Broadbalk (1843)Evaluate combinations of Nitrogen,
Phosphorus, Potassium, Sodium, Magnesium and farmyard manure on
winter wheat
Park Grass (1856)Evaluate combinations of Phosphorus,
Potassium, Sodium, Magnesium, nitrate-N, ammonium-N, Si and farmyard manure on
meadow biodiversity
Rothamsted Research-Innovation History
Our History
Sir Henry Gilbert
1817-1901
Sir John Bennet Lawes
1814-1900
Developed a fundamental understanding of plant
nutrition and produced the world’s first commercial
chemical fertilisers
Rothamsted Experimental Station (now known as Rothamsted Research) was established in in 1843 by:
Our Achievements
Invented inorganic fertilisers
Created pyrethroid insecticides
Developed modern statistics
Created phenoxy acid
herbicides (under conditions of
wartime secrecy!)
Broom’s Barn (1987)
North Wyke (2009)
Harpenden (1843)
Rothamsted Research today
450researchers
Rothamsted today
£37Mturnover
agricultural systems3
research
sites3
Rothamsted Research North Wyke
• Sustainable livestock prod.• Health & welfare• Managing livestock manures• Reducing impact on environment;
C, N and P cycling• Minimising GHG emissions• Improving nutrition • Reducing cost of production
GreenFeed
Soil Atmosphere Farm Management
% Moisture Rainfall Field inputs/outputs
Temperature CO2 and N2O Liveweight gain
pH Farm activities
Bulk density Labour hours
N, P & C status Machine hours
Total-POrtho-P
Sequential/composite sampler
Water
Temperature
Conductivity
Turbidity
pH
Dissolved O2
Ammonium
Nitrate
Dissolved
organic C
15 flume laboratories
Flow cell & sensors
NorthWyke Farm Platform-Highly Instrument Farm
Agri-tech Showcase at North Wyke 8th December [email protected]
20:20 Wheat
DeliveringSustainable
Systems
CroppingCarbon
Designing Seeds
Current Research Strategy (2012-17)
Research Strategy (2017-22)
ISPG 1
Designing future wheat
ISPG 2
Soil to nutrition
ISPG 3
Sustainable systems
ISPG 4
Smart crop protection
ISPG 5Tailoring plant metabolism
Institute Strategic Programme Grants (BBSRC-ISPG)
Theme 1: Crop
Performance
Theme 2: Future Agri-Food Systems
Theme 3: Plant & Animal Health
Theme 4: Novel products
National Capabilities (NWFP, LTE, RIS)
Designing Future Wheat (DFW)
Tailoring Plant Metabolism (TPM)
Achieving Sustainable Systems (ASSIST)
Soil to Nutrition (S2N)
Smart Crop Protection (SCP)
Institute Strategic Programme Grants 2017-2022 (proposed)
Designing Future Wheat ISPG (DFW)
Overall PI: Graham Moore (JIC)Rothamsted PI: Malcolm Hawkesford
• To develop novel germplasm
• To increase efficiency and sustainability by optimisation of ideotypes and resource use efficiency
• To add value and resilience by production of safe, reliable grain with durable resistance to pathogens and pests
• To generate, annotate, integrate and disseminate large scale genomic, phenotypic and regulatory datasets
Designing Future Wheat: strategic goals
Topic 1.1
Optimizing
ideotypes
Topic 2.2
Durable
resistance to
pathogens
and pests
Topic 1.2
Enhancing
resource
use
WP1: Increased efficiency and
sustainability WP2: Added value and resilience
WP leader: Malcolm Hawkesford (RRes) WP leader: Cristobal Uauy (JIC)
Topic 2.1
Enhanced
health
benefits
WP3: GermplasmWP leader: Simon Griffiths (JIC)
WP4: Improved data
access and analysisWP lead: Robert Davey (EI)
Topic 4.1
Genomic
resources
Topic 4.2
Open data
framework
Topic 3.1
Germplasm
base
Topic 3.2
Deployment
Designing Future Wheat Structure
Tailoring Plant Metabolism ISPG (TPM)
PI: Frederica Theodoulou
Tailoring Plant Metabolism: strategic goals
• To advance and exploit fundamental understanding of plant metabolism
• …to expand the value chains of existing (industrial) crops
• …by delivering a portfolio of high value lipids, phenolic glycosides and plant germplasm
• “From metabolite to gene to field”
Tailoring Plant Metabolism - our pipelines
Chassis improvement
Gen
etic
imp
rove
men
tM
eta
bo
lic e
ng
inee
rin
g
Germplasm GeneticsCandidate
genesValidation DeliveryPhenotyping
AnalysisScale-up;
fieldCandidate
genesValidation/
Transformation
Highlight: Camelina metabolic engineering
MarketBlue skies Strategic P/o concept Demo MarketBlue skies Strategic P/o concept Demo
• Success story: “Fish oil” produced in plants- from gene to field.
