Public Funding for Rothamsted Research Limited

Businesses are more dependent on nature than previously thought, with ~$44trillion$ of economic value generation moderately or highly dependent on nature\[World Economic Forum,2020\]. \>50% of bank activity in emerging markets directly depends on nature\[Calice,et. al.(2023)\]. Biodiversity loss is also recognised by the world's central banks as a source of systemic risk. Consequently, regulators increasingly expect industries to manage nature-related impacts and risks. \>190 countries, including the UK and Switzerland, have committed to the goals and targets under the Global Biodiversity Framework\[GBF\]. Globally, GBF and the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures\[TNFD\] are bringing reporting and disclosure of business dependencies on nature and impacts to the forefront. However, **scalable provision of reliable biodiversity data to fulfil the requirements for nature disclosure are still lacking.** Current methods for measuring biodiversity are often simplistic, focusing on a single component of biodiversity, not-scalable, relying on large scale manual data collection and costly. Digital biodiversity indicators are continuously developed to measure and monitor pressures or threats, but these remain not ground-truthed. In the UK, several initiatives are working towards the development of simple decision-ready metrics (e.g., JNCC, Defra, CEH), but these are not available to industry at the scales required and remain strongly reliant on field data. Consequently, **commercial instruments to provide biodiversity data and monitoring across industries, at reportable spatial and temporal scales**, and able to adapt to upcoming frameworks for nature disclosure and underpin nature-positive impacts **are yet inexistent.** NatureMetrics\[UK-SME\] and Restor\[Swiss-Start-up\] in close collaboration with ETH Zurich\[Swiss-RO\] and Rothamsted-Research\[UK-RO\] join forces to go beyond ground-truthing. Combining our synergic technologies, we will develop and commercialise robust and scalable methods and metrics applicable at managerial time-scales. **NatureMetrics\[NM\]** is a world-leading innovator on biodiversity performance monitoring using environmental DNA (eDNA) and Earth Observation. T**he Crowther Lab\[ETH-Z\]** have created SEED, a platform for the conservation and restoration of nature, **Restor,** and co-founded the Global Forest and Soil Biodiversity Initiatives**. Rothamsted Research\[RR\]** works to achieve economically and environmentally sustainable farming practices.

Food fraud is a significant issue, providing a pressing need for low cost, simple to use authentication methods. Currently, consumers of agri-food products are calling for greater food-system transparency to inform their purchase decisions and reduce the risk of buying unsafe/illegal/unethical/counterfeit products. Traceability can meet this demand through in-depth tracking of supply-chain data. However, track-and-trace systems currently in-use are susceptible to fraud (as they are only tracking packaging) or are prohibitively expensive (when lab-analysis is required). High value crops such as coffee/tea/cocoa grown in Africa/South-America/Asia are distributed worldwide and their supply-chain suffers from fraud issues causing damage in these global markets. Better traceability could realise ethics and sustainability claims, hold companies and governments accountable to their commitments (like Section 54 of the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015) and more accurately measure the social/environmental footprint of production in real-time, and at a lower cost. This feasibility project aims to develop CODE-AI, an **AI-driven solution** for the identification of cocoa origin by 'scanning' the crop, which then will be part of a larger crop origin prediction tool, 'CropOrigin'. **Our focus in this project is to combine the power of cutting-edge machine learning approaches, with the measurement of the intrinsic properties of cocoa beans, to allow the instant determination of geographical origin.** The ultimate application ('CropOrigin') will involve an affordable hand-held spectral diagnostic device to scan cocoa in the form of bean/powder/food product. The scanned biological fingerprint is fed into an AI-enabled prediction tool, (CODE-AI for cocoa) via network connection and user interface for an instant identification of the geographical origin of crops. It will be supported by a database of unique geospatial and spectral signatures of agri-food products; an AI algorithm and software for several supply-chains. The advances made in this project will benefit the consumer directly through the development of a traceability system that can be used by relevant controlling bodies to identify fraud, and by retailers, importers and manufacturers to authenticate product labelling, confirming its safety and compliance. The Consortium who will realise this project include: Tiwakiki Consulting (Lead), an SME with significant software, R&D and project management capabilities; Rothamsted Research, a leading academic institution focused on crop research, and Crop Health and Protection (CHAP) via a subcontract. While the current project will focus on cocoa, the approach has potential to be applied to many types of agricultural produce such as tea, coffee, leafy veg, nuts, etc.

no public description

As with many developed countries the UK's agricultural land is under pressure to provide food to a growing population in the most efficient and sustainable manner. There is an added opportunity and responsibility for countries like the UK to take the lead in developing solutions for the UNSDG's in this case \#2 Zero Hunger. Airborne pathogens infect cereal and horticultural crops reducing the yield per hectare. While their impact can be mitigated by the use of fungicides, these must be used responsibly and sustainably. This project creates a solution comprising several, identical sensing devices located in the field of crops. The data from each sensor provides an early warning of the presence of the pathogen which is turned into a recommended management plan for the farmer/grower. Each device comprises a biosensor that stimulates the targeted pathogen spore to germinate, a smart camera to detect that growth, a set of environmental sensors and a wireless communication module all housed in a weatherproof, robust housing. By combining the data from the sensors over a wide area it is possible to create additional services on top of the service provided to individual farmers/growers, for example disease prediction forecasts, crop protection research and retail planning. A consortium comprising electronics, agricultural chemicals, materials, industrial design and several leading academic institutions have come together with farmers and growers to develop the solution for deployment in the UK and globally.

no public description

Black-grass (_Alopecurus myosuroides_) is the UK's most pernicious weed, causing considerable yield losses each year and threatening the sustainability of UK cereal production. Herbicides remain a key component of tactics to control this species, yet evolution of resistance due to overuse threatens their efficacy. Environmental considerations also raise concerns about such widespread herbicide use, including the potential for damaging off-target effects on potentially beneficial species. Finally, the cost to growers of existing herbicidal strategies are becoming prohibitively expensive. Precision spraying of herbicides specifically to weed patches, rather than the whole field, offers the potential to help mitigate these issues, considerably reducing herbicide use whilst maintaining effective control of the weed. To facilitate this, there is a need to develop systems for accurately and rapidly mapping the spatial distribution of the weed within the field, at time-points early enough to enable intervention. Spot application needs to be robust enough to avoid missing weeds and provide sufficient confidence for growers to support their uptake. And finally, software and machinery need to be in place for delivering the targeted, precision herbicide application. This project will enable UK SME Chafer to use the Bosch/BASF 'smart sprayer' concept and technology to develop, build and evaluate a camera-equipped self-propelled sprayer for black-grass mapping and precision patch- or spot-spraying. The artificial intelligence to identify weeds and the ability to generate precise weed maps will allow Rothamsted and BASF to conduct further research. The outcome of the project will allow field data generation to be used for agronomic recommendations. The data will be analysed on the xarvio(tm) platform, and models developed by Rothamsted will be used to develop bespoke recommendations of herbicide choice and variable-rate application of pre- and post-emergence herbicides. These plans will be implemented using precise (individual nozzle) control of herbicide application by the sprayer system, with performance evaluated against conventional 'whole-field' management in herbicide usage, cost reductions, and control efficacy.

