Growing Health - bio-inspired solutions for healthier agroecosystems: Understanding biointeractions

Lead Research Organisation: Rothamsted Research
Department Name: UNLISTED

Abstract

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

Technical Summary

WP1 builds on RRes’ research and bespoke experimental platforms to increase our functional understanding of organismal biology above- and below-ground. WP1 focuses on key genome-sequenced target pests and beneficials of UK agricultural importance. The overall aim is to harness intra- and inter-kingdom biointeractions to improve wider agroecosystem health within a range of cropping systems (Sub-WP1.1) and during cropping transitions (Sub-WP1.2). Outcomes & Impact: WP1 will inform novel sustainable bioprotection strategies (with Sub-WP2.1) and provide data for multi-scale models to inform decision making (with Sub-WP3.1).

Planned Impact

unavailable

Publications

10 25 50

 
Description Began three-year term on Science Advisory Board of RESAS (Rural & Environmental Science and Analytical Services), for the Scottish Government
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
Impact Beginning of the 3 year term.
 
Description ARABLE: Field evaluation of synthetic blends of semiochemicals for monitoring and control of wireworms
Amount £44,975 (GBP)
Funding ID BB/X011909/1 
Organisation Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 04/2023 
End 11/2023
 
Description ARABLE: Monitoring for emerging threats to UK OSR crops posed by novel variants and fungicide resistant strains of fungal pathogens
Amount £49,400 (GBP)
Funding ID BB/X011917/1 
Organisation Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 01/2023 
End 06/2023
 
Description Bactobio - High-throughput discovery of natural product fungicides targeting Phytophthora infestans
Amount £20,123 (GBP)
Organisation Crop Health and Protection 
Sector Private
Country United Kingdom
Start 08/2023 
End 12/2023
 
Description Future Agri-Food Systems: One crop health for next generation crop protection
Amount 60,000,000 kr. (DKK)
Organisation Novo Nordisk Foundation 
Sector Charity/Non Profit
Country Denmark
Start 01/2024 
End 12/2029
 
Description Guidance on measuring soil organic carbon to the implementation partners running Unilever's regenerative agriculture projects
Amount £45,000 (GBP)
Funding ID N/A 
Organisation Unilever 
Sector Private
Country United Kingdom
Start 12/2023 
End 03/2024
 
Description Investigating fungal spore dispersal in UK arable crop systems under current and future environmental conditions
Amount £61,760 (GBP)
Organisation Perry Foundation 
Sector Charity/Non Profit
Country United Kingdom
Start 09/2023 
End 10/2027
 
Description RRes-Brazil partnership for protecting crops against bacterial / viral plant diseases and associated vectors
Amount £10,914 (GBP)
Organisation Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2024 
End 05/2024
 
Description Sclerotinia spore monitoring 2024
Amount £14,240 (GBP)
Organisation Agricultural and Horticulture Development Board 
Sector Charity/Non Profit
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2024 
End 05/2024
 
Title PHI-Canto: Annotating a gene-for-gene interaction 
Description PHI-Canto: Annotating a gene-for-gene interaction. This is a specific type of host-pathogen interaction that determines the overall outcome of the interaction namely the resistance or susceptibility of the host and the ability of the pathogen to cause disease or not. 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2023 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact The authors of a relevant peer reviewed publication can curate their complicated data sets directly into the PHI-base database using the PHI-Canto tool. 
URL https://youtu.be/_og3umfy4WU
 
Title PHI-Canto: Annotating an inverse gene-for-gene interaction 
Description PHI-Canto: Annotating an inverse gene-for-gene interaction into the PHI-base database. https://youtu.be/KKhomX11TMs 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2023 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact The authors of a relevant peer reviewed publication can curate their complicated data sets directly into the PHI-base database using the PHI-Canto tool. The are genetically the rarer interaction types compared to gene-for-gene interaction types. 
URL https://youtu.be/KKhomX11TMs
 
Title PHI-Canto: Why should I contribute? 
Description PHI-Canto: the personal and professional benefits to authors of contributing a peer reviewed article using this community curation tool https://youtu.be/QQGZBnUYZcA 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2023 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact Soon after publication, more authors will spend the time curating their research articles via PHI-Canto into the PHI-base database 
URL https://youtu.be/QQGZBnUYZcA
 
Title Protocol to replicate waterlogging in greenhouse 
Description Optimised a protocol to impose waterlogging stress early in development for wheat cultivars and weed biotypes 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2024 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact Waterlogging stress is difficult to impose and difficult to control in the field, so having a glasshouse based method allows for additional replicability and reproducibility. 
 
