UHI researcher awarded prestigious Leverhulme Trust Research Leadership Award
Dr Bobby Macaulay, Research Fellow at the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) Centre for Mountain Studies, has been awarded a prestigious Research Leadership Award from the Leverhulme Trust to lead a major new international research project.
The award, totalling approximately £700,000 over five years, will fund a research team to undertake Dr Macaulay’s project, ‘Community Landownership and Sustainable Development in Europe’.
The project will examine the extent and impacts of communal ownership of private land assets across Europe, exploring how different models of community landownership contribute to sustainable development in rural and mountain regions.
The Research Leadership Award is highly competitive, granted only once every three years, recognising outstanding research leaders and providing long-term support for ambitious, interdisciplinary projects. Only around 12 academics from across the UK are selected in each round. UHI is one of only six Scottish universities ever to have received the award, the only ‘post-92’ institution to have done so, and one of just three to have won it more than once, following Professor Roxane Andersen’s success in 2019.
The Centre for Mountain Studies (CMS), based at UHI Perth, is internationally recognised for its research on sustainable development, land use, environmental governance and rural communities in mountain and peripheral regions. This award further strengthens both the centre’s and UHI’s reputation for research excellence with local, national and international impact.
Dr Macaulay said:
“I am hugely honoured to have received this award, which provides an amazing opportunity to put Scotland’s approach to community landownership in a European context. The Centre for Mountain Studies is a recognised leader in this field and through coordinating a research team to work on this project full-time, I hope to only further that position. I am very thankful to the centre’s Director, Dr Ros Bryce, for supporting me in developing this area of work and encouraging me to apply for this award. In addition, I would like to thank the many colleagues and friends who have contributed to the work of the Community Landownership Academic Network (CLAN), the success of which no doubt benefitted my application. Finally, many thanks to the Leverhulme Trust for placing your faith (and your money) in me, enabling this work to take place.”
Dr Rosalind Bryce, Director of the Centre for Mountain Studies, said:
“This is an incredibly exciting opportunity for Bobby and for the Centre for Mountain Studies. CMS has a strong track record of research on the relationships between rural communities and their land in Scotland and internationally, and this is a fantastic opportunity to build on that. The question of land ownership continues to be a live issue for both practice and policy with real implications for how land can be an asset for local communities and wider society. This programme will increase the capacity of CMS to work on these issues in Scotland and will open up new lines of enquiry in Europe.”
Professor Brian Williams, Deputy Principal for Academic and Research at UHI, added:
“This is a tremendous achievement for Dr Macaulay and testament to both the quality of his work and his commitment throughout his career. It will enable a step change in work in the area and goes to the heart of UHI’s mission to have positive impacts across the Highlands and Islands and beyond. It also reflects the wider status and ongoing achievements of the Centre for Mountain Studies at UHI Perth. ”
The research will begin in April 2026, with recruitment of a PhD student and postdoctoral researcher taking place over the summer. Both posts are expected to commence in October 2026.