Midges are significant global pests of fruit production. Current management of midges is problematic, dominated by application of fossil-fuel based chemical pesticides that impact on beneficial insects and the wider environment detrimentally. In 2018-19 across the UK, over 1.14t of pesticide was applied, often pre-emptively, to an area of 1,034,565 hectares to control midge populations on wheat, blackcurrant, raspberry and pear crops, with 0.02t being applied to 6,953 hectares of pear crops alone. There is a growing global trend to move away from reliance on chemical pesticides in food production in favour of integrated pest management (IPM) strategies. The need for IPM strategies is driven by loss in efficacy of pesticides, reduced availability due to legislative regulation, and environmental issues associated with pesticide use. Pheromones form a critical component of IPM strategies, but compared to other crop pests, there are virtually no fruit midge pheromones currently available on the market. This project will develop recent technological advances in designing production routes for midge sex pheromone production between PheroSyn Ltd and Rothamsted Research (RRes). PheroSyn and RRes will, for the first time, develop green-chemistry based production routes for commercial-scale production of the pear gall midge and pear leaf midge sex pheromones using renewable feedstocks. Efficacy of the pheromone products in trapping and monitoring midge populations in fruit production systems will be undertaken by Andermatt Biocontrol UK Ltd a leading supplier of pheromone products to end-users (farmers and growers) in the UK and to continental Europe through the company's well-established network. With production capacity and product validation achieved, Andermatt will market the pheromones for use in fruit production systems from 2023\. The project establishes an innovation partnership across a UK-based supply chain (technology and product development-end user validation-manufacture--distribution) for sale of hitherto-unavailable products that are in demand, into the agribusiness sector, thereby disrupting the long-established chemical pesticide market in food production in favour of IPM Strategies. The project will help PheroSyn and Andermatt accelerate their business growth, supplying effective, long-lasting, safe and affordable pest management tools to farmers and growers worldwide. Availability of the pheromones for use in climate-smart IPM of fruit pests will provide significant social and economic benefit to the UK by producing affordable, safe-to-eat food in a way that promotes zero-carbon agriculture through reduced chemical pesticide manufacture and deployment.

Aphids are a major problem in UK and global food production, reducing yields by directly feeding on plants phloem-sap but also through transmitting a variety of diseases. In 2018-19, over 106t of pesticide was applied to an area of 1,815,090 hectares to control aphids, often applied pre-emptively to protect crops. By combining recent advances in volatile compound detection and insect olfaction bioscience, we hope to develop a sensor that can proactively monitor fields for aphid infestation, allowing for a more targeted application of pesticide, resulting in a significant decrease in application to UK farms.

SugaROx was launched in Feb 2021 to develop and commercialise biostimulant formulations with an Active Ingredient invented through a collaboration between Rothamsted Research and the University of Oxford. We will further validate and develop a state-of-the-art technology in one of the fastest-growing segments of agricultural inputs. This Feasibility Study will allow us to identify the strengths and weaknesses of our technical approach and test our assumptions around the needs of end-users (UK wheat farmers) and potential commercial partners (distributors with established routes to market).

The project aims to develop an image-based identification system for air-borne fungal spores of important UK crop pathogens, using image analysis and artificial intelligence approaches in an automated, robotic sampling device. This method will provide real-time, continuous results of monitoring air samples, providing data on inoculum levels for multiple pathogens and allergens. The key objective is to automate the impaction of airborne spores onto an adhesive transparent film, which will be moved past a microscope camera, focusing on three separate planes and with innovative lighting, spectroscopy, image recognition and AI used to classify spores to indicate abundance of selected pathogens. Test samples produced by Rothamsted Research in lab conditions and real farm-based air samples will be used for training and validation of the system. The method will provide rapid identification and quantification of air-borne spores, aiming initially at three key diseases of concern in the UK. Image analysis and artificial intelligence methods will be developed to 'learn' to identify the pathogen species from known spore samples, and the algorithms developed will enable rapid identification of these pathogen spores in field samples. The main benefits will be an accurate and fast indication of infection risk to crops for a range of diseases, which will help with disease management, especially decisions on fungicide applications. Many crops are treated more often than is necessary so as part of integrated pest(and disease) (IPM) and to reduce agricultural emissions, the project will potentially reduce fungicide applications while improving disease control. Added benefits could be reduced spray costs for farmers and a reduced rate of development of resistance by pathogens. In addition, there will be beneficial effects on biodiversity and the environment from limiting fungicide use. The project is led by Platform Kinetics Limited, an innovative SME specialising in deployable, automated scientific instrumentation using imaging, robotics, and artificial intelligence. The project will produce a lab-prototype system and will be tested by Rothamsted using a realistic experimental set-up. Rothamsted Research will use existing air samplers to take samples for image analysis and design of the system and will validate results by lab-testing duplicate air samples. Private investment will be used to follow on fund this technology to commercially exploitation and integration with crop management software.

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This project brings innovative and disruptive technologies together from IBM, Rothamsted Research, The University of Sheffield, 2Excel, STFC-Hartree Centre and Syngenta to transform the crop management market with blackgrass as its first use case. Blackgrass is a weed costing farmers more than £0.58bn/year, however data, management strategies and expertise are fragmented in the agronomy sector, slowing down UK production and competitiveness. This project aims to end this fragmentation through the provisioning of an artificial-intelligence (AI) and Big Data platform approach, where all data and expertise is collated, allowing researchers to create new evidence-based models and offer easy exploitation routes. Our newly-generated blackgrass forecasting models will be served from this platform through targeted apps or integration into existing offerings from agri-service providers. The platform will be built in an open, innovative way to enable collaboration, innovation and ease route to market for generated insights. Such disruptive, data-driven approaches will empower the UK agriculture sector to become world-leaders in the area of smart agriculture.