Title The Pathogen-Host Interactions Database (PHI-base) 
Description This is described in the Wikipedia entry - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHI-base 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact PHI-base makes two data releases per annum in May and November. In the reporting period the following has occurred The latest release of PHI-base, version 4.15, was on 2 May 2023 (http://www.phi-base.org/releaseNote.htm). Compared to version 4.14, released on 1 November 2022, the increase in data is: 384 genes, 1,069 interactions, 237 publications, 2 new pathogens, and 2 new hosts. The number of diseases was reduced by one, due to data cleaning efforts removing redundant and incorrect disease names. We continue to freely share phenotyping data with Ensembl ( since 2011), FungiDB (since 2019) and UniProtKB (since 2020). UK and international resource usage trends: PHI-base > 25,800 and > 1007 full database downloads, > 6,000 unique users and > 400 registered API users. Total users > 119,700 during the reporting period April 2023-March 2024. 
URL http://www.phi-base.org/
 
Title Video - PHI-Canto: Choosing a suitable publication 
Description PHI-Canto: Choosing a suitable publication https://youtu.be/J6z4MlU8Bkc 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2023 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact How to select an in scope publication for author curation using the community curation tool - PHI-Canto 
URL https://youtu.be/J6z4MlU8Bkc
 
Title Video - PHI-Canto: Introduction to PHI-base 
Description https://youtu.be/5GlKRM9qshk 
Type Of Material Improvements to research infrastructure 
Year Produced 2023 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact Improved understanding of what PHI-base is about for first time users of the database 
URL https://youtu.be/5GlKRM9qshk
 
Title Alopecurus myosuroides Genome sequencing and assembly 
Description The authors presented a high-quality reference genome of blackgrass. They analyzed genome structure and function to infer genomic features that may predispose blackgrass to the rapid evolution of weediness. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2024 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact Alopecurus myosuroides (blackgrass) is a widespread and impactful weed affecting agriculture in Europe. Through the blackgrass genome has been possible to reveal patterns of non-parallel avolution of polygenic herbicide resistance [10.1111/nph.18655]. This genome dataset has an Accession PRJNA889547 
URL https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bioproject/?term=PRJNA889547
 
Title Aphid endosymbiont genomic datasets 
Description Genome sequencing results of aphid endosymbionts 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2023 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact Aphid endosymbiont population dynamics 
 
Title Comparative transcriptomic analyses of black grass (Alopecurus myosuroides) and bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) response to waterlogging 
Description Transcriptome sequence reads deposited at National Centre for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) as BioProject PRJNA1009248 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2024 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Better understanding of "The mechanisms behind the contrasting responses to waterlogging in black-grass (Alopecurus myosuroides) and wheat (Triticum aestivum)" - recently accepted for publication by Functional Plant Biology: Corresponding Author: Dana McGregor 
 
Description Apoplastic proteomics and activity testing 
Organisation National Institute of Agronomy and Botany (NIAB)
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Generating apoplastic fluids from infected wheat plants
Collaborator Contribution Enzyme activity testing and effector protein inhibitor modelling
Impact PhD student poster
Start Year 2023
 
Description Apoplastic proteomics and activity testing 
Organisation University of Oxford
Department Oxford Hub
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Generating apoplastic fluids from infected wheat plants
Collaborator Contribution Enzyme activity testing and effector protein inhibitor modelling
Impact PhD student poster
Start Year 2023
 
Description PhD studentship: Investigating fungal spore production in UK arable crop systems under current and future environmental conditions 
Organisation University of Hertfordshire
Department School of Life and Medical Sciences
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution This is a PhD studentship supervised by Rothamsted Research and the University of Hertfordshire. It is funded jointly the Perry Foundation and the Morley Agricultural Foundation.
Collaborator Contribution PhD supervision provided by supervisors (aerobiology, spore trapping, epidemiology, metabarcoding etc.)
Impact PhD studentship ongoing
Start Year 2023
 
Description SWBiO collaboration on fungal cell walls 
Organisation University of Exeter
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Building from joint BBSRC PhD project we are assembling new data towards joint funding application.
Collaborator Contribution Building from joint BBSRC PhD project we are assembling new data towards joint funding application.
Impact A PhD thesis and two published papers
Start Year 2018
 
Description WGIN 4 (defra) Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus variant monitoring in oat crop (Lawrence Bramham) 
Organisation Rothamsted Research
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution WP1 - Crop Transition experiment. In the establishment year both trial sites were drilled to winter oats. Both sites subsequently developed BYDV symptoms due to natural infections. One of the aims of the GH CT experiment is to explore the unintentional agricultural risks associated with growing oat crops in an arable rotation within the main wheat growing region in the UK.
Collaborator Contribution These two GH CT trial sites were used extensively for virus sampling and sequencing to identify the BYDV variants present and to determine whether other cereal virus species were present in the oat crop.
Impact The collaborator Lawrence Bramham (WGIN 4) has already reported his 2023 BYDV stain variant findings to the AgIndustry at a AICC meeting in Birmingham in Jan 2024.
Start Year 2023
 
