager at Overbury Enterprises, Jack Freestone, said the scholarship will ensure Drummond’s legacy lives on by supporting the next generation.
“This important scholarship programme will help ensure that her legacy lives on by supporting the next generation of thinkers, practitioners, and innovators,” he said.
“It will enable cutting-edge and practical research into more sustainable farming to be undertaken, work that will make a real difference as farmers meet the challenges of feeding, fuelling, and protecting the world against a background of climate change.
“Caroline had an infectious passion for delivering positive change for the planet and its people. She was instrumental in the development of so many early industry initiatives, such as the Integrated Arable Crop Production Alliance (IACPA) and the European Initiative for Sustainable Development in Agriculture (EISA).”
