A new strategy, UK plant science research strategy: a green roadmap for the next 10 years, sets out clear goals for research and innovation involving plants.
According to UK Research ad Innovation (UKRI), the strategy is crucial to address a range of global challenges, such as: reaching net zero to mitigate the effects of climate change; ensuring a sustainable and secure agri-food supply; protecting biodiversity and enhancing our environment; and addressing health and wellbeing issues within our populations.
The strategy was led and authored by Professor Jane Langdale CBE FRS, University of Oxford, and involved extensive consultation with members of the research and innovation community.
It says: ‘This increased societal awareness now needs to be harnessed to ensure that current and future generations understand, value and support a strategy that firmly embeds plant science research and development into the broader UK science and innovation landscape.’
It adds: ‘Recent technological advances in genome editing, advanced imaging, synthetic and structural biology, remote sensing, artificial intelligence and machine learning, provide an unprecedented opportunity to apply a systems approach to understand how plants function and interact with other organisms.’
UKRI plans to bring together interested stakeholders to socialise the review findings more widely in the spring. The full strategy is available here.