Description WP1 Crop Transitions Experiment - Surveying the worm populations using new methodologies 
Organisation University of Warwick
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The designing of the GH Crop Transitions large plot experiments with six different UK crop rotation in two locations on the Rothamsted experimental farm. Free access to the University of Warwick worm team and soil acoustic team every month to permit worm sampling from each of the 42 plots and soil acoustic recordings. The collect worms are also take away for species identification and further acoustic analyses.
Collaborator Contribution Monthly quantitative worm sampling throughout the year for each plot Monthly acoustic recordings of soil to detect worm movement and the movement of other invertebrates Worm species identification Acoustic recordings for each species
Impact Journalist Phoebe Weston and photographer from the Guardian Newspaper visited Rothamsted and the GH Trial to discuss with PIs Jackie Stroud rom The University of Warwick, Carlos Abrahams from Baker Consultants and the Rothamsted PI Kim Hammond-Kosack who devised the GH Crop Transitions Experiment the worm acoustic project. The outcome will be a either a paper or online article on entitled ' Listening to the Soil' and the GH Crop Transitions Experiment which will be published in April 2024.
Start Year 2023
 
Description Zymoseptoria genome re-annotation 
Organisation French National Institute of Agricultural Research
Country France 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution We provided a reference genome re-annotation to intercompare with others
Collaborator Contribution They intercompared numerous gene set predictions
Impact Community manuscript under review and a public data release
Start Year 2022
 
Description "10 minute presentation at the Royal Society of Biology Plant Health Summer Conference 2023 " 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact 10 minute presentation to update the Royal Society of Biology members on the research which had been undertaken as part of the Plant Health Undergraduate Studentship which we were awarded in 2022.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description "ACS Fall Meeting: Harnessing Chemical Ecology to achieve Food Security " 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact "Lisa Humbert presented her PhD studies at ACS Fall Meeting: Harnessing Chemical Ecology to achieve Food Security
"
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description "ACS Fall Meeting: Harnessing Chemical Ecology to achieve Food Security " 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Gave an oral presentation at this symposium, as well as co-organised the symposium, and chaired the session(s).
Follow on from the meeting led to organising a special issue in Pest Management Science.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/pb-assets/assets/page/journal/15264998/Special%20Issue%20Call%20for%...
 
Description "Invited seminar, Entomological Society of Ireland (online) " 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation on BAC-STOP/Growing Health related work on Acute Oak Decline (title: using the odour of bacteria to tackle acute oak decline).
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description "Invited visit and seminar at Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Chemical Ecology group " 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact I gave a seminar to Professor Peter Witzgalls research group in SLU, Alnarp, who are interested in microbial chemical ecology/chemical ecology in relation to forest pests. This included a tour of the labs and meeting other researchers within the institute. As a result, I have made connections, and am in touch with these researchers, with potential plans for future activities.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description "Online presentation to 22 schools about trees: 'Protecting trees from pests and disease' " 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Approached by a STEM worker to give an online presentation to schools (years 5 and 6) across the east of England, around the topic of trees. Total number of attendees: 1548
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description "Presentation at NEW-IPM ONE HEALTH conference, SWANSEA UNIVERSITY, 5-7 September 2023 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact "Presentation at the NEW-IPM ONE HEALTH conference, SWANSEA UNIVERSITY, 5-7 September 2023
https://www.swansea.ac.uk/bioscience/research-and-impact/natural-products-biohub-project/naturalproductsbiohub-project-news-and-events/new-ipm-2023---one-health/
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.swansea.ac.uk/bioscience/research-and-impact/natural-products-biohub-project/naturalprod...
 
Description "Presented a 15 minute presentation as part of the Plant health day webinar, organised by Rothamsted Research " 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Invitation from Georgia Mitrousia to present our research on acute oak decline at a plant health webinar, as part of international plant health day
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description "UKRI panel membership: UKRI-NERC Equitable nature-based climate resilience in Sub-Saharan Africa (Sept.-Nov. 2023) " 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Supporters
Results and Impact "Grant panel activities, reviewing/ranking proposals"
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description 4th Plant Microbiome Symposium 2023 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation at 4th Plant Microbiome Symposium 2023
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description 70th Plant Protection Days of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presented talk on the impact of gut endosymbiont-emitted volatiles on Anastrepha fraterculus chemical ecology.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description ABC Radio (Australia) South Australia Country Hour interview on 22 Nov 2023 - (Ist 11.20 minutes out of 55 minute show). 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact ABC Radio (Australia) South Australia Country Hour interview on 22 Nov 2023 -https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/sa-country-hour/sa-country-hour/103116490 (Ist 11.20 minutes out of 55 minute show).
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/sa-country-hour/sa-country-hour/103116490
 
Description AI in Chemistry Conference Organiser (Treasurer) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Help to organiser an annual conference held. I am the treasurer
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Article in Farmers weekly, "Research targets pheromones to control key arable pests", 17/10/2023 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Article in Farmers weekly, "Research targets pheromones to control key arable pests", 17/10/2023
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Article written for Country File Magazine 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Angela Karp was approached by Daniel Graham for an article on blackgrass for the BBC Countryfile Magazine - James Clark composed the article after a discussion and I and David Comont edited it before it went to the magazine editors.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://www.countryfile.com/environment/blackgrass-problems-solutions
 
