Bioscience for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Strategy Advisory Panel

The Bioscience for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Strategy Advisory Panel has focused on the bioscience needed to deliver more productive, healthy, resilient and sustainable agriculture and food systems.

Terms of reference

The panel will provide advice to BBSRC on a broad range of topics including:

  • interdisciplinary, multi-scale and systems modelling approaches to agri-ecosystems
  • novel strategies to predict, detect and manage threats to plant and animal health, addressing the challenges of resistance, and improving the welfare of farmed animals
  • food safety and nutrition through integration of novel crop and nutritional research, and exploiting fundamental knowledge in microbiology to minimise pathogens and toxins in the food system
  • reducing waste in the food system by understanding and controlling fundamental biological processes involved in crop physiology, maturation and post-harvest spoilage
  • genomics and genetic diversity needed to develop the next generation of improved crops and farmed animals
  • precision agriculture and smart technologies, combining bioscience with novel engineering and technology solutions, including digital and predictive tools, to improve decision making in agriculture.

Panel membership 2023

  • Professor Margaret Gill (Chair), University of Aberdeen
  • Professor Simon Pearson, University of Lincoln
  • Professor Matthew Heard, The National Trust
  • Dr Elizabeth Magowan, Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute
  • Dr Alison Bentley, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)
  • Professor Bob Doherty, University of York
  • Professor Alison Mather, Quadram Institute
  • Mrs Emma Garfield, G’s Growers Ltd

Previous meeting dates

18 November 2020
Meeting: Net Zero and Biodiverse Agri-Food System (Zoom)
Meeting agenda and minutes

11 November 2020
Meeting (Zoom)
Meeting agenda and minutes

9 July 2020
Induction Meeting (Zoom)
Agenda

14 November 2019
Horizon Scanning Webinar (Zoom)
Meeting agenda and minutes

Contact

Jamie Stone

Email: jamie.stone@bbsrc.ukri.org

Last updated: 21 September 2023

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