Our Research

Years of research has provided a deep understanding of how plants function, creating opportunities to transform the way we produce our food. I am motivated to improve the sustainability and the equity of food production worldwide.

Professor Giles Oldroyd
CSC Director

Looking at monitor

Sustainable crop nutrition, enhancing photosynthesis, reducing losses from pests and pathogens, and crop breeding technologies

Research groups

We focus on

Sustainable nutrient capture

Improving crop plant access to sustainable sources of nitrogen and phosphorus, replacing the need for inorganic fertilizers.

Reducing losses from pests and diseases

Finding sustainable ways to reduce yield losses from pests and diseases.

Improving crop breeding

Developing technologies that increase the pace and impact of crop breeding.

Increasing yield potential through improved photosynthesis

Raising the potential yield ceiling through enhancing photosynthetic efficiency.

About us

Improvements in agriculture during the 20th Century were highly reliant on chemical inputs, such as inorganic fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides.

However, these chemical inputs increased crop yields at the expense of terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity. Furthermore, since they can be prohibitively expensive or inaccessible for some smallholder farmers, their use has deepened inequity of crop yields.

The Centre provides leadership in crop sciences, with a creative and dynamic research culture, motivated by improvement of agriculture for the betterment of society.

Learn more
A scientist using a microscope.

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