Description Attended SCI Agriscience committee meeting- ongoing 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact SCI Agriscience committee meeting.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description BCPC Diseases Review, 17 Oct 2023 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Co-organised the BCPC Diseases conference, held at the NIAB Park Farm site, 17 Oct 2023
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.bcpc.org/events/bcpc-diseases-review-2023
 
Description BES Task and Finish group - International equity in ecological research plan development for BES 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Personal invitation to meetings with senior personnel of the BES discussing pathways to make science and ecological research more equitable across the world starting with the BES and its publishing journals
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description BPD programme meeting 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Bacterial Plant Diseases programme meeting
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://padlet.com/sarahmclusky/bpd-projects-meeting-4-6-march-2024-jm47l2i6sun6iu1f
 
Description BSPP-AAB Plant Pathology 2023 conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Keynote invited presentation and session chair at BSPP-AAB Plant Pathology 2023 conference, Edgbaston, Birmingham, 6th - 8th September 2023
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.bspp.org.uk/conferences/plant-pathology-2023/
 
Description Biology in Action - British Science Week 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact As part of the Biology in Action day during British Science Week March 2023, this presetnation was one of five interactive and engaging sessions delivered by renowned scientists and communicators aimed at inspiring and motivating A-level, IB, BTEC and GCSE students. This talk focused on Plants, which live in constant change and are ceaselessly challenged. Responding correctly to their surroundings helps them to survive and produce equally skilled seeds. We'll explore how they accomplish these feats and why plants deserve the title of "Nature's Super Survivors".
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://educationinaction.org.uk/study-day/biology-in-action-14-03-2023/
 
Description Cereals 2023 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Attendee at Cereals 2023
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.farmersguide.co.uk/cereals-2023/
 
Description Cereals 2023 Exhibit 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Exhibited project developments regarding methods to monitor airborne crop pathogens as part of Integrated Pest Management, to farmers, extension workers, Ag-chem industry and students over two days (13-14 June 2023).
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Conference presentation 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Gave a invited presentation to the British Society of Plant Pathology in Autumn 2023 - around 150 delegates (national/international). Following the talk, new discussions were had and collaborations formed, some of which will strengthen work undertaken as part of this RRes ISP
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Defra Visit: Prof Nicola Spence 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Acute Oak Decline, Emerald Ash Borer, Insect surveys and fungal spore monitoring, Sampling strategies for plant, wood, food imports- Potential development of volatiles, spore traps, air DNA sampling strategies.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Discussion with Joseph Onyeka Director of Research at National Root Crops Research Institute, Nigeria 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Visit of Joseph Onyeka, (Director of Research - External Funded Project Office at National Root Crops Research Institute, Nigeria) . We discussed plans of collaboration with Dr Julian Smith and other interested parties.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Discussion with NatureMetrics 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Met with representatives of NatureMetrics: Tom Ludwig (Sector Head Regenerative and Sustainable Agriculture), Andrew Briscoe (Head of Science), Tiffany Jedrecka (R&D Lead) to discuss eDNA applications and scope for R&D collaborations/grants.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description EWRS and IWGC Sponsored Weed Genomics Workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact The EWRS Working groups "Education & Training", "Weed Management in Mediterranean Cropping Systems" and "Herbicide Resistance" are organizing a 4-day in-depth training course on weed genomics in February/March 2023. The course will be supported by the International Weed Genomics Consortium (IWGC). The course is aimed at students, Ph.D. candidates and postdocs actively involved in research on weed genomics, weeds resistant to herbicides and weed stress. In this course, we will provide an overview of concepts and tools that can be used to access and analyze the genome of weed species and populations genetics. More specifically, the focus of the course will be on: 1. Introduction to genomic, IWGC, and herbicide resistance 2. Introduction to the IWGC database - Weedpedia 3. Genome sequence generation, analyses and specific questions 4. Transcriptome analyses, pitfalls and additional information 5. Other genomic technologies (e.g. QTL analyses, etc.) 6. Practical work exploring non-target site resistance and /or other weed traits Aside from deepening your scientific knowledge, this course also offers an excellent opportunity to broaden your network and to interact with established scientists. Additionally, students can be awarded 2 ECTS-credit points from Ondokuz Mayis University (Turkey) when successfully participating in the course. Lecturers Roland Beffa (Senior Scientist Consultant, Germany) Eric Patterson (Michigan State University, US) Dana MacGregor (Rothamsted Research, UK) Maor Matzrafi (Agricultural Research Organization - Volcani Institute, Israel)
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.ewrs.org/en/info/Events/EWRS-and-IWGC-Training-course-ldquo-Weed-genomicsrdquo
 