"Today, the majority of farmers spray fungicides prophylactically on crops to minimise risk and insure against disease ingress. Most farmers, or their consultants, spend hours inspecting crops but can't easily predict what incubating (invisible) infection is already in the crop or what may start to develop as a result of increasing pathogen presence in the environment. Weather-based disease forecasting methods have been introduced to predict when to spray crops but often have unreliable results, especially against sporadic diseases. The market opportunity for **SpraySaver** is to transform today's '_**spray-and-pray**_' practices by offering a more reliable and precise scientific method of determining when to spray -- using locally gathered disease pathogen data and risk prediction/decision support models to assess crop disease risk. The added value to farmers is a big reduction in crop spray costs, safeguarded or better crop yields/productivity and greater effectiveness when sprays are applied. **SpraySaver** is the world's first automated field analyser system specifically designed for early detection of crop disease pathogens within crop growing environments. One analyser can monitor a wide geographic area of around 100 Ha (dependant on local environmental conditions) and can be configured to detect multiple crop disease pathogens. Each in-field analyser transmits 4G mobile data for analysis in the cloud. Local pathogen data is analysed alongside local weather data within a disease risk model to determine risks of crop disease infection. Pathogens that will be detected include _Sclerotinia_, which affects oilseed rape and carrots, yellow and brown rust of wheat, _Fusarium_ _graminearum_ of cereals, potato late blight, beet rust, and onion down mildew, thereby covering sporadic diseases of a wide range of crops typically grown near to each other under crop rotation. Analysis outputs at a local, regional or even national level can be viewed on multiple display devices with automatic alerts set at predetermined levels. This ambitious project will develop a better DNA quantification method, develop new assays for specific diseases of onion and wheat, and integrate detection with infection-condition models and economic models to make recomendations for spray regimes. The system will ultimately eliminate today's '_**spray-and-pray**_' practices by offering a more reliable scientific method of determining when to spray -- using locally gathered disease pathogen data and risk prediction/decision support models to assess crop disease risk. Integration of the system as a network will add robustness and reliability to the decision-making process."

"British milk yields per cow have increased by 50% in the past 20 years (AHDB, 2018). Whilst grazed grass is a cheap, sustainable, high quality feed current grazing systems do not support these increased yields so cows are fed supplements or even housed them over the summer to ensure higher feed intakes. Such actions increase feed costs and environmental problems such as slurry disposal. Our vision is to develop a system that will collect cow behavioural data in real-time and use artificial intelligence techniques to determine when best to allocate additional pasture to grazed herds resulting in higher intakes and more milk production from grass. To date there has been a market failure in such applied grassland research as there are few established companies in the sector who would financially benefit from promoting such work. This innovate project will use cow behavioural data to track grazing intensity and determine when best to automatically allocate additional grazing. This will increase milk production from grass and lead to more cows to be grazed more of the time helping to meet society's desire that dairy cows should be grazed at grass. Small collar-mounted sensors with track the cows using GPS signals and monitor their grazing behaviour through accelerometer data. A small proportion of cows in the herd (5-8%) will wear the collars throughout the grazing season and the collected data will be sent via a low power wide area network (LoRaWAN) to the internet. The LoRaWAN system (2015) has a 10 km range so it can receive data from all fields on a farm and has a low power requirement so that small batteries can be used to power the sensors over a full year. It has been used in the urban sector but not in lowland agriculture. We will track cows to determine when they move to and from the milking parlour and to monitor their grazing activity in the fields. Group grazing behaviour will be used to determine when best to allocate extra grazing. A signal will be generated to trigger a field gate to open, allowing the herd access to fresh pasture. Over time the system will build up a database of where the cows have grazed which can be used to quantify the productivity of each field. This information will improve and support pasture management decision making such as the need to re-seed grazed pastures."

Production-purpose antibiotics are one of the great Faustian bargains of the modern era: mankind has traded increased livestock yields today for AMR tomorrow. We propose that microalgae can be readily engineered to express a wide range of naturally occurring antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory compounds which can both substitute for production-purpose antibiotics as a means of maximizing feed/energy conversion ratios and treat serious bacterial infections. Our objective in this project is to unequivocally demonstrate this using multi- functionalized microalgae (MM) modified to accumulate two such agents in a series of rigorous field-trials in both healthy and E.coli (K99)-infected calves. Our project is innovative in that MM can not only express these & numerous other functional biochemical compounds, but also constitute a uniquely low-cost and practicable platform technology. 350 million Chinese still live on less than $3/day and microalgae is the only combined expression/delivery system capable of synthesizing the full range of bioactive agents required for managing the complexity of intestinal flora which can be cultivated by both industrial-scale and LMIC artisanal farmers alike.

In light of the increasing difficulty for fruit farmers to source manual workers to pick soft fruits, there is an increasing need for the development of automatic picking systems, for fruit. This project is focused on assessing the advantages and suitability of a 3D multiSpectral imaging system for use in automatic picking systems. A reduction in manual labour to pick fruit will in turn require that an automated system also needs to play a role in disease surveillance on leaves and fruit. The development of new sensors using 3D imaging may allow detection of pre-symptomatic disease presence and improve the scheduling of fruit harvesting. The project is to assess the feasibility of this new sensor technology with both laboratory and field fruit growing applications and compare to existing technology, using the assessment expertise of Rothamsted Research and the facilities and equipment of Crop Health and Protection Ltd (CHAP) - one of the UK Agri Tech centres This project will trial and test an innovative 3D imaging tool to explore its potential to determine the initial development of diseases in key crops and fruit ripening. This will also be of use to fruit growers, researchers and plant breeders requiring phenotyping.

The DryGro™ process enables the production of crops on arid land - it uses 99% less water than conventional agriculture and has the potential to transform large areas of land which are currently unproductive. The focus of the DAF project is to develop the process to grow biomass to produce animal feed.

To develop innovative foliar sprays that reduce the effects of heat stress in wheat and this improves yields in stressed environments.

A 2 year, collaborative R&D investment by Ecometrica, Envsys and Rothamsted Research aims to develop initial wall-to-wall applications of Sentinel Earth Observation (EO) derived information products for environmental compliance and productivity monitoring in agriculture. Innovation is needed to develop the processing methods, calibration / validation processes and demonstration applications that be scaled-up to run across large areas on a continual basis, producing actionable content to be used by national agencies and businesses. The project will make use of a new Earth Observation data management facility (EO Lab) being established at Agrimetrics and will be an early demonstrator of how content management systems can be used to manage IP and realise commercial opportunities for agricultural information services in UK and export markets.

A new collaboration beween industry and academics has been funded which aims to utilise a novel non- GM approach to improve a major UK crop. The project, which involves Rothamsted Research and two industrial partners, The Scotch Whisky Research Institute and Limagrain UK, will run from 2015-2018. A successful outcome will demonstrate the potential to greatly accelerate development of novel varieties of crops for different end uses.

