Members of the Scottish Parliament, their staff, and parliament staff need access to relevant, credible and timely evidence to support good scrutiny and informed debate. Accessing academic evidence and expertise is an important component of this. The Parliament is also committed to increasing the reach, and diversity, of those engaging with it.
The Scottish Parliament is piloting the application of Areas of Research Interest (ARIs) to explore their effectiveness in accessing, and diversifying, academic evidence and expertise available to inform parliamentary scrutiny.
ARIs are lists of issues or questions relating to a policy area. They are a way for an organisation like the Scottish Parliament to express interest in seeing more research evidence in a specific area and/or understanding what research expertise exists that is of relevance to this policy issue.
Scottish Parliament ARIs that are open are listed below. Using the form you can share details of your research or insights on a specific ARI alongside your contact details.
Academics at all career stages and from all research institutions are encouraged to respond.
The Scottish Parliament plans to use the responses received to identify research, expertise and contacts relevant to a particular scrutiny topic in the Parliament. The information could be used to:
Submitting a response does not necessarily mean we will get back in touch with you. However, the response form will ask for your permission for us to do this should we wish to follow up on your research expertise.
ARIs do not replace other mechanisms that the Scottish Parliament uses to engage with the academic community or calls for evidence that a Scottish Parliament committee may issue ahead of an inquiry.
If you have any questions about this process or how your information will be used, please refer to the privacy notice, or contact Dan Barlow, Knowledge Exchange Manager ([email protected]).
Area of Research Interest: Understanding the Impact of Data Centres in Scotland
The Scottish Parliament’s Climate Action Committee have agreed to undertake an inquiry on the environmental impact of AI data centres and the Economy, Tourism and Energy Committee recently held an evidence session on the energy use of data centres in Scotland. Members of the Social Justice, Housing and Local Government Committee also pursued questions on data centres in a recent meeting with the Minister for Public Finance. The Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) anticipate that data centres are likely to be the subject of considerable parliamentary scrutiny in this parliamentary session. This ARI aims to support SPICe to identify expertise to inform scrutiny that relates to the environmental, economic and social impacts of data centres in Scotland. Specifically we are interested in:
The information could be used to:
Academics at all career stages and from all research institutions are encouraged to respond to highlight their relevant expertise and links to relevant research.
Area of Research Interest: Understanding the Impact of Data Centres in Scotland
We plan to close this ARI on Friday 23rd October 2026.
Area of Research Interest: Public Administration
This ARI closed on 13 March 2026
Area of Research Interest: Industrial Decarbonisation
This ARI closed on 14 November 2025.
Area of Research Interest: Climate Emissions from Waste Management and Resource Use
Area of Research Interest: Understanding the Regional and Sectoral Employment Implications of a Just Transition
These ARIs closed on 6th June 2025.