Living labs and remote sensing for ecosystem restoration in Scotland

We represent two distinct strands of related research at the University of St Andrews: one focusing on our Environmental Change Research Group, which deals with change in terrestrial ecosystems on a range of timescales; and the St Andrews Centre for Critical Sustainabilities, which pursues inter- and transdisciplinary research aimed at transformative change for sustainability.

Our group is seeking partners for a project on Living Labs for nature restoration and/or remote sensing, tied to our interests in nature restoration in upland Scotland, UK.

The University of St Andrews works closely with the Corrour Estate, a private organisation which manages 23,000 ha of upland Scotland for nature restoration. We have a formal 100-year collaboration agreement between our institutions, with strong governance in place. A dedicated field station is due to be completed in September 2026, offering a superb base for long-term research.

St Andrews and Corrour are working together to address pressing real-life problems around, for example, maintaining/monitoring peatland restoration projects, and developing new approaches to reafforestation through natural regeneration. There is opportunity to develop new projects on these themes and others, for example river restoration and flood mitigation, citizen science, community involvement and engagement, nature financing, and (mal-)adaptation to climate change. Many of these topics are in line with current Scottish government and EU policies towards a nature-positive economy, and we see high potential to develop a 'living lab' approach.

Our group can offer a range of expertise in ecology, remote sensing, and social sciences/humanities (SSH) disciplines. For example, we have an ongoing project at Corrour focusing on using Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and satellite imagery to develop metrics for monitoring biodiversity change, which also considers (with input from a specialist in the ethics of data) the ethical and socio-economic aspects of using remote sensing in this way; and another project involving economists and ecologists on how to package peatland restoration projects in ways that leverage both carbon and biodiversity finance. We also have links to wider networks of land-owners and managers throughout the UK.

We are looking to join or co-develop a consortium/consortia to address calls dealing with biodiversity and nature restoration, e.g. "Living labs for co-creating solutions for the restoration of ecosystems" and "Mainstreaming and scaling-up evidence-based nature-based solutions towards a nature-positive and climate-resilient economy". We seek to build links with other groups working on nature restoration in Europe and affiliated countries, where there is potential for mutual learning and synergies that could lead to a strong funding proposals.