The groups will use the funding to promote healthy living.
The Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Williamson Trust have given their support to 16 innovative community-led research projects across Scotland to promote healthy communities.
A total of £73,625 has been given to a range of creative projects to foster healthier living as part of the Healthy Planet, Healthy People awards.
Sixteen community research projects to promote the health of individuals will take place in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Scottish Borders, Fife, Perth and Kinross, Angus, the Cairngorms, Hebrides and Dumfries and Galloway.
This is the second year of the awards, generously funded by the Williamson Trust, a charitable organisation.
Four projects in Glasgow, three in Edinburgh and three in the Scottish Borders will benefit, with other initiatives in Fife, Perth and Kinross, Angus, the Cairngorms, Hebrides and Dumfries and Galloway also receiving financial support.
One enterprising project involving the Scottish Centre for Food Development and Innovation at Queen Margaret University aims to reduce the enormous amount of food waste using the process of ‘food dehydration’, a preservation method which reduces a food’s water content and extends its shelf life.
Another project would see a UK-first with the opening of a food-themed enterprise and welfare hub, with plans for a GP referral scheme for fresh, locally grown produce and an artisanal food and drink retail market.
RSE ‘Healthy Planet, Healthy People’: Community-led Research Awards are designed to promote new and existing community-led research projects that promote the health of individuals by fostering healthy communities, healthy environments, and improving access to healthy food.
Professor David E Salt FRSE, chair of the Williamson Trust, said: “This year, we again have an amazing diversity of projects, from dolphins, bees, seeds, orchards, woodlands and lochs to food banks, composting, urban crofts and coffee shops. We truly look to invest in hope and the power of ideas wherever they arise.
“The trustees at the Williamson Trust are excited to fund 16 great community-led projects from across Scotland.
“Applications to the Healthy Planet, Healthy People Community-led Research Awards continue to grow, demonstrating the strong desire of communities in Scotland to develop local solutions to the ongoing global challenges to our environment, our communities and our food.
“The Trust hopes that these locally focused projects can find solutions to the challenges the local communities face and that these solutions can also have wider application."
The strength of the applications in the second round of the funding programme resulted in four additional projects being awarded financial support.
The successful projects represent a broad range of ideas to promote healthier living. A collaboration between Café Recharge, based in Galashiels, and Queen Margaret University will investigate how to reduce food waste by piloting food hydration trials using surplus vegetables and fruit.
Café Recharge currently serves food that is surplus and predominantly rescued from supermarkets by freezing the food or cooking before the ‘Use By end’ dates.
Researchers want to go a step further by understanding the efficiency of dehydration, build a framework for the process, formulate a calendar to track rescued surplus food and facilitate communities to prepare surplus produce in readiness for dehydration.
Caroline Timmins, a product development technologist at Queen Margaret University, said: “This award will allow us to investigate ways of preparing and utilising surplus fruit and vegetables by experimenting with dehydration and creating new food products and recipes.
“Support from the Royal Society of Edinburgh not only allows us to pursue efficiencies and innovation in food management, it also helps us progress our mission of reducing food waste and promoting sustainability in the community."
The Cupar Foodstation Project will conduct feasibility research into opening a hub housing several local organisations, including the Cupar Foodbank, Community Larder, a GP referral scheme for fresh, locally grown produce, a catering training facility, a service offering free refurbished bikes, and an artisanal food and drink retail market.
This would be the first scheme of this kind in the UK, providing novel solutions to alleviate high rates of local poverty, improve health and reduce food waste.
Tony Miklinski CBE, chair of the Cupar Development Trust, said: “The funding will help us progress an innovative project in Cupar, which is designed to improve the health and well-being of local residents, support our local food and drink producers, regenerate a prominent town centre building, and reduce local food waste. We are extremely grateful to the RSE for their generous funding, which will support this exciting community-benefit project."
Meanwhile, initiatives to increase the number of fruit orchards in the Scottish Borders and Perth and Kinross, develop a public space artworks to form a bee corridor in Edinburgh, support coffee drinkers to become more sustainable in Glasgow and help conservationists in the Hebrides to better protect bottlenose dolphins will be undertaken by other research groups.
RSE Vice President, Research, Professor Anne Anderson FRSE, said: “This marks the second round of RSE 'Healthy Planet, Healthy People': Community-led Research Awards, which were introduced to expand the Society’s range of awards and the type of research we support.
“The health of people and the environment are closely connected, and I hope that these awards will strengthen these innovative research groups and drive positive change in both areas. I look forward to following their progress and achievements over the coming year."
