ECI leads: Dr Jing Zhang, Dr Monika Zurek, and Dr Jennifer Lucey
This project develops a UK roadmap for pulses, exploring how they can play a larger role in delivering healthier diets, more resilient farming systems, and wider environmental benefits.
Building on previous work from the BeanMeals project which is part of the Transforming UK Food Systems programme, this project combines rapid evidence synthesis, targeted stakeholder conversations, and a multi-actor roundtable to identify key barriers, opportunities, and system-level levers for change. The focus is on UK-relevant crops and value chains, with particular attention to how production, consumption and policy can be better aligned. The roadmap aims to support more coordinated action across agriculture, food, and policy, and to inform future research and decision-making. The project brings together an interdisciplinary team working across food systems, agriculture, and nature-based solutions, with close engagement from external partners spanning policy, civil society, and practice.
Over the past couple of years, a growing number of initiatives have explored the role of pulses in supporting healthier diets, more resilient farming systems and wider environmental goals in the UK. Through the UKRI-funded BeanMeals project and subsequent stakeholder workshops, a common challenge has been repeatedly highlighted: while there is broad agreement on the potential value of pulses, there is less clarity on the practical and coordinated actions needed to support their expansion across the food system.
This roadmap builds on previous research, stakeholder interviews and multi-stakeholder workshops to identify shared priorities and pathways for action. Its aim is not to prescribe a single solution, but to explore how different parts of the pulse system may need to evolve together over time.
