The Centre for Rural Economy (CRE) is a research centre at Newcastle University that specialises in interdisciplinary social science and applied policy research oriented towards the achievement of sustainable development in rural areas. Drawing on a team of over 30 social scientists from a diverse academic background (e.g. economists, geographers, sociologists, planners, food marketers, political scientists and psychologists), it is one of the most significant groupings of rural social scientists in the UK. In 2014 the excellence of its research and teaching was recognised by the award of the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education. Over the last 25 years CRE staff have been involved in many national and international research projects, including over 30 funded by the EU, covering a wide range of topics including rural employment, agricultural and rural policy, farmer and consumer behaviour, rural tourism, environmental management, and rural communities and organisations. Rural arts represents an increasingly priority research area within CRE, as evidenced by our annual art residency programme in collaboration with Berwick Visual Arts, a new ESRC-AHRC research project with rural art stakeholders in Japan, and the recent collaboration with Visual Arts in Rural Communities in the ACE funded ENTWINED: Rural. Land. Lives. Art. programme.
