National Sheep Association (NSA) is the UKs leading membership organisation representing the views and interests of sheep farmers. 

NSA's vision is to support sheep farmers with increased learning opportunities, increased aspiration for good practice and maintained passion and enthusiasm within the sheep the sector. NSA also aims to ensure those not involved in the sheep sector have an awareness of the contribution sheep make to society. NSA is in a good position to work collaboratively with researchers, advisers and other industry partners on research projects to improve our sheep industry. 

NSA has a strong network, putting it in a great position to provide advice for research projects, as well as the ability to identify, organise and host farmer focus groups, distribute farmer surveys and provide a strong interaction with industry stakeholders.

NSA is also active in a huge range of policy areas affecting the sheep sector and will be able to both advise any research partner and feed information back to governments specifically from project outcomes.

NSA’s role in research: 
NSA understands the importance of research for innovation and sustainability. 

Nicola Noble works as the NSA Project Manager, allowing NSA to provide input on important industry research, guiding and advising from project inception, to processes and then sharing outcomes with members and the wider sheep sector.

Past projects:  
NSA has broadened its involvement in research from numerous expert advisory roles with levy bodies such as Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, and advises as an industry representative in Responsible Use of Medicines in Agriculture Alliance, Sheep Vet Society and other bodies. 

NSA has also been involved in a number of international projects working directly within the project groups. For example, NSA was involved in the iSAGE – Innovation for Sustainable Sheep and Goat Production in Europe (2016-2020), Wellcome Trust FIELD project (2018-2020), Defra UK Sheep Genetic Identification Scoping Study, a stakeholder in SEEGSLIP - Sustainable economic and environmental grazing systems: learning from innovative practitioners’ project (2020-2024), SheepNET/Eurosheep. 

More recent projects include NSA as the sole UK partner in an EU-funded Turkish-led research project called E-Organic Erasmus (2021-2022), the Fabulous Fibre project (2023-2024), MSD Vaccines trial (2021-2023), Zolvixs Exchange programme (2023) and NSA coordinated the South West lot through its regional connections was the Defra funded RDPE Scab Project (2021-2023). 

Current projects: 
NSA is currently a project partner on the Innovate UK Defra funded Breed for CH4nge project (2023-2026), the Lamb Monitor project (2023-2026), Breeding animals for resilient feet project (2024-2025). NSA is also part of the Canine DNA Recovery project (2024-2026) led by Liverpool John Moors University, the Defra Sheep Scoping Efficiency project (2024-2025) and Land Use for Net Zero hub. 

These research projects are in addition to a number of academic PhD projects such as Lameness in sheep (Newcastle University), Hydata project - Study of farm dogs and parasites in livestock, joint-ill and other health related disease at Liverpool University and Investigating lameness in sheep at Warwick University. NSA is regularly approached to sit on advisory boards within project groups on most UK (and non-UK) sheep projects, even when a direct consortium position is not available. 

NSA is also a leading organisation in the British Heritage Sheep project, looking at the traceability of sheep meat.

NSA research services:
NSA is striving towards a leadership role identifying sources of funding, locating partners and ensuring research deliverables are met. In addition, NSA has very strong relationships with levy bodies, policy makers, NGO’s and is in regular contact with them on a two-way advisory level, so projects working at a policy level are also of great interest. 

Farmer engagement is vital to ensure any project results lead to changes in current practise to improve sustainability, health, welfare and economics. NSA will seek to put any project teams in touch with farmer participants if necessary, through its membership database of UK sheep farmers and strong relationships with other organisations within the industry. 

NSA also has the capacity to work closely within research groups to ensure events and farmer/industry interaction ensures quantifiable routes to impact. NSA can promote knowledge exchange through use of NSA’s own communication channels such as NSA’s Sheep Farmer magazine, Weekly Email Update to all members, social media and through seminar programmes at key NSA events. NSA can also share details of projects during webinars and engagement through NSA regional activity.

It is of considerable interest for NSA to be proactive in research projects targeting the sheep sector. NSA is able to act as an industry expert, providing key advice within the consortium and attending project meetings. NSA is also keen to discuss other related research where projects may have a common goal and aid the sheep sector.

Summary of what NSA can provide:

• Ability to use diverse membership database to invite sheep farmers to take part in research related activities – e.g. farmer focus groups, invitation for practical on farm research, invitation to take part in specific data collection.
• Practical staff labour for on-farm (sheep) data collection – practical sampling at farm level (e.g. liveweights, faecal egg sampling, sward sampling) and farmer interviews.
• Staff time for research related activities – collation of data, analysis, reporting etc.
• Staff time for sheep expertise – participating on research advisory board, assess project ideas, advise on potential impact of research.
• Staff time and consumables for identifying farmers for farmer focus groups, feedback sessions, direct farmer contact – email, letter, telephone, social media.
• Knowledge exchange through well-established NSA communication channels.
• Production of articles in NSA’s Sheep Farmer magazine relating to project activities.
• Access to NSA events, webinars, regional activity, workshops and seminars for project promotion and to increase project impact.
• Distribution of surveys and questionnaires to farmers.

Who to contact:
For anyone interested in discussing research collaborations contact NSA’s lead contact Nicola Noble, Project Manager. 
Email: nicola@nationalsheep.org.uk                                        
Mobile: 07930574309