Countryside & Community Research Institute

Dan from the CCRI has been busy working in mainland Europe!

☀️☀️Students on 'Alternative and local food networks' working in the Hojnost gardens at Klášter Porta Coeli on 22.04.2026. This 5-day course, which includes a field trip to Tišnov, is open to bachelor students in the Fakulta sociálních studií MU. The course is led by Daniel Keech of the University of Gloucestershire's Countryside & Community Research Institute (UK). Thanks for a lovely week and see you next year! 🙌

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) Fishing Industry Social Survey (FISS) is now open!

The aim of the survey is to better understand the lives of commercial fishermen and better shape the policies and projects that affect them.

It will give fishermen, invited at random, a real and human voice when it comes to the making of decisions that will affect their futures and give us a deeper and broader understanding of life in these communities

Created with fishermen for fishermen, Defra aims to run the survey every year, so that over time, they can see the effect of policies and projects and adapt them to work better and each year, improve the quality of life within communities.

With names selected at random from the Marine Management Organisation fleet register and created with fishermen for fishermen, it’s invitation only. Those who complete it will be able to enter a prize draw to be in with a chance of winning one of 20 £100 shopping vouchers.

So if you’ve been invited, please complete it today and have your say in the future of your fishing community.

Survey closes 28th March.

Life as a fisherman in England is a source of deep pride and enjoyment, but also stress, show the results of a major new survey conducted by the Countryside and Community Research Institute (CCRI) for Defra.

The results are recently published by Defra: https://sciencesearch.defra.gov.uk/ProjectDetails?ProjectId=21923

Newlyn Fishing Town
Fishermen's Mission
The Cornish Fish Producers' Organisation
UK Women in Fisheries
Fishing into the Future

𝗙𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝗦𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝘂𝗿𝘃𝗲𝘆 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 🐟🦞

The aim of the survey is to 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱 the lives of commercial fishermen and 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗲 the policies and projects that affect them. It will give fishermen a real and human voice when it comes to the making of decisions that will affect their futures and give us a deeper and broader understanding of life in these communities.

Created 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗳𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗲𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗳𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗲𝗻, we aim to run the survey every year, so that over time, we can see the effect of policies and projects and adapt them to work better and each year, improve the quality of life within communities.

With names selected at random from the MMO fleet and created with fishermen for fishermen, it’s invitation only. Those who complete it will be able to enter a prize draw to be in with a chance of winning one of 20 £100 shopping vouchers.

So if you’ve been invited, please complete it today and have your say in the future of your fishing community.

Merry Christmas from the CCRI.

We will be closing tomorrow and will re-open on 5th January 2026.

The project – led by Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) – is being piloted in Brixham and North Yorkshire this winter. are invited to participate in drop-in sessions, or via postal packs, to share where and why their grounds matter.

Contributions will help shed light on aspects of fishing grounds and transit routes which can otherwise be overlooked in decisions on marine planning, such as income, safety, family heritage, and community identity. Any information shared will be anonymised and combined with others’ contributions before being made available to decision-makers. This means that individual grounds or vessels will never be shown.

The resulting maps will provide policymakers with new insights into the social and cultural importance of fishing grounds, complementing environmental and economic data, and informing decisions on activities such as Marine Protected Area (MPA) designations, offshore wind, and Fisheries Management Plans (FMPs).

The Brixham pilot takes place first, with dates and times of the drop-ins as follows:

📆 5–8th January
o 11:30–17:00 at Brixham Trawler Agents
o 17.30–20.00 at Brixham Laboratory

📆 9th January
o 08:30–12:30 at Brixham Trawler Agents

For more information, including updates on drop-ins in North Yorkshire in February, go to: www.fishingporthole.co.uk/mapping-what-matters/

🎉It’s here - the Rural Climathon Toolkit! 🌳🔧

This guide is designed to help rural communities come together & take meaningful local action to protect our climate

Visit our website to find out more & get your free toolkit!

https://ccri.ac.uk/rural-climathon/

Exciting news! 📢

We’re delighted to share that we will soon be releasing ‘The Rural Climathon Toolkit’, a comprehensive guide to organising your own rural Climathons - launching 26th November 2025. 🌍

*What’s a Climathon, you ask?* 🤔
Climathons are solutions-focused workshops that connect and inspire communities to envision a climate-resilient future and develop practical local action to achieve this. 🗣️

Building on the global success of Climathons, the we partnered with National Innovation Centre for Rural Enterprise (NICRE) and The British Academy to adapt this model for rural communities, improving accessibility and inclusivity of these events, and addressing the global challenge at a local level by aligning closely with community initiatives. 🤝

Interested? Stay tuned for the toolkit launch, coming soon.

Special mention to Climate KIC who originally designed the Climathon methodology, and to University of Gloucestershire National Innovation Centre for Rural Enterprise and The British Academy for their valuable contributions toward the development of the Rural Climathon methodology.

Illustration by Amanda S.

🗓️ Just over a week until the most significant forest & woodland event of 2025 takes place! 🌳

📍 Britain’s Forest Future: Research-Practice Exchange takes place in Durham on November 17-18

🎟️ You can still register to attend by visiting: https://britainsforestfuture.zohobackstage.eu/event #/

Join us - Converse, discuss, exchange knowledge, network 🗣️ 🤝 💡

💻 Do you work or volunteer in an area related to Digital Inclusion within Gloucestershire?

📲 Does your organisation work with another who provide digital inclusion support?

We are working with Gloucestershire County Council to find out what support is available across the county.

✅ We would like to hear from you via our survey: ⤵️
https://tinyurl.com/6jhabvpa

GlosDigi
Creative Sustainability