About CLAN

Community landownership is an endogenous approach to sustainable development which has gained significant attention over the past thirty years. The mechanism has grown and developed from its roots in rural Scotland to having become a flagship policy of successive governments, forming a central tenet of the Land Reform and Community Empowerment agendas, and supported by significant legislative and funding support.

The Community Landownership Academic Network (CLAN) was launched in 2021 in order to strategically organise the future of research in the field through a formal network structure. From the outset, the network sought to integrate with community landowning organisations themselves, seeking to serve the sector through conducting relevant and necessary research, the findings of which will be communicated in accessible ways.

CLAN is based in Scotland, but community landownership is not unique to Scotland, nor was it invented here. There is a wide range of international examples of community landownership, many of which are included in the Research Library. We hope to be able to learn more about the international comparisons through the work of the network. The formal aims of the network are:

• collaborative approach;
• To expand and improve research activity, building a critical academic community to develop the field as a formal research area;
• To encourage the integration of research into teaching materials on the topic of community landownership;
• To communicate, promote and publicise our research, teaching and impact to internal and external audiences, providing a central point of contact and inviting opportunities for knowledge exchange;
• To affect change in local communities and government policy, through action research, knowledge translation and direct routes to impact.

CLAN was founded and continues to be coordinated by Dr Bobby Macaulay, a Research Fellow at the University of the Highlands and Islands. In 2025, CLAN underwent a ‘relaunch’ process, centring around the publishing of this website and rebranding with the new logo. It is hoped that this will serve as the basis for its future development.

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). In the past it has received project funding from the University of the Highlands and Islands, the Scottish Land Commission and SEFARI Gateway.

For more information, please email info@clan.scot.