Recent Activity
| PI | Title | Date Requested | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gary Foster | BCAI Network Team | October 2019 | £50,410 |
| Kerry Franklin | Understanding the transcriptional regulation of PIF transaction factors by environmental signals | October 2019 | £21,727 |
| Sean Rands | Floral thermal biology in a changing environment | October 2019 | £22,569 |
| Gary Barker | Equipment for BBSRC Follow on Funding on a core collection of wheat markers | October 2019 | £20,616 |
| Tim Caro | Intercations between Clove Production, Species Diversity in Clove Pots and Biodiversity | October 2019 | £9814 |
| Tom Pitman, / Anthony Crawford | Horticultural Staffing levels in Greenhouse facilities | October 2019 | £45,283 |
| Lucia Primavesi | Equipment matters - the key to a good experiment | July 2019 | £2556 |
| Lucia Primavesi | Getting the most out of chlorophyll | July 2019 | £1989.21 |
| Guilda Varliero | Exploring new sequencing technology for agricultural research | July 2019 | £24,974 |
| Jane Memmott | Pollination in Nepal in a changing climate | July 2019 | |
| Keith Edwards / Gary Barker / Helen Harper | Assessing the diversity of UK apples with the Bristol set of single nucleotide Polymorphic markers | April 2019 | £14,660 |
| Ulrike Bauer / Helen Harper | Interdisciplinary Plant Wax Research Workshop | April 2019 | £1486.80 |
| Jill Harrison / Ken Birnbaum | FASEB Mechanisms in Pplant development meeting 2019 | April 2019 | £2560 |
| Jill Harrison / Keith Edwards / Sophie Carpenter | Intercepting CLAVATA function to engineer larger ears in wheat | April 2019 | £19,926.92 |
| Rox Middleton | Why are blueberries blue? | April 2019 | £17,165 |
| Dr Helen Harper | Raising the profile of BCAI: annual budget for publicity material and workshops | Januray 2019 | £5,000 |
| Mr Tom Swift | The optimisation and field trials of carbon dots to enhance yields for a diverse range of crop in partnership with Beanstalk Agritech | January 2019 | £23,411 |
| Dr Lucia Primavesi | Updating and streamlining small autoclave equipment in Plant Sciences | January 2019 | £3,417.99 |
| Dr Sally Hobson / Miss Maggie Gamble | Replacement of Validated Waste Autoclave | January 2019 | £15,546.60 |
Pollination in Nepal in a changing climate
Helen Harper
A new project studying the effect of climate change on pollinators has been funded. Three quarters of crop species rely on pollinators but the service they provide is under increasing threat from climate change. Loss of diversity and declining numbers of pollinators is predicted to compromise agricultural systems, and in turn, affect human health as key dietary micronutrients (such as vitamin A and folate) from insect pollinated crops are lost from diets.
This interdisciplinary project is led by University of Bristol’s Professor Jane Memmott and includes three Co-Investigators - two medical researchers, Dr Samuel Myers and Dr Mathew Smith from Harvard University and a climate change specialist from the University of Helsinki, Professor Tomas Roslin. Collaborators include health scientists from an NGO in Nepal, HERD Internationale (Dr Sushil Baral & Dr Chandani Kharel), along with collaborators from UCL (Dr Naomi Saville), the London School of Tropical Medicine (Dr Helen Harris-Fry) and the Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu (Dr Daya Ram Bhusal). The Bristol based Post-Doctoral Researcher is Dr Tom Timberlake.
The project is funded by The Belmont Forum with additional support from BCAI.
Plant and Agricultural Sciences Fellowships at Bristol
Helen Harper
The Bristol Centre for Agricultural Innovation (BCAI) is offering an additional £50,000 to boost project funding for three individuals that are awarded mid-career Independent Research Fellowships at Bristol (such as BBSRC Discovery Fellowships & David Phillips Fellowships, Royal Society University Research Fellowships or UKRI Future Leader Fellowships). Those applying for earlier-career fellowships are eligible for an additional £5,000 of research funding, from BCAI, following a successful fellowship award. Proposed research must fall within the remit of BCAI to be eligible for this additional funding (http://www.bristol.ac.uk/biology/bcai/).
At Bristol, we benefit from excellent facilities and host a vibrant group of plant and agricultural scientists. Further information about plant and agricultural research at Bristol can be found at http://www.bristol.ac.uk/biology/research/plant/ and information on current fellows and the support we offer: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/biology/research/opportunities/fellowships.html
To be considered for BCAI and departmental support, prospective fellowship candidates are required to submit an expression of interest to helen.harper@bristol.ac.uk by 17th September 2019. Your application should consist of your CV, a covering letter (indicating which fellowship you wish to apply for and confirmation that you are eligible) and a research plan (up to 2 pages). We will select and invite candidates with potential to visit the department in October/November. Please contact Dr Helen Harper for any informal enquiries. We look forward to hearing from you.
BCAI undergraduate summer student 2018
Helen Harper
Fiona Belbin and Dr Helen Harper were awarded funds to employ a University of Bristol undergraduate student to conduct a 10-week summer placement in the labs in life sciences and in collaboration with Bristol vertical farming company LettUs Grow. Biology undergraduate Jess Bowers-Martin conducted research into the effects of photoperiod length upon growth, circadian rhythms and photosynthetic efficiency of lettuce in a vertical farming context. “The opportunity to conduct independent research with the support of experts in the field has been invaluable to me, I have learnt so much during the course of the placement. I have particularly enjoyed researching the applications of vertical farming for addressing food security concerns and having the opportunity to plan my own research. Working with LettUs Grow and witnessing their passion has inspired me to pursue postgraduate study of plant science.” – Jess "The undergraduate project and associated support from the university has been hugely helpful. The hard work done by Jess has allowed us to accelerate our research program and she has been a fantastic colleague over the last few months. We are very excited to continue to build a relationship with Antony Dodd's lab and the University in the future."– Billy Rodgers, plant research at LettUs Grow. Jess has been supervised by Fiona Belbin, Dr Antony Dodd and Dr Helen Harper. This work was supported by the Bristol Centre for Agricultural Innovation and LettUs Grow.
Signal transduction and circadian regulation under natural conditions
Dora Cano-Ramirez and Dr Antony Dodd
BCAI have supported me to travel to the laboratory of collaborator Prof. Hiroshi Kudoh at the Center for Ecological Research in Kyoto University to perform deep analysis of a cell signalling pathway under natural conditions. The reason why we conducted this work was to gain new insights into how a signalling pathway that we identified in the laboratory functions under natural conditions. This is important to begin to translate processes studied in the laboratory that underpin plant survival into an agricultural context, to identify new candidate mechanisms for enhancing crop production.
Gene Editing Workshop
Beth Eldridge and Ashley Pridgeon
Over the 26-27th March, researchers from around the globe gathered at the University of Bristol for the GARNet Plant Gene Editing workshop, sponsored by BCAI and the New Phytologist Trust. At this workshop, attendees eagerly discussed topics relating to gene editing; these discussions not only encompassed the nitty-gritty details of how to edit stubborn plants (monocots and dicots alike!) but also novel uses of genetically-modified plants and the policies concerning their regulation. Alongside these discussions, researchers got the opportunity to view an array of scientific posters that sparked fruitful conversations.
Read the full article here.
Past BCAI Activity
You can find all of the past projects that BCAI have supported here