3CS will be unlike anywhere else in Europe because it connects a world-leading University directly to growers, breeders and other sectors of industry associated with crops
- Leszek Borysiewicz
With the global population estimated to reach nine billion people by 2050, ensuring all people have access to sufficient food is one of this century’s greatest challenges.
The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) has this week announced funding for the creation of a new Cambridge Centre for Crop Science (3CS) in collaboration with the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB). The new centre will provide a major boost to the University’s existing research initiatives around global food security.
With £16.9m from the HEFCE-managed UK Research Partnership Investment Fund as well as some £14.5m from the NIAB Trust, the 3CS will focus on impact: working with industrial partners to translate the University’s strong fundamental plant research into outputs for the farmer, processor and consumer.
“3CS innovations will generate new crops and new ways of growing crops for food, fuels, industrial feedstocks and pharmaceuticals,” said Professor Sir David Baulcombe, head of Cambridge’s Department of Plant Sciences and the project lead for the University.
“We envisage that new 3CS crop technologies will enable higher crop yields and lower environmental impact for crop-based food production – as well as contributing to improved dietary health.”
The project leads say the 3CS will be uniquely well positioned to contribute to growth and innovation due to the partnership at its core: connecting the multidisciplinary research of the University with NIAB’s pipeline to the end-users in farming and food industries.
“The delivery of both public goods and economic growth is an essential agenda for today’s plant scientists, with the need to produce sufficient healthy nutritious food without harming the environment being at the top of the international agenda,” said NIAB’s CEO and Director Dr Tina Barsby.
“Creating the facilities to bring together NIAB and the University in 3CS presents an extraordinary opportunity for impacting this agenda through the development of world-class science and translation.”
The funding from HEFCE will allow the 3CS to be housed in a state-of-the-art research laboratory at NIAB’s Cambridge site, where it will be led by a newly-appointed Professor of Crop Science. The Centre will involve researchers from Plant Sciences and other University departments, NIAB, the Cambridge Sainsbury Laboratory, and other UK and international research institutes.
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Image: Canola crop with wheat crop in background at Wallandbeen, NSW.
Credit: Carl Davies, CSIRO
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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