As population growth and climate change have become major challenges to food security, traditional routes to crop improvement are too slow to keep up with demand. This feasibility project involves building a proof-of- concept integration of Rothamsted's network analysis toolset into Genestack extensible genomics data analysis platform. Genestack is a bioinformatics startup created by experts from the European Bioinformatics Institute. Rothamsted Research is a leading UK institute, where the availability of plant genomes, transcriptomes and other data types has led to new insights: genetic improvement of grain development and quality, yield, disease resistance, drought tolerance and nutrient response. Complex analytical approaches of diverse ‘omics data types are required to make such advances. The project aims to broaden Genestack's agri-informatics capabilities with diverse multi-omics plant datasets (genomes, transcriptomes, quantitative trait loci and literature) to enable the analysis of biological networks, to enable the provision of a robust integrated multi- omics data management, pre-processing and interpretation service to companies in the agri-tech industry.

Seed-Co are the largest seed company in Africa, operating in 13 countries in Eastern, Central, Western and Southern Africa and have developed varieties suitable for different environmental conditions as well as for the smallholder farmer, therefore any pest resistance traits will benefit farmers in Africa and further afield. Smallholder farmers face difficult challenges in protecting their crops against pests and diseases in these countries. Aphid pests can cause severe damage and yield losses to wheat. This project will identify wheat lines which show resistance to aphids, which can be bred into wheat varieties suitable to be grown in rain-fed, low-potential environments, thereby safeguarding the yield of smallholder farmers and reducing the reliance on expensive and environmentally unfriendly pesticides. By doing this we hope to contribute to the food and income security of the African smallholder farmer.

A biorefinery uses biomass rather than crude oil to produce energy or chemicals. The term 'biorefinery' is routinely articulated in IB circles, but the concept has, as yet, never been fully realised. The objective of this project is to generate robust process economics for a fully-fledged biorefinery that will not just break even but moreover prove highly profitable. If successful, the project will then generate £24.5m investment from the Malaysian Govt. to realise the technology at scale. The project will involve functionalising microalgae to produce a range of products that can be separated using a low-cost continuous flow downstream processing system. It is innovative in that it will marry the best aspects of the conventional oil refinery (100% feedstock utilisation & high throughputs) with the best aspects of IB (functional complexity and environmentally benign processing).

The aim of this project is to minimise the impact of disease on yield of the UK sugar beet crop which is worth approximately £240M per year. Yield potential of the UK sugar beet crop is c.130 t/ha compared to an average yield of 70t/ha. One of the factors responsible for this yield gap is foliar diseases which can reduce yield by more than 50% and, whilst current practices prevent yield losses of this magnitude, it is estimated that 10% yield is lost to foliar diseases, representing £24M per year. Climate change may lead to increasing pressure from existing diseases and 'new' emerging diseases, which require increased crop protection. This project will bring together novel diagnostic tools, crop disease modelling and yield forecasting to underpin grower decision making and investigate the potential impact of emerging diseases on the crop.

The maintenance of global food security, mediated by sustainable intensification of agriculture, is a recognised global issue and the effective management of plant disease is critical to productive cropping of agricultural land. Potato is the third most important food crop globally, with late blight control being a major challenge estimated to cost £3.5billion in losses per annum. In the UK, disease control alone costs £55M per annum on average to the industry. This project seeks to demonstrate a new prototype device that will sample airborne spores of P. infestans (the cause of late blight) and Alternaria species (the cause of early blight) in the field, automatically process the sample, quantify DNA by fluorescence and relay results by mobile phone text message. The aim is to improve current weather-based disease risk models and predictions for late blight, resulting in enhanced decision making ability for growers with respect to fungicide choice and application and therefore more efficient resource use.

This project aims to design and produce a control system for beetle pests of peas and beans, which does not use blanket sprays of insecticides. Instead, the beetles will be lured to simple devices, baited with beetle specific attractive odours, where they will be coated with spores of an insect fungal disease. When they leave the device they will spread the disease to other beetles like them. This will reduce pest beetle numbers and damage to the crops, but, unlike insecticide sprays, will not affect the environment or other beneficial and non-target insects such as pollinating bees. The insect fungal disease occurs naturally in the soil in the UK and does not pose a risk to other animals. The attractants used are either insect produced (a specific pheromone) or are odours produced by flowering peas and beans. The spores and the attractants will be prepared in a novel formulation that is electrostatically charged and sticks to the beetles body and is passed on to other beetles when they meet.

This project aims to design and produce a control system for beetle pests of peas and beans, which does not use blanket sprays of insecticides. Instead, the beetles will be lured to simple devices, baited with beetle specific attractive odours, where they will be coated with spores of an insect fungal disease. When they leave the device they will spread the disease to other beetles like them. This will reduce pest beetle numbers and damage to the crops, but, unlike insecticide sprays, will not affect the environment or other beneficial and non-target insects such as pollinating bees. The insect fungal disease occurs naturally in the soil in the UK and does not pose a risk to other animals. The attractants used are either insect produced (a specific pheromone) or are odours produced by flowering peas and beans. The spores and the attractants will be prepared in a novel formulation that is electrostatically charged and sticks to the beetles body and is passed on to other beetles when they meet.

This project aims to design and produce a control system for beetle pests of peas and beans, which does not use blanket sprays of insecticides. Instead, the beetles will be lured to simple devices, baited with beetle specific attractive odours, where they will be coated with spores of an insect fungal disease. When they leave the device they will spread the disease to other beetles like them. This will reduce pest beetle numbers and damage to the crops, but, unlike insecticide sprays, will not affect the environment or other beneficial and non-target insects such as pollinating bees. The insect fungal disease occurs naturally in the soil in the UK and does not pose a risk to other animals. The attractants used are either insect produced (a specific pheromone) or are odours produced by flowering peas and beans. The spores and the attractants will be prepared in a novel formulation that is electrostatically charged and sticks to the beetles body and is passed on to other beetles when they meet.

This project aims to design and produce a control system for beetle pests of peas and beans, which does not use blanket sprays of insecticides. Instead, the beetles will be lured to simple devices, baited with beetle specific attractive odours, where they will be coated with spores of an insect fungal disease. When they leave the device they will spread the disease to other beetles like them. This will reduce pest beetle numbers and damage to the crops, but, unlike insecticide sprays, will not affect the environment or other beneficial and non-target insects such as pollinating bees. The insect fungal disease occurs naturally in the soil in the UK and does not pose a risk to other animals. The attractants used are either insect produced (a specific pheromone) or are odours produced by flowering peas and beans. The spores and the attractants will be prepared in a novel formulation that is electrostatically charged and sticks to the beetles body and is passed on to other beetles when they meet.

