A new consortium has received over £6 million from the government to help tackle greenhouse gas emissions from land use and agriculture.
The Land Use for Net Zero (LUNZ) Hub will provide the government with evidence around land use, from renewable energy to soil carbon and green finance, to help net zero by 2050.
The consortium, which has received £6.25m is funding, is co-led led by the James Hutton Institute, Aberystwyth University and the University of Leicester.
The project also aims to play a role in helping to communicate more widely the importance of land and how it is used as a major carbon sink or source.
LUNZ researchers say agriculture and land use have a major impact on emissions, as well as other environmental, societal and economic outcomes.
However, they note that progress towards decarbonisation is lagging behind other sectors.
Professor Iain Donnison, of Aberystwyth University, said the government funding was "a major investment in vital work to support a just transition to net zero".
"Our aim as a consortium is to deliver transformative changes in land use, agricultural systems and soil health," he explained.
"Achieving the transformational change in land management needed will depend on government access to world-class research and innovation.
"We will develop evidence-based and credible pathways to achieving net zero; timed and tailored to meet government and sectoral needs.
"Our vision for the new hub is an agile, ‘big tent, four nations approach’ analysing, aggregating and translating evidence to support policymakers and other stakeholders."
Professor Lee-Ann Sutherland, from the James Hutton Institute, added that the science behind land use was highly complex.
"It is influenced by a range of economic, social and environmental factors, and complicated further by a changing evidence base, novel market forces, the emergence of new data and models, and disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence.
"Our aim is to bridge the gap between researchers and policy makers and our work will be focused on meeting specific policy-maker needs, giving them the evidence they need in the format and timeframe they need it."