Description Engagement with FC stakeholders about surveillance for EAB 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Had a meeting and provided information and a slide deck on surveillance for the Emerald Ash Borer to Katie Parker from the Forestry Commission. Katie is the Plant Health Forestry team's Contracts and Surveys Manager. She plan England's surveys for GB Priority and Quarantine Pests. FC with locations for EAB surveillance
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Engagement with ash tree researchers and stakeholders at FC and ObservaTree 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Engagement with ash tree researchers and stakeholders at FR and ObservaTree to discuss future collaboration and use of the SMARTIES models as well as new emerging research from ObservaTree and FR
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Ento `23 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Royal Entomological Society Annual Meeting: Ento `23, Exeter, UK poster (Semiochemical-based alternative concepts for the management of wireworms)
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.royensoc.co.uk/event/ento23-speakers-chairs/
 
Description Fungal meeting talk 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact British Mycological Society Annual Scientific Meeting - Fungal Interactions talk, Newcastle, UK (Leveraging antagonistic fungal interactions as biocontrol for destructive forest pathogens in the genus Armillaria)
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Guest Lecture at University of Nottingham - Applied Crop Science course - topic = Weed Biology 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Undergraduate students
Results and Impact "1) The world requires more food now and in the future.
a) Modern agriculture is the key to delivering sufficient food.
b) But the world has no more space to move into to generate more food.
c) ILO1 = Therefore modern agriculture must be efficient and effective with the land we have.
2) What is needed for efficient and effective modern agriculture?
a) Among the other needs (sunlight, air, water, nutrients, protection, time), plants need space - e.g. lack of competition from weeds.
i) Rothamsted is working on research to understand how to meet these needs.
b) ILO2 = Therefore, less weeds = more efficient agriculture = more food
c) In the UK, black-grass is the major arable weed that impacts yields.
3) How to control weeds?
a) Among the options is chemical control
b) Modern agriculture has relied on chemical controls and they have been used extensively across the world.
c) ILO3 = Modern agriculture that relies on chemical controls has selected for herbicide-resistant weeds.
i) Herbicide resistance has evolved in many different species.
ii) Herbicide resistance has appeared in many different crops.
iii) Herbicide resistance occurs through TSR or NTSR
d) How to control herbicide resistant weeds?
i) Better understanding of weediness and weedy traits
(1) ILO4 = Different mechanisms allow weeds to resist herbicides
(a) Change in uptake of herbicide.
(b) Change in localisation of herbicide away from target.
(c) Change in the chemical structure of the herbicide.
(d) Some combination of the above
(e) Tools developed to test causation rather than correlation and functionally validate candidate genes.
(2) ILO5 = different biological traits allow weeds to circumvent other control methods
(a) Germinating after planting and dropping seeds before harvest is advantageous.
(b) Being able to survive abiotic stress better than the crop is advantageous.
(3) New approaches are needed "
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Hertfordshire County show 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Rothamsted Research stall at Hertfordshire County show
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Hosting the visit of three MPs currently serving on the cross party Parliament Science Technology and Innovation Select Committee 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact The three visiting MPs to Rothamsted in October 2023 were MPs Greg Clark, Katherine Fletcher & Stephen Metcalfe accompanied by secretary of the committee Dr Claire Kanja . Together they explored topics on increasing insecticide resistance, lack of alternative modes of action, the need for novel IPM strategies, the emergence of new pest and virus threats in the UK due to climate change/ lack of effective insecticides/ withdrawal of active ingredients. There was also a facilities tour including the suction traps used for the ongoing UK wide Rothamsted Insect Survey. The DSW participating members were Dr Lawrence Bramham (a DSW post-doctoral specialist in cereal-aphid-virus interactions) and his 3rd year DSW aligned BBSRC-SWBio DTP student Izayana Sandoval-Carvajal.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description IWGC Weed Genomics workshop at The University of Western Australia and Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact I presented a 20 minute talk and answered questions at the 2023 Weed Genomics workshop held on Friday 22nd September at the University Club Formal Dining Room at The University of Western Australia. This workshop was hosted by the Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative in partnership with The Institute of Agriculture, UWA, and the International Weed Genomics Consortium. It was a face to face event which will provide attendees with a half-day session to enable more in-depth discussion of weed genomics following the PAG Australia weed genomics workshop on 21 September (see PAG Australia website for more details on the PAG workshop). Multiple scientists from inter-state and internationally were present in Perth with shared interests in weed genomics. The objectives were to explore opportunities and priorities for weed genomics research in Australia and beyond. The sessions consisted of several scientific presentations, building on and adding to those presented at the PAG workshop, and a round table discussion section.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1077525?eid=1077525&
 
Description Insect Behaviour SIG 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Convenor of Royal Entomological Society Insect behaviour SIG meeting: The role of microbes (environmental and endosymbionts) in insect behaviour, online.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.royensoc.co.uk/event/behaviour-sig-2023/
 
Description Interview about ERGA pilot scheme 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact Was interviewed by Amy Lyall at Earlham Institute for their website article on our contribution to the European Reference Genome Atlas (ERGA) project. I provided a quote about the work I am doing with them as a sample ambassador.

"And Dr Dana MacGregor, Weed Molecular Biologist at Rothamsted Research, contributed plant material for orange foxtail.

She says: "We have been studying Alopecurus aequalis (orange foxtail) and Alopecurus myosuroides (black-grass), which are the most problematic weeds for wheat cultivation in China and the UK respectively.