This project aims to design and produce a control system for beetle pests of peas and beans, which does not use blanket sprays of insecticides. Instead, the beetles will be lured to simple devices, baited with beetle specific attractive odours, where they will be coated with spores of an insect fungal disease. When they leave the device they will spread the disease to other beetles like them. This will reduce pest beetle numbers and damage to the crops, but, unlike insecticide sprays, will not affect the environment or other beneficial and non-target insects such as pollinating bees. The insect fungal disease occurs naturally in the soil in the UK and does not pose a risk to other animals. The attractants used are either insect produced (a specific pheromone) or are odours produced by flowering peas and beans. The spores and the attractants will be prepared in a novel formulation that is electrostatically charged and sticks to the beetles body and is passed on to other beetles when they meet.

This project aims to design and produce a control system for beetle pests of peas and beans, which does not use blanket sprays of insecticides. Instead, the beetles will be lured to simple devices, baited with beetle specific attractive odours, where they will be coated with spores of an insect fungal disease. When they leave the device they will spread the disease to other beetles like them. This will reduce pest beetle numbers and damage to the crops, but, unlike insecticide sprays, will not affect the environment or other beneficial and non-target insects such as pollinating bees. The insect fungal disease occurs naturally in the soil in the UK and does not pose a risk to other animals. The attractants used are either insect produced (a specific pheromone) or are odours produced by flowering peas and beans. The spores and the attractants will be prepared in a novel formulation that is electrostatically charged and sticks to the beetles body and is passed on to other beetles when they meet.

This project aims to design and produce a control system for beetle pests of peas and beans, which does not use blanket sprays of insecticides. Instead, the beetles will be lured to simple devices, baited with beetle specific attractive odours, where they will be coated with spores of an insect fungal disease. When they leave the device they will spread the disease to other beetles like them. This will reduce pest beetle numbers and damage to the crops, but, unlike insecticide sprays, will not affect the environment or other beneficial and non-target insects such as pollinating bees. The insect fungal disease occurs naturally in the soil in the UK and does not pose a risk to other animals. The attractants used are either insect produced (a specific pheromone) or are odours produced by flowering peas and beans. The spores and the attractants will be prepared in a novel formulation that is electrostatically charged and sticks to the beetles body and is passed on to other beetles when they meet.

This project aims to design and produce a control system for beetle pests of peas and beans, which does not use blanket sprays of insecticides. Instead, the beetles will be lured to simple devices, baited with beetle specific attractive odours, where they will be coated with spores of an insect fungal disease. When they leave the device they will spread the disease to other beetles like them. This will reduce pest beetle numbers and damage to the crops, but, unlike insecticide sprays, will not affect the environment or other beneficial and non-target insects such as pollinating bees. The insect fungal disease occurs naturally in the soil in the UK and does not pose a risk to other animals. The attractants used are either insect produced (a specific pheromone) or are odours produced by flowering peas and beans. The spores and the attractants will be prepared in a novel formulation that is electrostatically charged and sticks to the beetles body and is passed on to other beetles when they meet.

This project aims to design and produce a control system for beetle pests of peas and beans, which does not use blanket sprays of insecticides. Instead, the beetles will be lured to simple devices, baited with beetle specific attractive odours, where they will be coated with spores of an insect fungal disease. When they leave the device they will spread the disease to other beetles like them. This will reduce pest beetle numbers and damage to the crops, but, unlike insecticide sprays, will not affect the environment or other beneficial and non-target insects such as pollinating bees. The insect fungal disease occurs naturally in the soil in the UK and does not pose a risk to other animals. The attractants used are either insect produced (a specific pheromone) or are odours produced by flowering peas and beans. The spores and the attractants will be prepared in a novel formulation that is electrostatically charged and sticks to the beetles body and is passed on to other beetles when they meet.

This project aims to design and produce a control system for beetle pests of peas and beans, which does not use blanket sprays of insecticides. Instead, the beetles will be lured to simple devices, baited with beetle specific attractive odours, where they will be coated with spores of an insect fungal disease. When they leave the device they will spread the disease to other beetles like them. This will reduce pest beetle numbers and damage to the crops, but, unlike insecticide sprays, will not affect the environment or other beneficial and non-target insects such as pollinating bees. The insect fungal disease occurs naturally in the soil in the UK and does not pose a risk to other animals. The attractants used are either insect produced (a specific pheromone) or are odours produced by flowering peas and beans. The spores and the attractants will be prepared in a novel formulation that is electrostatically charged and sticks to the beetles body and is passed on to other beetles when they meet.

This project aims to design and produce a control system for beetle pests of peas and beans, which does not use blanket sprays of insecticides. Instead, the beetles will be lured to simple devices, baited with beetle specific attractive odours, where they will be coated with spores of an insect fungal disease. When they leave the device they will spread the disease to other beetles like them. This will reduce pest beetle numbers and damage to the crops, but, unlike insecticide sprays, will not affect the environment or other beneficial and non-target insects such as pollinating bees. The insect fungal disease occurs naturally in the soil in the UK and does not pose a risk to other animals. The attractants used are either insect produced (a specific pheromone) or are odours produced by flowering peas and beans. The spores and the attractants will be prepared in a novel formulation that is electrostatically charged and sticks to the beetles body and is passed on to other beetles when they meet.

This project aims to design and produce a control system for beetle pests of peas and beans, which does not use blanket sprays of insecticides. Instead, the beetles will be lured to simple devices, baited with beetle specific attractive odours, where they will be coated with spores of an insect fungal disease. When they leave the device they will spread the disease to other beetles like them. This will reduce pest beetle numbers and damage to the crops, but, unlike insecticide sprays, will not affect the environment or other beneficial and non-target insects such as pollinating bees. The insect fungal disease occurs naturally in the soil in the UK and does not pose a risk to other animals. The attractants used are either insect produced (a specific pheromone) or are odours produced by flowering peas and beans. The spores and the attractants will be prepared in a novel formulation that is electrostatically charged and sticks to the beetles body and is passed on to other beetles when they meet.

This project aims to design and produce a control system for beetle pests of peas and beans, which does not use blanket sprays of insecticides. Instead, the beetles will be lured to simple devices, baited with beetle specific attractive odours, where they will be coated with spores of an insect fungal disease. When they leave the device they will spread the disease to other beetles like them. This will reduce pest beetle numbers and damage to the crops, but, unlike insecticide sprays, will not affect the environment or other beneficial and non-target insects such as pollinating bees. The insect fungal disease occurs naturally in the soil in the UK and does not pose a risk to other animals. The attractants used are either insect produced (a specific pheromone) or are odours produced by flowering peas and beans. The spores and the attractants will be prepared in a novel formulation that is electrostatically charged and sticks to the beetles body and is passed on to other beetles when they meet.

