IBERS - What We Do

DEVELOPING THE CROPS OF TOMORROW

Drawing on over a hundred years of genetic resources, safeguarded in our Seed Bank storage facility, our researchers and commercial partners are constantly striving to develop new and improved varieties grasses, cereals, and legumes. Using our unique combination of state-of-the-art controlled environments and experimental field plots spread across multiple sites, altitudes, and continents we are working to make crops more resilient by introducing greater crop diversity and building better resistance to periods of drought or flooding.

MAKING AGRICULTURE MORE SUSTAINABLE

Our agricultural research aims to improve the sustainability of our food and farming systems by working with farmers to help reduce the need for inorganic fertilisers, reducing emissions from livestock production, and developing alternative protein sources to imported soya used in human and animal food. We are also developing better biomass crops to more effectively capture and store carbon from the atmosphere, working collectively to help society take the next critical steps toward a Net-Zero future.

DEVELOPING ENABLING TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGIES TO MAKE THAT HAPPEN

Our researchers continually develop and adapt twenty-first century tools to target challenges in plant science, breeding, and biotechnology. We apply the latest scientific and IT tools such as multi-spectral imaging, robotics, machine learning and artificial intelligence to speed up conventional breeding, access traits previously inaccessible to crop breeders. We are developing next generation field monitoring tools to enable smart and precision agriculture and finding novel biotechnology solutions to convert plants to products and turn waste into wealth.