BBSRC Institute Strategic Programmes (John Innes Centre): NISD Partner Grant

The John Innes Centre (JIC) is one of a cluster of outstanding research institutes located on the Norwich Research Park (NRP), which also includes the Norwich Institute for Sustainable Development (NISD), an institute specialising in integrating research in the natural and social sciences. Working with NISD enables JIC to enhance its global and social perspective, facilitating engagement with world-leading research in social sciences, nutritional science, environmental science and climate research. By working collaboratively, JIC's critical mass as a plant and microbial research institute is complemented with the breadth of expertise found within a university environment at the University of East Anglia and across the NRP and maximise impacts both in the UK and around the world, including the Global South.

Aims for the JIC NISD Partnership:
We have identified three key aims for this partnership grant that span JIC's four Institute Strategic Programmes, Advancing Plant Health, Building Robustness in Crops, Delivering Sustainable Wheat and Harnessing Biosynthesis for Sustainable Food and Health.

These are to:
1. Use insights from social and environmental sciences to inform crop improvement for climate resilience and sustainability.
2. Utilise crop genome editing for human health and environmental benefits, navigating technical, policy and acceptability challenges.
3. Diversify protein sources, using expertise on shifting consumer behaviour as well as opportunities and challenges to food system transformation.

This project represents the Norwich Institute for Sustainable Development (NISD) contribution to the delivery of the following Institute Strategic Programme Grants: Advancing Plant Health (APH - BB/X010996/1), Building Robustness in Crops (BRiC - BB/X01102X/1), Delivering Sustainable Wheat (DSW - BB/X011003/1) and Harnessing Biosynthesis for Sustainable Food and Health (HBio - BB/X01097X/1).

This grant will fund activities at NISD to support JIC's Institute Strategic Programmes in delivering research to meet future needs in both the UK and the wider world. The following cross-ISP activities have been identified:

Policy Horizon Scanning. Addressing the challenges facing crop management and development requires us to anticipate future legislative change. As specialists in policy development, NISD will explore likely policy changes that may influence JIC research and facilitate early and effective communication with policy researchers and policymakers.

Strategic Discussion. We will undertake biannual discussions across research disciplines relevant to food systems on the future directions of our science. The aim of these discussions is to brief NISD on research developments and gain input from NISD horizon scanning activities allowing us to anticipate changes in policy, consumer behaviour and the natural environment and deliver solutions and strategies to potential future challenges. This will help to inform the future direction of our research priorities.

Focused workshops will be facilitated by NISD to explore and develop synergies across the NRP and scope potential projects. These will be aligned to funding calls, so the detailed framing and precise timing are yet to be determined.