"While we knew both species survive herbicide application, our understanding of how they accomplish this feat was limited.

"Early in our research programme, we encountered a scientific roadblock. Despite successfully generating 'omics data, our inability to access a complete and annotated genome for both species hindered our ability to effectively interpret it.

"Collaborating with the Earlham Institute on the ERGA Pilot project, we have generated a reference-grade genome for orange foxtail. This resource allows us to overcome our knowledge barriers and begin asking the questions that are crucial to understanding how these weeds survive.

"Our new genome not only facilitates our research but - when made public - will empower other researchers to explore other molecular aspects of this insidious weed and together we will generate knowledge that results in effective and sustainable weed control.""
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://www.earlham.ac.uk/articles/fish-fungus-grass-bee-and-brassica
 
Description Interview with Crop Production Magazine 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Asked to give an interview to Heather Briggs at the Crop Production Magazine about the recent presentation at AAB Presidents meeting on 'Nature-based and engineered biology solutions to climate mitigation'
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://issuu.com/kelseymedia/docs/cpm_april_2023/50
 
Description Invited Key note presentation at VII Congress of the Latin American Association of Chemical Ecology (ALAEQ) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Key note presentation at VII Congress of the Latin American Association of Chemical Ecology (ALAEQ)
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Invited Keynote presentation at Australasian Plant Pathology Society conference, 21 November 2023, Adelaide. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Invited Keynote presentation at Australasian Plant Pathology Society conference, 21 November 2023, Adelaide.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://eventstudio.eventsair.com/apps2023/program
 
Description Invited oral presentation to the British Mycological Society annual meeting 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Invited to present work on Septoria including new platform for antifungals discovery from microbes.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Invited presentation at a workshop held at Embrapa Biotechnology and Genetic Resources, Brazil. Funded via FAPDF 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Undergraduate students
Results and Impact Invited presentation at a workshop to students and Embrapa Staff
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Invited speak to '21st Century Frontiers in Chemical Biology symposium' 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Invited presentation at conference
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Invited speaker at the British Crop Production Council (BCPC) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Gave an invited presentation on Rothamsted's research on weeds and remote weed detection. Audience was other researchers (including ADAS, NIAB), ag-chem representatives, farming press, postgrad students, and regulatory bodies e.g. CRD, DEFRA
It's a recurring annual meeting.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.bcpc.org/events/bcpc-weeds-review-2023
 
Description Laboratory visits, invited seminars, and small-group discussions 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Funded by the listed projects, I travelled to the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) to give meet with undergraduates, post-graduates, and research scientists as well as to give a invited seminar within the post-graduate programme of Fitotechnica.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description MPs Visit: Environment, Food & Rural Affairs Committee roundtable discussion and tours. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact MPs Visit: Environment, Food & Rural Affairs Committee roundtable discussion and tours. Threats & opportunities for soil health; ELMs & government support, research on healthy soils, including metrics & data. Lab tours, potential of microbiomes within farming practice, pathogen monitoring, healthy soils and ELMS.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Meetings with fellow researchers & Stakeholders in the BAC-STOP project. 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Stakeholder meeting
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description NEW-IPM ONE HEALTH 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact NEW-IPM ONE HEALTH, SWANSEA UNIVERSITY, 5-7 September 2023 (online presentation)

https://www.swansea.ac.uk/bioscience/research-and-impact/natural-products-biohub-project/naturalproductsbiohub-project-news-and-events/new-ipm-2023---one-health/
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description New IPM 2023 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact New IPM - One Health 2023 International Symposium and networking event talk, Swansea University, UK (Lure development for the stored legume pest, Acanthoscelides obtectus)
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://international-pest-control.com/wordpress/event/new-ipm-2023-one-health/
 
Description New Scientist Live Chemical Ecology display 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Presented at RRes Chemical Ecology Stand over the event timeline (3 days)
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Nottingham University group visit 7 February 2024 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact About 35 undergraduate and postgraduate students visited Rothamsted Research on 7 February 2024 for presentations, discussion, Q&A
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Oxford Farming Conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Student helper at Oxford Farming Conference
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://www.ofc.org.uk/conference/2024
 
Description Participant in Roundtable Meeting and International Policy Dialogue on Agricultural Diversification, hosted by NIAB/University of Cambridge 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Supporters
Results and Impact Attendance and participation
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Poster Presentation at PAG (Plant and Animal Genomes) Australia 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presented a Poster at PAG Australia entitled "A Comparative Genomics Approach to Investigate the Parallel Evolution of Weediness in Alopecurus Myosuroides (black-grass) and Alopecurus Aequalis (orange foxtail)" with me as first and presenting author along with Jonathan Wright2, Jun Li3, Paul Neve4, Seanna McTaggart5 and Anthony Hall2, (1)Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom, (2)Earlham Institute, Norwich, United Kingdom, (3)Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, Jiangsu province, China, (4)University of Copenhagen, Taastrup, Taastrup, Denmark, (5)Earlham Institute, Norwich, Norfolk, United Kingdom. Presented at 2 poster sessions and held various discussions during the meeting.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://pag.confex.com/pag/au2023/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/51038
 
Description Poster at ACS Fall Meeting: Harnessing Chemical Ecology to achieve Food Security 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Poster presentation at ACS Fall Meeting
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Presentation - IMPPC23 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Invited Keynote speaker for the 2nd International Molecular Plant Protection Congress- IMPPC2023 held at Hektas Agricultural Innovation, Training and Experience Center, Orhangazi-Bursa,Türkiye between May 15-18, 2023. The abstract for the talk I gave is below.

