About The University
Introduction
The University
of Reading is one of the UK’s 10 most research-intensive Universities. The
latest Government Research Assessment Exercise confirms its strengths, with 20
departments being awarded top ratings of 5 or above.
The University
has great success in bidding for research funding – over £25 million of its
current £45 million annual research funding comes from external grants and
contracts. As a result the University continues to invest in the development of
state-of-the-art research facilities. These include £5 million invested in the
Centre for Dairy Research, as part of the University’s Food Chain and Health
research theme. The Centre is the leading facility for this type of research in
the UK.
The University
of Reading is uniquely placed in the UK in providing coverage of the food chain
from farm to fork with an interdisciplinary approach spanning both natural and
social sciences.
The School of Agriculture, Policy and
Development (SAPD) includes:
Department of Agricultural and Food
Economics (AFE)
This
continues to be
one of the strongest departments of its kind in the country. Our strength is in
the rigorous quantitative analysis of microeconomic data.
We currently have researchers working on a wide range of issues throughout the
food chain including the impacts of GM crops on producers and consumers, the
demand for locally produced food and the implications of alternative animal
health and welfare strategies for farmers. We are experienced in contributing to
the natural science component of multi- and inter-disciplinary projects centred
around the life sciences. We have long experience of policy analysis both
European (CAP) and International (WTO). We scored 5
in the last RAE, the highest rating
awarded in the Agriculture grouping.
The Department of Agriculture incorporates research groups working on
crops, animal science, the agri-environment, farm management and veterinary
epidemiology. It offers 5 undergraduate degrees and 2
taught postgraduate degrees.
The Centre for Agricultural Strategy is a long established self-funded
centre. It works exclusively on policy orientated studies which are generally
funded directly by government agencies.
The core business of the Agricultural and Food Investigational Team is
the collection of the Central and South Eastern England component of the FADN
data set. They are also responsible for managing the delivery of the data for
the whole of England and for conducting ad hoc data collection exercises as
components of research projects held elsewhere in the School and more widely.
Teaching
The Department of Agricultural and Food
Economics offers:
2 undergraduate degrees
BSc Food Marketing and
Business Economics
BSc Consumer
Behaviour and Marketing
3 taught postgraduate degrees
MSc
Agricultural Economics
MSc Agricultural Development Economics
MSc
Food Economics and Marketing
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staff
AES Conference Programme 2007 
