Two research councils, which specialise in investigations dealing with agriculture, climate change and food security have issued a €10.5M call to fund research into food security and land-use change.

The Belmont Forum and the Agriculture, Food Security & Climate Change Joint Programming Initiative (FACCE-JPI) have launched the call; they will be considering research projects of between 18 months and five years for the programme. UK input will be coordinated through the Global Food Security programme.

With its overall focus on food security, this call emphasises three fundamental topics:

• Land use change impacts on food systems
• Food systems dynamics as driver of land use changes
• Feedback loop interactions between land use change and food security dynamics

In the UK, BBSRC, ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) and NERC (Natural Environment Research Council), are providing funding of up to €1.75m, which they believe will go to fund between five and eight different projects.

Prof Tim Benton, a sometimes controversial proponent of 'sustainable intensification' Global Food Security's 'Champion', said, "With the growth of demand for food rising so sharply, the real challenge is how to manage the land in a way that is sustainable for the long term.

"This call will fund some much needed research to understand the interplay between the food system and how it affects and is affected by land use."

For more information is available from BBSRC's call page