United Kingdom
June 5, 2013

A working group, established by BBSRC's Food Security Strategy Advisory Panel, has made recommendations for a 5-year Strategy to help shape BBSRC funded wheat research. The Strategy, published today, contains independent advice and recommendations from the working group to advise on the Council's future strategy and priorities in this area.

To discuss and distil key strategic messages, and to frame these in the context of a high level strategy document, the working group considered an analysis of BBSRC's research portfolio and the outputs of a web-based community consultation.

The group highlighted the importance of consolidating and building on BBSRC's and the UK's track record in wheat research, and noted that BBSRC has a major international leadership role to play. Key research priorities identified in the strategy include developing new traits and practices for improved sustainability (such as resilience to climatic variation and disease and waste minimisation), applying advanced genetics, genomics and sequencing to wheat research and developing field capacity to translate research between laboratory and field conditions. Broader suggestions included showcasing the impact of past and present wheat research and ensuring the continuity of UK wheat research capacity.

The Strategy and associated recommendations can be seen at: www.bbsrc.ac.uk/web/files/strategies/2013_bbsrc_wheat_strategy.pdf

Website: http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk

Published: June 5, 2013