Today's Weed Scientists are fortunate to have access to genomic data for problematic weeds. These data are unequivocally leading to better knowledge and understanding of the fundamental biology of weediness, weed population genetics, and ecology. However, the more we know, the clearer it becomes that a genome alone is not sufficient. For instance, a single genome is much less informative than a pangenome or multiple genomes from sister species, and the outputs from analysis of genome(s) indicates correlations rather than demonstrates causation; therefore these new data generate new hypotheses that require further testing. For instance, our recent publication shows that genetic basis of non-target site resistance in black-grass (Alopecurus myosuroides) differs between populations, where populations presenting similar herbicide resistance phenotypes have significant differences in differentially expressed genes or QTLs associated with resistance. Ours and other experiments have identified candidate genes and pathways correlated with weedy traits, but thus far, most studies finish with these correlations rather than demonstrating causation. To get beyond correlations and test hypotheses concerning causation, Weed Science requires tools to functionally validate genes of interest rapidly and accurately. Our lab aims to bring agricultural weeds into the molecular laboratory and generate the necessary resources and techniques that will allow us to test genotype-to-phenotype hypotheses directly in weedy species. For instance, using the troublesome arable weed black-grass (Alopecurus myosuroides), we adapted methods for virus-induced gene silencing or virus-mediated overexpression to transiently reduce or induce gene expression in planta respectively. This presentation will discuss those breakthroughs, reiterate why they are necessary, and give examples of how genomic resources and genetic tools has enabled better molecular-level understanding of weediness and weedy traits.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.imppc2023.org/en/KEYNOTE-SPEAKERS.html
 
Description Presentation at DSV variety launch on oilseed rape disease biology and control, 24 May 2023 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Made a 20-minute presentation to farmers on oilseed rape disease biology and control at DSV variety launch, 24 May 2023
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Presentation at the APPS Plant Health Surveillance workshop, SARDI-Adelaide, 20 Nov 2023. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Presentation at the APPS Plant Health Surveillance workshop, SARDI-Adelaide, 20 Nov 2023.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Presenting in Emerging Agri-Tech session at REAP 23 conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Present during the emerging agri-tech section of the REAP event where we discussed new technologies emerging from our research and discussed the potential benefits to end users.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.agri-tech-e.co.uk/microsite-page/reap-2023/
 
Description Project meeting Argentina 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Undergraduate students
Results and Impact Visit and seminars to INTA and University of Buenos Aires for project meeting
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description RRes King Abdul Aziz University Jeddah Collaboration workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact RRes King Abdul Aziz University Jeddah Collaboration workshop
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description RSC BMCS Committee Member 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Committee member on BMCS. Planning future events/conferences for those involved in biology or medicinal chemistry
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.rscbmcs.org/about/committee/
 
Description Rothamsted Enterprises Ltd Discovery Day 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact "On 25/05/23 I presented the work that I am doing in collaboration with Gowan and other RRes Scientists under the title "Bringing Agricultural Weeds into the Molecular Labs" during the REL Campus Discovery event
"
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Royal Entomological Society Insect behaviour SIG meeting: The role of microbes (environmental and endosymbionts) in insect behaviour 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation at Royal Entomological Society Insect behaviour SIG meeting
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description School Visit (Primary school North London) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact School visit and Powerpoint presentation/hands on microscope session on insect pests and beneficials and how to combat insect pests. 60 pupils and two teachers attended with questions and discussion afterwards. School reported increased interest on further participation.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description School Visit - Year 3 Plant Science - Harpenden Academy 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact On the 12th of May, I spent 45 minutes with the 31 pupils in the Year 3 class at Harpenden Academy giving them a 20 minute talk about the research that I and others at Rothamsted are doing to address research questions covered by their Science Curriculum. I then spent another 25 minutes answering their questions.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description School of Life Sciences and the Environment seminar and individual meetings at Royal Holloway 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact "Gave the first in the departmental seminar series in the Department of Biological Sciences at Royal Holloway. The audience was approximately 50 people made up of a mixture of staff, post graduate and 3rd year undergraduate students and forms part of the teaching provision for the master's course in Biological sciences. Also met with other members of the department and Early Career Researchers throughout the day. Abstract below.