This project aims to design and produce a control system for beetle pests of peas and beans, which does not use blanket sprays of insecticides. Instead, the beetles will be lured to simple devices, baited with beetle specific attractive odours, where they will be coated with spores of an insect fungal disease. When they leave the device they will spread the disease to other beetles like them. This will reduce pest beetle numbers and damage to the crops, but, unlike insecticide sprays, will not affect the environment or other beneficial and non-target insects such as pollinating bees. The insect fungal disease occurs naturally in the soil in the UK and does not pose a risk to other animals. The attractants used are either insect produced (a specific pheromone) or are odours produced by flowering peas and beans. The spores and the attractants will be prepared in a novel formulation that is electrostatically charged and sticks to the beetles body and is passed on to other beetles when they meet.

This project aims to design and produce a control system for beetle pests of peas and beans, which does not use blanket sprays of insecticides. Instead, the beetles will be lured to simple devices, baited with beetle specific attractive odours, where they will be coated with spores of an insect fungal disease. When they leave the device they will spread the disease to other beetles like them. This will reduce pest beetle numbers and damage to the crops, but, unlike insecticide sprays, will not affect the environment or other beneficial and non-target insects such as pollinating bees. The insect fungal disease occurs naturally in the soil in the UK and does not pose a risk to other animals. The attractants used are either insect produced (a specific pheromone) or are odours produced by flowering peas and beans. The spores and the attractants will be prepared in a novel formulation that is electrostatically charged and sticks to the beetles body and is passed on to other beetles when they meet.

This project aims to design and produce a control system for beetle pests of peas and beans, which does not use blanket sprays of insecticides. Instead, the beetles will be lured to simple devices, baited with beetle specific attractive odours, where they will be coated with spores of an insect fungal disease. When they leave the device they will spread the disease to other beetles like them. This will reduce pest beetle numbers and damage to the crops, but, unlike insecticide sprays, will not affect the environment or other beneficial and non-target insects such as pollinating bees. The insect fungal disease occurs naturally in the soil in the UK and does not pose a risk to other animals. The attractants used are either insect produced (a specific pheromone) or are odours produced by flowering peas and beans. The spores and the attractants will be prepared in a novel formulation that is electrostatically charged and sticks to the beetles body and is passed on to other beetles when they meet.

The project aims to engineer a high impact advance in crop stress monitoring through the development of a novel, flexible multi-sensor imaging system (HD video, IR, Flourescence) for application on a mobile platform (manual or robotic) to automatically detect stresses in crops initially for tomatoes in a protected environment. It is aimed to support growers to improve yields whilst also reducing environmental impact and labour intensity. The project builds on recent research into the use of multi-sensors for the detection of crop stresses and the application of advanced image processing analytics to provider an automated crop stress monitoring solution. Trial units will be developed and outputs displayed.

The overall aim of this industry led project is to increase the intake of soluble dietary fibre by the general population, providing Nutrition for Life to consumers of white bread, many of which are children. Today, almost 55% of all bread consumed in the UK is white bread with low fibre content, and partly responsible for the low fibre intake by the majority of the population. A plant breeding company and leading partner in the project, will develop a new wheat variety suitable for UK growing conditions with increased soluble fibre content and good bread making quality. This work will be carried out in close contact with academic partners at Rothamsted Research and the John Innes Centre. A Retailer will investigate the quality and nutritional value of bread made from high soluble fibre wheat, as well as exploit initial market opportunities, with the aim of launching a white bread with increased level of soluble fibre content. This project, involving a unique composition of plant breeders, retail industry, quality and genetic experts, has been made feasible with financial support from TSB.

The overall aim of this industry led project is to increase the intake of soluble dietary fibre by the general population, providing Nutrition for Life to consumers of white bread, many of which are children. Today, almost 55% of all bread consumed in the UK is white bread with low fibre content, and partly responsible for the low fibre intake by the majority of the population. A plant breeding company and leading partner in the project, will develop a new wheat variety suitable for UK growing conditions with increased soluble fibre content and good bread making quality. This work will be carried out in close contact with academic partners at Rothamsted Research and the John Innes Centre. A Retailer will investigate the quality and nutritional value of bread made from high soluble fibre wheat, as well as exploit initial market opportunities, with the aim of launching a white bread with increased level of soluble fibre content. This project, involving a unique composition of plant breeders, retail industry, quality and genetic experts, has been made feasible with financial support from TSB.

The overall aim of this industry led project is to increase the intake of soluble dietary fibre by the general population, providing Nutrition for Life to consumers of white bread, many of which are children. Today, almost 55% of all bread consumed in the UK is white bread with low fibre content, and partly responsible for the low fibre intake by the majority of the population. A plant breeding company and leading partner in the project, will develop a new wheat variety suitable for UK growing conditions with increased soluble fibre content and good bread making quality. This work will be carried out in close contact with academic partners at Rothamsted Research and the John Innes Centre. A Retailer will investigate the quality and nutritional value of bread made from high soluble fibre wheat, as well as exploit initial market opportunities, with the aim of launching a white bread with increased level of soluble fibre content. This project, involving a unique composition of plant breeders, retail industry, quality and genetic experts, has been made feasible with financial support from TSB.

The overall aim of this industry led project is to increase the intake of soluble dietary fibre by the general population, providing Nutrition for Life to consumers of white bread, many of which are children. Today, almost 55% of all bread consumed in the UK is white bread with low fibre content, and partly responsible for the low fibre intake by the majority of the population. A plant breeding company and leading partner in the project, will develop a new wheat variety suitable for UK growing conditions with increased soluble fibre content and good bread making quality. This work will be carried out in close contact with academic partners at Rothamsted Research and the John Innes Centre. A Retailer will investigate the quality and nutritional value of bread made from high soluble fibre wheat, as well as exploit initial market opportunities, with the aim of launching a white bread with increased level of soluble fibre content. This project, involving a unique composition of plant breeders, retail industry, quality and genetic experts, has been made feasible with financial support from TSB.

The overall aim of this industry led project is to increase the intake of soluble dietary fibre by the general population, providing Nutrition for Life to consumers of white bread, many of which are children. Today, almost 55% of all bread consumed in the UK is white bread with low fibre content, and partly responsible for the low fibre intake by the majority of the population. A plant breeding company and leading partner in the project, will develop a new wheat variety suitable for UK growing conditions with increased soluble fibre content and good bread making quality. This work will be carried out in close contact with academic partners at Rothamsted Research and the John Innes Centre. A Retailer will investigate the quality and nutritional value of bread made from high soluble fibre wheat, as well as exploit initial market opportunities, with the aim of launching a white bread with increased level of soluble fibre content. This project, involving a unique composition of plant breeders, retail industry, quality and genetic experts, has been made feasible with financial support from TSB.