• Impacts: academic, commercial, public engagement, policy
• Current challenge: predictive metabolic engineering
• New targets for the pipeline: wax esters, structured triacylglycerols, novel fatty acids…
Highlight: Elucidating phenolic glycoside biosynthesis
• Untapped, heritable, chemical diversity in willow derived from phenolic glycoside pathway
MarketBlue skies Strategic P/o concept Demo MarketBlue skies Strategic P/o concept Demo
• mQTL and combined ‘omics have enabled:- Discovery of new reaction mechanisms & bioactive products- First salicinoid biosynthetic genes identified & validated
• Current challenges: Elucidation of full pathway and regulators
ASSIST – joint ISPG with Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH); >50% funding from NERC
Rothamsted PI: Jonathan StorkeyCEH PI: Richard Pywell
Achieving Sustainable Agricultural Systems
ASSIST – Aims and key outcomes
Aim: to develop and test innovative farming systems that increase food
production & resilience to future perturbations, while reducing the
environmental footprint of agriculture
o 5+ year £11M programme; unites expertise from NERC and BBSRC
institutes with integral support from the farming industry
o Develop a large-scale network of study farms &
new sensor networks to undertake hypothesis-
driven experimentation
o Provide data, models, web portal, infrastructure
& opportunities to support complementary
research programmes & horizon topics
Soil to Nutrition ISPG (S2N)
• What are mechanism-basedtargets underlying sustainable agricultural systems and critical scales for intervention?
• Links with ASSIST to identify optimal combinations of policy and management interventions
• Uses nutritional stocks and flows as common currency
S2N Multidisciplinary and multi-scale approach
Advising policy/industry for
improved ENU
Soil processes governing N uptake
Farm interventions for N ENU
Optimising landscape productivity,
reducing N losses and building
resilience
Cycle of mechanistic understanding and application e.g. N ENU
Soil-plant-biota mechanistic
understanding
New generation mechanistic soil
models
Novel indicators
Fit-for-purpose sustainability
metrics
Adaptive systems
SI ‘hub’
SOIL-PLANT MECHANISMS
LANDSCAPE MECHANISMS
Delivering Soil to Nutrition
Farm Networks
SARIC
GCRFSARISA
GFSSIRN& SSP
DEFRASIP & DTC
ASSIST& Networks
DFWSCP
TPM
LTENWFP
IBERS Roslin
S2N
Animal Nutrition
Industry and Stakeholders Partnerships
Smart Crop Protection ISPG (SCP)
PI: Paul Neve
Smart Crop Protection: Strategic relevance
Maintaining and enhancing crop protection is a critical facet of Sustainable Intensification.
“The UK needs to develop a more
integrated, whole-system approach to
animal and plant health science”
• Monitoring and surveillance
• Novel targets / new interventions
• Reduce pest adaptation
• Integration of control methods
• Evidence-based crop protection
• Minimise trade-offs
An integrated approach to crop protection
Innovative, systems-based and evolution-smart approaches to crop protection to deliver sustainable crop production whilst minimising environmental impacts.
• Physiology• Molecular genetics• Biological Chemistry
• Ecology• Evolution• Population dynamics
• Modelling• Agronomy• Agroecology
Multi-scale monitoring
and intervention
Eco-evolutionary
drivers
Pest-plant-pesticide
interactions
A gene to landscape approach
Experiments Models
Smart surveillance of insects, pathogens & weeds
Genomic surveillance
for rapid detection of
emerging threats
Genotypic and
phenotypic studies of
insect migration
Next generation
Vertical Looking Radar
Predictive models for
pest invasion and
dispersal
Integrated studies of pesticide resistance evolution and management
Resistance mechanisms,
pesticide mode of
action and diagnostics
CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing for genotype / phenotype
studies
Fitness landscapes
and experimental
evolution
Integrative models for resistance
management
Proximatecauses
Ultimatecauses
Disruptivemanagement
Delivering Smart Crop Protection
CHAP
BBSRC
ASSIST
SCP ISPG
DFWJIC Plant Health
AgRIA
TPM S2N
GCRFGFS
NERCNewton
EU DEFRA
AGRIMETRICS INNOVATE UK
AGCHEM AGRI-TECHAHDB An integrated research
programme to deliver novel crop protection from
gene to field, faster.
