New Hub for Community Landownership Research Goes Live

A new website has been launched to provide a central hub for research and knowledge-sharing on community landownership, addressing longstanding issues of fragmented research and limited accessibility. Developed through the Community Landownership Academic Network (CLAN) and funded by the Scottish Land Commission, the site will enable researchers, policymakers, and community landowners to collaborate more effectively in shaping the future of community-led land ownership across Scotland.

Over the past thirty years, community landownership has become a key driver of sustainable development, particularly in rural and island communities. However, despite growing interest in the subject, research efforts have often been poorly coordinated. This new platform aims to bridge that gap by making research findings more accessible and supporting collaboration between academia and those directly involved in land reform. To further enhance accessibility, the website features a central research library that users can contribute to and browse for free, ensuring open access to key insights and data. Additionally, the research directory will help connect researchers with overlapping areas of work or interest, encouraging a more collaborative approach to research and knowledge-sharing across disciplines.

James MacKessack-Leitch, Policy and Practice Lead at the Scottish Land Commission, highlighted the significance of this initiative:

“This website is an important step in improving how research on community landownership is shared and applied. The Scottish Land Commission relies on robust evidence and strong relationships with researchers, and by supporting this initiative to provide a single, easily accessible resource, we can better connect world leading research with policy and practice.”

Dr Bobby Macaulay, Research Fellow at the Centre for Mountain Studies at the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) and CLAN Coordinator, emphasised the need for better coordination:

“Community landownership has had significant and varied impacts across Scotland, yet research has often been reactive and scattered, with little involvement of communities themselves. I hope that this new website will give people access to what we know about community landownership and support future efforts to conduct relevant, impactful research in collaboration with communities.”

Dr Josh Doble, Policy Manager at Community Land Scotland, shared his excitement over the recent launch:

“Community Land Scotland is delighted to see the launch of the new CLAN website, which comes at a particularly opportune moment with various community landowners around Scotland facing research fatigue. The new website will provide an excellent resource for academics looking to research community ownership, with details of existing projects and communities already being researched, as well as providing communities with the ability to look at existing research and state their own research needs.”

CLAN has been an invaluable network for facilitating collaboration between community landowners and researchers. We look forward to that relationship continuing long into the future.”

By providing a structured and collaborative space for disseminating research findings and encouraging new collaborations, the website will support ongoing efforts to improve policy development and sector-wide learning. CLAN is supported by an Advisory Group with representatives from the Scottish Land Commission, University of the Highlands and Islands, Community Land Scotland, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Scotland's Rural College (SRUC), James Hutton Institute, Science Ceilidh, and the Scottish Government’s Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services (RESAS).

For more information and to explore the new website, visit https://clan.scot/.