A NEW project led by the University of Dundee, in partnership with The James Hutton Institute, the University of Nottingham, Harper Adams University and 28 industry partners, will tackle critical shortages in skills and knowledge within the potato sector.
The Crop Innovation Centre – Skills, Technology And Research Training (CIC-START) will be based at the Hutton’s Crop Innovation Centre in Invergowrie, and will support 24 postgraduate researchers, giving them the expertise needed to take on major sustainability challenges, focussing on potatoes as well as some cereal crops
The centre is being funded by UK Research and Innovation’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).
Director of the National Potato Innovation Centre (NPIC), Professor Ian Toth, said: “CIC-START has managed to secure funding for up to 96 years of full-time collaborative post-graduate research that will help to address some of these challenges and provide a skilled workforce for both agricultural sciences and industry into the future.”
Researchers will work on practical challenges faced by the sector, developing genetic and agronomic strategies to improve pest and disease management, enhance soil health, build climate resilience, and reduce waste and greenhouse gas emissions, focussing on three core themes: Sustainable Agricultural Systems, Crop and Soil Health, and Waste and Greenhouse Gas Reduction.
