Case Studies

RDI - A voice for the rural sector

RDI has strong practical experience in a number of fields, and this gives us a strong voice when lobbying on behalf of the rural sector. We pride ourselves on our innovative and independent way of thinking, underpinned by the highest standards of logical rigour and methodology in carrying out research.

BioeNErgy Delivers Real Benefit to Rural Businesses

Park End Farms, based in Northumberland, secured funding in round two of the bioeNErgy programme to further develop and strengthen their woodchip operations.  Their farm business diversified two years ago by purchasing a chipper to supply their own woodfuel requirements and to meet the needs of other chip suppliers across the region by offering a contract chipping service. 

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Great Yorkshire Show Forestry Arena - delivered by RDI

The Yorkshire Agricultural Society, organisers of the Great Yorkshire Show, have contracted Rural Development Initiatives (through Yorwoods, the Yorkshire woodland initiative hosted by RDI) to manage the forestry arena at the Great Yorkshire Show since 2005. The Great Yorkshire Show is one of the UK’s premier agricultural shows, with an annual attendance of over 130,000 and a reputation for high quality exhibits, competitions and displays.

Northwoods Working with Newcastle University

Northwoods was approached early in 2008 about hosting a three-month MSc student placement, following on from our previous successful placements. Those three months have now come to an end, and our placement, Katie, is about to graduate from Newcastle with her Masters degree in Clean Technology.

Katie has been working on the waste stream as a current and potential fuel source for the biomass sector. We look forward to promoting her dissertation, and hope that it will be of great interest to the biomass sector across the UK.

Deer Management in Northumberland

During the summer of 2007 Adam Bedford, an MSc student at Newcastle University’s Centre for Rural Economy, undertook at research project on Deer Management in Northumberland.  Adam undertook the research through a placement jointly funded by Northwoods and Northumberland National Park as part of his MSc in Rural Development and Resource Management.

Northumberland Fire Group

Northumberland Fire Group is a coming together of the public and private sectors to tackle the increasing threat of large wildfires in rural parts of Northumberland. Members of the group include landowners, land agents, public sector bodies, farmers and in fact anyone with an interest in wildfire. At the request of Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service, RDI put together a plan for the creation of the Fire Group and then set about the long and complicated task of assembling the funding package to make the project work.

Ignite - Pembrokeshire Coast National Park

Ignite, RDI’s award winning wood fuel training course, has been delivered at locations across the UK. This summer the course was delivered very successfully in Wales for the first time. 

After initial investigations in Wales in 2007 through local contacts in the forestry and woodfuel sectors t, we saw that there was enough demand to run four courses throughout 2008; two in North Wales and two in South Wales.

South East of England Widlfire Group - enabling partnership working

The South East of England Wildfire Group (SEEWG) exists to provide a regional partnership approach to tackling the growing risk of wildfire. The regional group brings together three landscape scale working areas for operational delivery; New Forest, Home Counties and Ashdown Forest.

WHPMG Pilot

The Woodland Harvesting, Processing and Marketing Grant (WHPMG) scheme was introduced by the Forestry Commission under the England Rural Development Programme in 2005. Two rounds of applications were invited, with total funding available of £600,000. It was decided that the scheme should be introduced on a pilot basis, with one pilot in the South East Region and the other taking in contiguous areas of the North East and Yorkshire & The Humber Regions.

RDI Research Leading the Way

As part of the support offered to the forestry and biomass sectors, RDI undertook a study of the contribution of biomass to the economy of north east England.

The research, carried out by RDI as part of the region’s NEWHeat project and backed by One North East and the Forestry Commission, also suggests that ultimately, in terms of economic value, biomass could become the most important solid fuel for heating.