Unique National Capabilities
Science - Knowledge exchange - Capacity building
UK Agri. Tech. Strategy-£90m
Centre for Agricultural Informatics and Metrics of Sustainability
+ nearly 200 business partners
International collaboration priorities
Previous organic approach lead to collaborations in 58 countries in the recent years.
International strategy now focuses on consolidating partnerships and developing new joint programmes based on:
• Aligned excellent science
• Potential for impact
• Strong partners
• Opportunities for funding
• Attractiveness for bi-directional exchange
Recent activities: CGIAR, China, Brazil, East Africa, India, few other countries (e.g. Uruguay), Global Farm Platform network
Recent opportunities:
- Newton Fund
- Grand Challenges Research Fund
Attract naturalenemies
Moths are pushed away
Attract moths
Trap Crop
Main Crop
Climate smart push-pull: smart maize, drought-tolerant companion crops
Brachiaria spp.Maize OPVs
Desmodium spp.
CSIA China-UK Centre for Sustainable Intensification of
Agriculture
1. Crop efficiency and value: accelerating the
development of novels traits for crop improvement and
improving crop management
2. Future systems resource management: soil quality,
nutrient and water use efficiency in intensive agriculture
3. Smart crop protection: real-time management of crop
diseases, insects and weeds in intensive systems
4. Agricultural informatics: big data & tools for the whole
food chain, metrics of sustainability, modelling
Increase
impactfrom research …
…with industry,
…with end-users,
…for societal
benefit.
Knowledge Exchange and Commercialisation
Of all sizes and across the whole supply chain...
• Trait discovery companies
• Seed businesses
• Crop protection
manufacturers
• Crop nutrition companies
• Developers of biostimulants
• Agronomy groups
• Food manufacturers
• Food retailers
• ICT companies
• Sensor manufacturers
• Remote sensing
companies
• Energy companies
We work with companies
• Collaborative R&D
• Contract research
• Consultancy
• IP licensing
• Strategic alliances
• Staff exchanges
• Training
• Events
In many different ways..
RRes is partner in 3 AgriTech Centres
RoCRE Offers opportunities for collaboration and co-location
AgRIA
Ideas Lab
Rothamsted Open
Innovation Forum
Agile Lab &
Office Space
International Conference & Exhibition Space
Seminar and Meeting Suites
Ideas generation
Ideas capture
Ideas sieving
Action
Innovation
Com
merc
ialis
ation
Researc
h
LicensingPre
Incubation
Projects
Spin
OutJoint
Venture
Success Criteria:
• How many positive changes are pushed out
• Speed through the cycle
• We want to capture innovations earlier
• We want to engage earlier
• We want innovation to be more integral
• We need a dynamic innovation model
Currently a linear model
Integrated ResearchProgrammes
RRes InnPod
Enterprise training
Envisioning innovations early
Project calls
Invest
Research
Innovate
IMPACT
Invest
Research
Innovate
IMPACT
Partners
SMEs
Large Businesses
VCs
Universities
AgRIAAgricultural Research & Innovation Accelerator
Accelerating Science & Innovation at Rothamsted Research
Seed funders
Farmers
Outline bid for ERDF funding with University of
Hertfordshire, Cranfield University and Green Triangle
AgRIA - Collaborating to accelerate Agri-Food Innovation
Opening up Innovation in Agritech
Aim - accelerate collaboration in the development of game-changing innovations required to address global food security challenges
Up to 300 delegates from crop protection, plant breeding, seeds, traits, crop nutrition, animal breeding, feed & health, agronomy, primary production, food manufacture & retailing
Set out AgriFood
Challenges
Define Open Innovation
Refine and Prioritise
Collaborative Workshops
18th – 20th January 2017
• Bioimaging• Bioinformatics• Statistics Modelling• Integrative Systems Lab• Genomics (incl. next generation sequencing)• Migration Technologies Unit• Engineering and Electronics Unit• Analytical chemistry• Metabolomics• Lipidomics• Semiochemistry• Soil microbiology
• Containment Labs• Insect Rooms• Gene modification
RRes sciencecore capabilities
• GlassHouses• Controlled Environment• Field Phenotyping• GM site• Radar• Farms
Lawes Open Inn. HubFlexible sharing spaceResearch Accelerator
Conferencing Facilities
Daniel HallIncubator facilities
RRes core capabilities:
shared with innovation
partners
RoCRE: shared with
Innovation partners
RRes general
research labs:
• Insect Traps & Survey• Long Term Experiments• National Willow Collection
Building a science and innovation hub in
Harpenden based on our core capabilities
RRes sciencelaboratories
Thank You