Research Impacts

Natural Sciences, and our predecessors, have a long and successful record of promoting research with impact on the world beyond the University. Our interdisciplinary approach to research is marked vital to tackle the pressing and complex challenges that face the world’s population, including global environmental change, biodiversity loss, soil degradation and unsustainable use of natural resources. We have a strong record in knowledge exchange between researchers and stakeholders in the areas of policy and practice, which has led to our research having a very high level of impact, as is demonstrated in the examples given.

Specifically, our work on client-oriented (participatory) plant breeding in rice, maize and pearl millet in South Asia has led to improved food security for many millions of poor farmers in India, Nepal and Bangladesh, while our work on carbon footprinting has driven policy changes by vegetable suppliers and governments in Europe.