About Us

The Centre for Sustainable Livelihoods (CSL), University College Cork, aims to determine and address issues that impact on people's ability to maintain and sustain their livelihoods.

The Centre for Sustainable Livelihoods (CLS) is committed to research, capacity building, harmonising trade and agricultural policy and policy development/advocacy. The Centre's role encompasses research, development, training and advocacy in areas related to attaining sustainable livelihoods. It brings together practitioners and academics drawn from the fields of food science, human nutrition, geography, politics, agriculture, economics, sociology, food business, marketing and others. The Centre encourages networking between public and private actions in improving sustainability, efficient use of resources and entrepreneurial opportunities.

As part of its mission, the Centre provides the following services offered to both academic and civil society:

  • Primary research and information dissemination on issues related to sustainable food production and consumption.
  • Transforming global agri-food systems to bring about the best environmental outcomes for an inclusive and a sustainable society
  • Facilitating and organising of workshops, seminars and conferences
  • Provision of information on food and nutrition security issues, e.g. through production of briefing papers.

centre's ACTIVITIES AND PROJECTS

A key tenet of the operation of the Centre for Sustainable Livelihoods is that we provide linkages between research and action. Research that we conduct originates from, is driven by, and indeed often performed by target populations. The research is then not only appropriate to this population, it is the most appropriate research to this population, and is driven by the needs of the population. In using the population to complete research, capacity is developed for the locale that can then be utilised to further benefit the community.

The Centre for Sustainable Livelihoods research/projects are based on topical issues such as:

  • Linkage between agricultural development and environmental degradation;
  • Macro - economic policies;
  • Food production system – crops and livestock;
  • Food business and chain efficiency;
  • Market access and agricultural product marketing;
  • Farming’s climate-smart future: placing agriculture at the heart of climate-change policy;
  • Value chains for transforming smallholder agriculture;
  • Agriculture and trade policies for sustainable food systems;
  • Agriculture, innovation and development;
  • Linkage between agricultural development and environmental degradation;
  • Macro - economic policies;
  • Food production system – crops and livestock;
  • Value addition – traditional and modern methods;
  • Food business and chain efficiency;
  • Market access, contract farming and bargaining power;
  • Linking smallholder farmers to markets;
  • Market access and agricultural product marketing;
  • Promoting agricultural initiatives;
  • Farming’s climate-smart future: placing agriculture at the heart of climatechange policy;
  • Value chains for transforming smallholder agriculture;
  • Agriculture and trade policies for sustainable food systems;
  • Global warming: Doing business in a time of climate change;
  • Innovations for improving agricultural production, food security, and resilience to climate change.