How does academic research actually reach the people making decisions at Holyrood? It’s a question that sits at the heart of what FORTH2O is trying to do, and one we’ve been exploring directly with some of those who enable this.
Midway through the production of her FORTH2O-funded artist moving image project, Jess Holdengarde discusses the multiple properties of water, analogue processes and slowness, and interdisciplinary knowledge exchange and policy innovation.
I’ll be honest, when I first visited the Lyne Burn corridor in Dunfermline, I saw it through a professional eye with no familiarity or belonging to the place. My focus went straight to a sign that…
With the upcoming Scottish Election on 7 May 2026, let’s take a brief look to see where water policy fits in the political agenda of the six main political parties. Despite water being one of Scotland’s most important natural assets, other issues such as the NHS and the cost-of-living have taken precedence in the pre-election campaigns and debates.
A new project in the River Almond catchment is asking a simple but important question: if nature-based solutions can reduce flood risk, improve water quality and protect infrastructure at the same time, why do we still struggle to organise funding for them?
The FORTH2O Business & Industry Core Team are exploring how sustainable water use can unlock new business opportunities across the Forth region. Through a series of structured discussions in 2025, the team identified key areas where innovation, local collaboration, and targeted support could make a meaningful difference.
In this second post revisiting our vision for FORTH2O, we reflect on early ambitions to connect social science approaches and a new datalab to the Forth-ERA project.
FORTH2O represents the pursuit of an ambitious three-step aim to: (1) connect a world leading digital observatory of the Firth of Forth’s entire water catchment (Forth Environmental Resilience Array, Forth-ERA) to (2) a new social and economic data lab, and…
This blog post describes developments in the FORTH2OPolicy Innovation Partnership. A change in our leadership team, coupled with a heightened focus on project delivery, prompted us to renew our vision for FORTH2O. Principal Investigator – Professor Paul Cairney – reflects on progress to date and the new direction of travel (a longer versionappears on Cairney’s website).
What if water could be the key to unlocking a thriving economy in the Forth region? The FORTH2O Business & Industry Core Team, part of the cross-sector FORTH2O Policy Innovation Partnership, is investigating how sustainable water use can drive innovation.