(Press-News.org) Professors Jun Borras, Esteve Corbera, Ian Scoones and Anna Tsing, working at universities in the Netherlands, Spain, the UK and Denmark, have been awarded an €8.33 million European Research Council (ERC) Synergy Grant for their five-year project, Land and Life in the Anthropocene: Landscape reform (LAND). The project asks a pressing question: How can we learn to live on Earth in new ways?
The innovation of the project is to move from land reform to landscape reform, that is, liveable and justice-based transformations for more-than-human life. LAND starts from the recognition that economies, politics, social and natural worlds are deeply interconnected.
Working across four diverse landscapes – in the Colombian Amazon, southern African savannas, Mediterranean plains and coastal Southeast Asia – LAND researchers will explore how land, livelihoods and ecosystems can be reshaped to support both people and the planet.
Quote Evaluation report ERC-Synergy panel
‘LAND is an excellent proposal for research that addresses some of the most pressing scientific challenges of the time.’
Examining four layers
Working across four diverse landscapes – the Colombian Amazon, southern African savannas, Mediterranean plains and coastal Southeast Asia – the LAND researchers will explore how land, livelihoods and ecosystems can be reshaped to support both people and the planet.
At its core, LAND connects four intersecting layers: Planet, Profit, Property and Partners. These ‘4 Ps’ reveal how global systems of power, production and profit influence whether and how more just, sustainable landscapes can emerge. Through the lens of ‘landscape reform’, LAND aims to inspire new thinking and action for living on earth in new ways.
Innovative framework
Only when humans, land and nature are deeply connected can true transformations emerge. The 4Ps framework decentres the classic Western separation between humans, land and nature, while at the same time pushing back against relying solely on a top-down ‘planetary’ perspective. Through engaged public action the project aims for approaches that are inclusive, grounded and shaped by the realities of people and places.
Researchers sharing a common goal
Conceived during a hike in the Spanish Pyrenees, LAND brings together four leading social scientists who combine ethnography, livelihoods research, action research and systems analysis.
The ERC-Synergy panel praised the researchers’ exceptional complementarity and proven career trajectories, noting that the team has extensive research networks and established relationships within the project’s study sites.
Quote Evaluation report ERC-Synergy panel
‘The panel recognized the academic strength, complementarity, and proven track record of the [researchers], who bring together a remarkable assembly of expertise across anthropology, political ecology, agrarian studies/development studies, climate research, and multispecies studies.’
About the ERC Synergy Grant
The European Research Council (ERC) Synergy Grants foster collaboration between outstanding researchers, enabling them to combine their complementary skills, knowledge and resources in new ways. This funding is part of the EU’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme.
About the researchers
Jun Borras is Professor of Agrarian Studies at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR), the Netherlands.
Ian Scoones is Professor of Resource Politics and Environmental Change at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), United Kingdom.
Esteve Corbera is Professor of Ecological Economics and Political Ecology at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB), Spain.
Anna Tsing is Professor of Anthropology at Aarhus University and at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Denmark and US.
END
EU awards an €8.33m ERC research grant for project How can we learn to live on Earth in new ways?
2025-11-06
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