Decades of work on model plants have accelerated scientific progress, and while these advances have led to many benefits, little of this work has focused on plant species that inflict real-world harm. Agricultural weeds significantly reduce yields and increase costs, yet our physiological and mechanistic understanding of how they survive in modern agriculture lags considerably behind that of the crops the grow next to. A better understanding of weeds not only allows us to understand how they avoid the chemical and anthropogenic selection pressures we place on them, but also how they survive the environmental challenges that harm our crops. To start to understand weeds and the unique weedy traits carried within their genomes, we are bringing agricultural weeds into the molecular labs and studying their biology and genetics. We are developing resources and techniques that enable us to conduct hypothesis-led research directly in the species of interest. Recent breakthroughs include methods to transiently alter gene expression and new genomic and genetic resources for weed species. This presentation discusses these advancements and how this data can inform innovative weed control."
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Seminar to UFPel and Embrapa Temperate Agriculture 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact On 11/8/23 I was asked to present a seminar entitled "Unlocking the Secrets of Plant Growth to Secure Food Security" to the University Federal of Pelotas, Brazil and to Embrapa Temperate Agriculture, Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Site visit - ADAS - Weeds Group 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Engaged with the site visit from ADAS Weeds group organised largely by the wider Rothamsted Weed Agro-Ecology team. Went to the different long-term experiments at Rothamsted and showed a subset of the group around the GM glasshouses where my experiments are underway.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Special seminar from Centre of Biotechnology - UFRGS/CBioT 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Undergraduate students
Results and Impact on 9/8/23 I was invited to present a special seminar to the Centre of Biotechology and Fitotecnia Post-graduate programmes at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Allegre
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Stakeholder event attended with Forest Research 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Stakeholder event attended with Forest Research, which was attended by several stakeholders (e.g. national trust, forestry commission) where we discussed potential considerations for the management of oak trees.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Sustainable Agriculture meeting 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presenter at the Royal Entomological Society Sustainable Agriculture SIG meeting (Chemical ecology of chafer beetles).
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.royensoc.co.uk/event/sustainable-agriculture-23/
 
Description Synthesis Drug Design & Discovery (Agrisciences contribution) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact I help to organise an online conference on synthesis drug design and discovery
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023,2024
 
Description Trip to Embrapa Pelotas / Bage 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact As part of the trip to UFRGS, I also travelled to Embrapa Pelotas / Bage to meet with researchers, students, post-docs, as well as senior managers and scientists. I also presented an invited seminar to the joint seminar series of the Federal Univeristy of Pelotas and Embrapa - approxmiately 50-100 attendees were present. I have since been included in two proposals led by my host and have planned similar follow up activities.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description UK Civil Service Fast-stream programme _Nov 2023_Rothamsted 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact 30 min talk + 10 min Q&A on global food security and the biotic threats encounter both historic and recent. Then focussed on the current biotic threats to the UK wheat crop and the types of research approaches ongoing in DFW and DSW to help to provide alternative pest and pathogen control strategies and novel targets for intervention. Also discussed various UK policies which are in place to effectively minimise the biotic threat risk, whilst pointing out that air borne threats pose are the most challenging for policy makers.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description UK Fungal One Health Network Meeting 13th July 2023, Imperial College, London 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Study participants or study members
Results and Impact Presentation at UK Fungal One Health Network Meeting 13th July 2023, Imperial College, London
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Visist of UM6P delegation to RRes for workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Gave oral presentation to delegates summarising opportunities to collaborate in plant pathology.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Visit by AgriTechNZ/Investment NSW (28th Sept. 2023) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Dissemination activity
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Visit by North Carolina State University Plant Sciences Initiative, 29th Sept. 2023 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact To discussion collaborations
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Visit of Notts Uni undergraduate and postgraduate students 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Series of talks given to visiting students (annual event)
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Visit project collaborators (Argentina) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Undergraduate students
Results and Impact Visit and seminars to INTA and University of Buenos Aires for project meeting
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Weed Resistance Action Group steering group meeting 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact A steering group meeting for the Weed Resistance Action Group
Occurs twice annually.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://ahdb.org.uk/knowledge-library/the-weed-resistance-action-group-wrag
 
Description What's in my Lab? - Rothamsted outreach 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Participated in filming inside the Rothamsted labs to promote the work that we do.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://twitter.com/Rothamsted/status/1635249477283119104?s=20
 
Description Women in Science - Rothamsted outreach 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Participated in filming for series of Tweets and videos for Women in Science and outreach events
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://twitter.com/Rothamsted/status/1624392950242242573?s=20
 
Description Working Group committee meetings of the following eCOST Cost Actions: CA18226, CA21134, CA22102, CA22158, CA22129, CA22136, CA22142 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Study participants or study members
Results and Impact The working group committee meetings involve discussions of scientific ideas with fellow scientists. A paper on bioaerosols was published as a result of the discussions and another one is in preparations and more are being discussed.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Working Group, Research Capacity Strengthening: A Quick Guide for Researchers 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Contribution to Working Group to produce a Guide for Researchers on Effective Research Capacity Strengthening
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.lstmed.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Effective%20RCS%20-%20A%20Quick%20Guide%20for%20Researc...