Scottish Alcohol Research Network

Bringing together those with the vision, passion, and commitment to drive forward alcohol research in Scotland.

The Scottish Alcohol Research Network (SARN) is a network of researchers, practitioners, third sector partners, policymakers, and those interested in alcohol research.

The aim of SARN is to promote a strong collaborative research forum for those with an interest in responding to alcohol-related harm in Scotland, enabling us to co-ordinate and foster meaningful collaborations locally, nationally and internationally.

Along with regular network meetings, SARN hosts a number of events throughout the year, including an annual early-career researcher event. In partnership with Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP), who support the network, we co-host an annual four-part ‘Alcohol Occasionals’ online seminar series.

If you have an interest in the field of alcohol-related harm please join us.

View our introductory video

Latest Alcohol Publications

The Causal Effects of Alcohol Minimum Unit Pricing on Drinking Behaviour in the UK

Added in Nov 2025

Ersoy, E., Karimli, J., & Tealdi, C. (2025). The Causal Effects of Alcohol Minimum Unit Pricing on Drinking Behaviour in the UK.

‘It’s a bit of a mess’: the impact of later alcohol trading hours for bars and nightclubs in Scotland according to qualitative interviews with local stakeholders

Added in Nov 2025

Mitchell, G., Maxwell, K. J., O’Donnell, R., Cook, M., Uny, I., Emslie, C., … & Fitzgerald, N. (2025). Its a bit of a mess: the impact of later alcohol trading hours for bars and nightclubs in Scotland according to qualitative interviews with local stakeholders. medRxiv, 2025-10.

Alcohol consumption during pregnancy in Scotland following public health interventions: population-based study

Added in Nov 2025

Kinsella, M., Shaw, M., Kyzayeva, A., Leyland, A., Pell, J. P., Lawlor, D., … & Kearns, R. J. (2025). Alcohol consumption during pregnancy in Scotland following public health interventions: population-based study. BMJ Public Health, 3(2).

Alcohol consumption during pregnancy in Scotland following public health interventions: population-based study

Added in Nov 2025

Kinsella, M., Shaw, M., Kyzayeva, A., Leyland, A., Pell, J. P., Lawlor, D., … & Kearns, R. J. (2025). Alcohol consumption during pregnancy in Scotland following public health interventions: population-based study. BMJ Public Health, 3(2).

“It has some major knock-on effects”: ambulance clinicians’ experiences of attending alcoholrelated call-outs and perceived impact on the Scottish ambulance service (IMPAACT study)

Added in Nov 2025

Isabelle Uny, Jack Gregor Martin, Danielle Mitchell, Allison Ford, Amelie
Begley, Rebecca Howell, David Fitzpatrick, Daniel Mackay, Jim Lewsey & Niamh Fitzgerald (26
Oct 2025): “It has some major knock-on effects”: ambulance clinicians’ experiences of attending
alcohol-related call-outs and perceived impact on the Scottish ambulance service (IMPAAC

Real world implementation of AlcoChange, a smartphone digital therapeutic to improve outcomes from alcohol-related liver disease: protocol for an individually randomised parallel group controlled trial

Added in Nov 2025

Cook A, Bamber J, Chinnery F, Webley F, Dixon E, McDonagh L, Allen R, Boddu R, Gurm H, Saffioti F, Rajoriya N, Sobell L, Sobell M, Stuart B, Kumar R, Sadique Z, Lawrence M, Ewings S, Jalan R, Mehta G. Real world implementation of AlcoChange, a smartphone digital therapeutic to improve outcomes from alcohol-related liver disease: protocol for an individually randomised parallel group controlled trial. Trials. 2025 Oct 31;26(1):456. doi: 10.1186/s13063-025-09005-3. PMID: 41174638; PMCID: PMC12576983.

Up Next

SARN Members’ Meeting

5th March 2026

Upcoming Events

SARN and its partners host a number of conferences and seminars throughout the year, including quarterly Network meetings.

Through these events we aim to co-ordinate and foster meaningful collaborations locally, nationally and internationally.

Latest News

Call for abstracts – SARN Early and Mid-Career Research Event

Posted on 29th Nov 2024

The Scottish Alcohol Research Network (SARN) Early and Mid-Career Alcohol Researcher event is taking place on Tuesday 11th March 2025 at the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh. The event will take place in-person from 10:30-14:30 GMT and will provide PhD students, early career researchers, and mid-career researchers with an opportunity to present their work and discuss future projects, whilst networking with colleagues from...

Call for Abstracts – Alcohol Occasionals 2025

Posted on 29th Nov 2024

Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP) and the Scottish Alcohol Research Network (SARN) invite researchers to submit their research proposals for the 2025 SHAAP/SARN Alcohol Occasionals series. We are interested to hear from researchers from any discipline who wish to share their research relating to alcohol. We welcome presentations from new and early career researchers and/or international researchers. Seminars take...

SARN Blog

Posted on 27th Mar 2024

“You’re not working class anymore” – Following the yellow brick road of first year Beth Meadows, PhD Researcher For many years Dorothy dreamed of somewhere over the rainbow. It was a world she couldn’t relate to from her humble Kansas farm. But, when presented with the opportunity to access this new world in all its mystical glory, there were some...

Alcohol Occasionals 2024

Posted on 1st Feb 2024

SHAAP/SARN Alcohol Occasionals 2024 Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP) and the Scottish Alcohol Research Network (SARN) are pleased to invite you to the 2024 series of the Alcohol Occasionals around the theme: Transforming Scotland’s Relationship with Alcohol. The webinar series will be hosted online using Zoom, and registrants will receive a link to join. Registration will...

Alcohol Occasionals 2024 – Call for research proposals (theme: Transforming Scotland’s Relationship with Alcohol)

Posted on 6th Nov 2023

Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP) and the Scottish Alcohol Research Network (SARN) invite researchers to submit their research proposals for the 2024 SHAAP/SARN Alcohol Occasionals series. Last year’s Alcohol Occasionals series was based on the theme of ‘Alcohol in a changing world’ and attracted 532 registrations across the 4 seminars. On Twitter, our live threads were seen a total...

Alcohol Occasionals 2023: Gendered alcohol brand marketing in a changing world: exploring the targeting and representation of women, & the implications.

Posted on 7th Jul 2023

The event recording from the third Alcohol Occasional of 2023 is now available. This event was held online on Tuesday 20 June. Dr Amanda Atkinson presented findings of a mixed methods ESRC study that explored how women are targeted and represented by alcohol brands, how this has changed over time, and how such marketing is experienced, viewed and interpreted...

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