The overall aim of this industry led project is to increase the intake of soluble dietary fibre by the general population, providing Nutrition for Life to consumers of white bread, many of which are children. Today, almost 55% of all bread consumed in the UK is white bread with low fibre content, and partly responsible for the low fibre intake by the majority of the population. A plant breeding company and leading partner in the project, will develop a new wheat variety suitable for UK growing conditions with increased soluble fibre content and good bread making quality. This work will be carried out in close contact with academic partners at Rothamsted Research and the John Innes Centre. A Retailer will investigate the quality and nutritional value of bread made from high soluble fibre wheat, as well as exploit initial market opportunities, with the aim of launching a white bread with increased level of soluble fibre content. This project, involving a unique composition of plant breeders, retail industry, quality and genetic experts, has been made feasible with financial support from TSB.

The overall aim of this industry led project is to increase the intake of soluble dietary fibre by the general population, providing Nutrition for Life to consumers of white bread, many of which are children. Today, almost 55% of all bread consumed in the UK is white bread with low fibre content, and partly responsible for the low fibre intake by the majority of the population. A plant breeding company and leading partner in the project, will develop a new wheat variety suitable for UK growing conditions with increased soluble fibre content and good bread making quality. This work will be carried out in close contact with academic partners at Rothamsted Research and the John Innes Centre. A Retailer will investigate the quality and nutritional value of bread made from high soluble fibre wheat, as well as exploit initial market opportunities, with the aim of launching a white bread with increased level of soluble fibre content. This project, involving a unique composition of plant breeders, retail industry, quality and genetic experts, has been made feasible with financial support from TSB.

The overall aim of this industry led project is to increase the intake of soluble dietary fibre by the general population, providing Nutrition for Life to consumers of white bread, many of which are children. Today, almost 55% of all bread consumed in the UK is white bread with low fibre content, and partly responsible for the low fibre intake by the majority of the population. A plant breeding company and leading partner in the project, will develop a new wheat variety suitable for UK growing conditions with increased soluble fibre content and good bread making quality. This work will be carried out in close contact with academic partners at Rothamsted Research and the John Innes Centre. A Retailer will investigate the quality and nutritional value of bread made from high soluble fibre wheat, as well as exploit initial market opportunities, with the aim of launching a white bread with increased level of soluble fibre content. This project, involving a unique composition of plant breeders, retail industry, quality and genetic experts, has been made feasible with financial support from TSB.

The overall aim of this industry led project is to increase the intake of soluble dietary fibre by the general population, providing Nutrition for Life to consumers of white bread, many of which are children. Today, almost 55% of all bread consumed in the UK is white bread with low fibre content, and partly responsible for the low fibre intake by the majority of the population. A plant breeding company and leading partner in the project, will develop a new wheat variety suitable for UK growing conditions with increased soluble fibre content and good bread making quality. This work will be carried out in close contact with academic partners at Rothamsted Research and the John Innes Centre. A Retailer will investigate the quality and nutritional value of bread made from high soluble fibre wheat, as well as exploit initial market opportunities, with the aim of launching a white bread with increased level of soluble fibre content. This project, involving a unique composition of plant breeders, retail industry, quality and genetic experts, has been made feasible with financial support from TSB.

The overall aim of this industry led project is to increase the intake of soluble dietary fibre by the general population, providing Nutrition for Life to consumers of white bread, many of which are children. Today, almost 55% of all bread consumed in the UK is white bread with low fibre content, and partly responsible for the low fibre intake by the majority of the population. A plant breeding company and leading partner in the project, will develop a new wheat variety suitable for UK growing conditions with increased soluble fibre content and good bread making quality. This work will be carried out in close contact with academic partners at Rothamsted Research and the John Innes Centre. A Retailer will investigate the quality and nutritional value of bread made from high soluble fibre wheat, as well as exploit initial market opportunities, with the aim of launching a white bread with increased level of soluble fibre content. This project, involving a unique composition of plant breeders, retail industry, quality and genetic experts, has been made feasible with financial support from TSB.

The overall aim of this industry led project is to increase the intake of soluble dietary fibre by the general population, providing Nutrition for Life to consumers of white bread, many of which are children. Today, almost 55% of all bread consumed in the UK is white bread with low fibre content, and partly responsible for the low fibre intake by the majority of the population. A plant breeding company and leading partner in the project, will develop a new wheat variety suitable for UK growing conditions with increased soluble fibre content and good bread making quality. This work will be carried out in close contact with academic partners at Rothamsted Research and the John Innes Centre. A Retailer will investigate the quality and nutritional value of bread made from high soluble fibre wheat, as well as exploit initial market opportunities, with the aim of launching a white bread with increased level of soluble fibre content. This project, involving a unique composition of plant breeders, retail industry, quality and genetic experts, has been made feasible with financial support from TSB.

The overall aim of this industry led project is to increase the intake of soluble dietary fibre by the general population, providing Nutrition for Life to consumers of white bread, many of which are children. Today, almost 55% of all bread consumed in the UK is white bread with low fibre content, and partly responsible for the low fibre intake by the majority of the population. A plant breeding company and leading partner in the project, will develop a new wheat variety suitable for UK growing conditions with increased soluble fibre content and good bread making quality. This work will be carried out in close contact with academic partners at Rothamsted Research and the John Innes Centre. A Retailer will investigate the quality and nutritional value of bread made from high soluble fibre wheat, as well as exploit initial market opportunities, with the aim of launching a white bread with increased level of soluble fibre content. This project, involving a unique composition of plant breeders, retail industry, quality and genetic experts, has been made feasible with financial support from TSB.

The overall aim of this industry led project is to increase the intake of soluble dietary fibre by the general population, providing Nutrition for Life to consumers of white bread, many of which are children. Today, almost 55% of all bread consumed in the UK is white bread with low fibre content, and partly responsible for the low fibre intake by the majority of the population. A plant breeding company and leading partner in the project, will develop a new wheat variety suitable for UK growing conditions with increased soluble fibre content and good bread making quality. This work will be carried out in close contact with academic partners at Rothamsted Research and the John Innes Centre. A Retailer will investigate the quality and nutritional value of bread made from high soluble fibre wheat, as well as exploit initial market opportunities, with the aim of launching a white bread with increased level of soluble fibre content. This project, involving a unique composition of plant breeders, retail industry, quality and genetic experts, has been made feasible with financial support from TSB.

The overall aim of this industry led project is to increase the intake of soluble dietary fibre by the general population, providing Nutrition for Life to consumers of white bread, many of which are children. Today, almost 55% of all bread consumed in the UK is white bread with low fibre content, and partly responsible for the low fibre intake by the majority of the population. A plant breeding company and leading partner in the project, will develop a new wheat variety suitable for UK growing conditions with increased soluble fibre content and good bread making quality. This work will be carried out in close contact with academic partners at Rothamsted Research and the John Innes Centre. A Retailer will investigate the quality and nutritional value of bread made from high soluble fibre wheat, as well as exploit initial market opportunities, with the aim of launching a white bread with increased level of soluble fibre content. This project, involving a unique composition of plant breeders, retail industry, quality and genetic experts, has been made feasible with financial support from TSB.

