Overview

Credit: Dave Gutteridge, The Photographic Unit

The increasing world population, predicted to rise to 9 billion by 2050, will make huge demands on the agricultural biotechnology industry with respect to the development of agrochemicals able to drive and sustain increases in the production of food and fibre from plants, whilst mitigating competition for water and land use. The agrochemical industry therefore faces huge challenges that will only be overcome through the development of novel molecular tools and technologies, designed to support innovative agrochemical approaches.

At the heart of the NexGenAgriChem programme is the need to train a new generation of multidisciplinary researchers who are able to work at the interface of the Plant and Physical Sciences - a cohort who will underpin the development of novel tools and technologies that are able to provide molecular insight into the mode of action of agrochemicals.