New Economic Knowledge Services

New Economic Knowledge Services (NEKS), a subsidiary of Promoting Economic Pluralism (PEP), works with groups around the UK to apply new economic thinking to solve real world problems.  We want to demonstrate models that will then be open source so others can learn from them and apply to solve their problems. Meet our expert network.

OUR IMMEDIATE FOCUS

We are currently focussing on working in the Agri-food area as we see potential for significant application of innovative economic thinking and have expertise in that policy area.  We see various pressures creating the potential for system change:

• UK agricultural policy is going through significant change moving from providing subsidies based on land area to providing ‘public funds for public benefits’, mainly environmental benefits.  Developments in the UK could also effectively provide a ‘sandbox’ for experimentation that could influence wider EU policy.
• Globally there is an increasing recognition of the importance of ecosystem services provided by land management and an interest in developing institutions that support their funding.
• Interest is growing in agro-ecology and regenerative agriculture which can only succeed economically with new systems that can deliver the required revenue streams from multiple products and services generated.
• Growing food insecurity, which current inflation can only exascerbate, is driving the search for system change to take over from sticking plasters such as food banks and provide healthy and sustainable food to meet everyone’s needs.