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Hutton researcher awarded prestigious British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship

Orla Shortall
Orla Shortall
"The fellowship is a great opportunity to explore how farmers and stakeholders in both Scotland and the Republic of Ireland envisage the future of the dairy industry”

Orla Shortall of the James Hutton Institute’s Social, Economic and Geographical Sciences group has been awarded a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship. The Fellowship enables early-career academics in the humanities and social sciences to conduct a significant piece of research leading to publication over a period of three years. 

Orla will use the Fellowship for her project "Cows eat grass don't they? Exploring values and visions of indoor and outdoor dairy farming in the UK and Ireland." The project explores farmer, stakeholder and public views on indoor dairy farming in the UK and Ireland.

She explained “Indoor dairy farming is becoming increasingly common in the UK with a survey published in 2014 showing that 16% of farmers in the UK house all or some of their cows all year round. This figure is likely to be higher in Scotland, which has higher average herd numbers. Indoor dairy farming has proved to be contentious, however, with a study from 2009 showing 95% of the public did not support it. In the Republic of Ireland, in contrast, there is very little indoor dairy farming. The fellowship is a great opportunity to explore how farmers and stakeholders in both countries envisage the future of the dairy industry.”

This year the British Academy, the voice of the humanities and social sciences, has awarded a record 85 Postdoctoral Fellowships to outstanding early-career scholars, an unprecedented two-thirds (64%) of whom are women.

More awards have been made thanks to a £10m boost in funding from the government’s Global Talent Fund for an extra 40 fellowships, enabling the British Academy to make the most awards in the scheme’s 30-year history. Eleven former Postdoctoral Fellows are now Fellows of the British Academy, elected for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. Over 200 former Postdoctoral Fellows are Professors working in the UK and beyond.

Chief Executive of the British Academy, Alun Evans, said “We are delighted to welcome the largest ever cohort of Postdoctoral Fellows.

“It is particularly exciting to recognise the achievements of so many women at early-career level. This is a promising trend - both for our disciplines and academia as a whole – as Postdoctoral Fellows often go on to stellar academic careers.”

Notes to editors

The British Academy is the voice of humanities and social sciences. The Academy is an independent fellowship of world-leading scholars and researchers; a funding body for research, nationally and internationally; and a forum for debate and engagement. For more information, please visit www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk. Follow the British Academy on Twitter @britishacademy.

Press and media enquiries: 

Adam Walker, Communications Officer, James Hutton Institute, Tel: 01224 395095 (direct line), 0344 928 5428 (switchboard).


Printed from /news/hutton-researcher-awarded-prestigious-british-academy-postdoctoral-fellowship on 29/03/24 02:12:23 PM

The James Hutton Research Institute is the result of the merger in April 2011 of MLURI and SCRI. This merger formed a new powerhouse for research into food, land use, and climate change.