The overall aim of this industry led project is to increase the intake of soluble dietary fibre by the general population, providing Nutrition for Life to consumers of white bread, many of which are children. Today, almost 55% of all bread consumed in the UK is white bread with low fibre content, and partly responsible for the low fibre intake by the majority of the population. A plant breeding company and leading partner in the project, will develop a new wheat variety suitable for UK growing conditions with increased soluble fibre content and good bread making quality. This work will be carried out in close contact with academic partners at Rothamsted Research and the John Innes Centre. A Retailer will investigate the quality and nutritional value of bread made from high soluble fibre wheat, as well as exploit initial market opportunities, with the aim of launching a white bread with increased level of soluble fibre content. This project, involving a unique composition of plant breeders, retail industry, quality and genetic experts, has been made feasible with financial support from TSB.

The overall aim of this industry led project is to increase the intake of soluble dietary fibre by the general population, providing Nutrition for Life to consumers of white bread, many of which are children. Today, almost 55% of all bread consumed in the UK is white bread with low fibre content, and partly responsible for the low fibre intake by the majority of the population. A plant breeding company and leading partner in the project, will develop a new wheat variety suitable for UK growing conditions with increased soluble fibre content and good bread making quality. This work will be carried out in close contact with academic partners at Rothamsted Research and the John Innes Centre. A Retailer will investigate the quality and nutritional value of bread made from high soluble fibre wheat, as well as exploit initial market opportunities, with the aim of launching a white bread with increased level of soluble fibre content. This project, involving a unique composition of plant breeders, retail industry, quality and genetic experts, has been made feasible with financial support from TSB.

Project Title: Accelerating Discovery by Mining and Visualising Integrated Chemogenomics Data Name: Mark Forster Orgaisation : Syngenta Project Description: This Syngenta and Rothamsted colaboration project, has a focus on extending the Ondex data integration toolkit by adding 'chemical intelligence' to the existing software toolkit. This will provide enhanced capabilities for chemical structure visualisation , and the ability to link together datasets of (for example) internal and external chemical structure repositories. External datasets will include public chemical bioactivity resources such as the ChEMBL resource hosted at EMBL-EBI. This will enhance the interpretation of internal chemical structure information, providing links to public information on genes and proteins, allowing chemists and biologists greater insight into the mechanisms of bioactivity. As the Ondex toolkit is available under an open source license, all enhancements will also be made freely available to the scientific community as open source. This is intended to drive the adoption and uptake of the new tools and capabilities and contribute to open innovation.

The project will enable growers to produce more food with fewer inputs, through an integrated farm management strategy. This optimises the Crop Protection (CP) using a network of in-field biosensors which then interact to form a UK, and international, infrastructure. This will be combined with the dual-action disease control and crop enhancement offered by a subset of CP chemistries. Initial adoption will be for Sclerotinia in UK Oil Seed Rape (OSR) integrated with Syngenta's dual-mode Amistar chemistry. UK technology companies will manufacture the sensor nodes which then link, alongside satellite crop-usage data, into a GIS web portal accessible as a commercial service to; farmers, agronomists, government and other agri-food stakeholders.

This project will enable efficacy and environmental protection to be optimised for soil-applied pesticides, supporting rational product design and regulatory approval. Simulation models are the primary basis for regulating pesticides against EU ground- and surface-water protection standards, but the current models cannot explicitly represent plants or their roots, or the effects of formulations and formulation placement strategies. This project will create a conceptual framework for representing local pesticide concentrations in the whole soil-plant system, and will use it to produce a spatially-competent simulation model. By relating local concentrations of pesticides to product efficacy, it will be possible to use the model to rationally design better active ingredients, formulations and placement strategies. The new model will also enable the environmental benefit of advanced formulations and placement strategies to be quantified in a cost-effective way for the first time. This offers the prospect of being able to gain credit in the regulatory approval process for these technologies, offsetting the negative economic effects of evolving regulation.

To enable improved control of the bean seed beetle, the project will develop a novel integrated pest management (IPM) strategy based on a monitoring system and defined treatment thresholds to rationalise pesticide use, and will represent a more sustainable longer-term approach to allow continuity of supply of high quality field beans for the UK export market and improved quality of broad beans for processing and the fresh market. The project will address three main objectives: 1. To optimise a prototype monitoring trap - accomplished by detailed studies of bruchid response to host plant and insect produced volatile odours, thereby producing a lure based on the most attractive blend of components. The optimum position for traps will be established and the trap catch will be calibrated in relation to bruchid infestation patterns, crop phenology and crop damage. 2. To develop a Decision Support System specifically for bean producers and based on meteorological data, trap catch data, crop growth stage and thresholds. The sytem will indentify the risk to the crop of damage from the pest and advise on the need for and the optimum timing for treatment. It will be developed as a web-based system. 3. Support and deliver the System to UK bean growers via the unique PGRO knowledge transfer portal. The Project aligns well with the TSB New Approaches to Crop Protection competition since it seeks to enhance crop quality and productivity by targeting a particularly damaging pest (the bean seed or bruchid beetle), which is difficult to detect/control and has a highly detrimental effect on UK bean production and quality, for both national and export markets. This will allow UK growers to rationalise insecticide use by eliminating unnecessary applications and enabling more efficient, precisely timed and better targeted spray application, thereby reducing costs and prolonging the useful life of the insecticide products available. This approach also supports existing and new EU policy, regulations and requirements. In addition, by rationalising insecticide sprays and eliminating prophylactic treatment the effects on the natural enemies of the pest will be greatly reduced and the overall environmental impact of crop protection will be minimised and thus more sustainable for this part of the Agricultural Industry. The IPM decision support package will be co-ordinated and made available to UK bean growers by PGRO, which is sponsored by UK pea and bean growers, merchants and processors. It provides a research and development programme, together with an advisory and technical service, to support the production of UK pulses and to deliver knowledge and information through the PGRO knowledge transfer portals. Since 2004 direct damage by bruchids, despite intensive insecticide application, resulted in a dramatic loss of income for the industry. Bruchid infestation is the main limiting factor to growth in export and home markets for beans for human consumption since damage tolerance levels are so low. UK field beans failing to meet export quality standards because of bruchid damage can be used for animal feed, which has a considerably lower value. Crops with heavy damage are unsuitable even for animal feed. The export quality criteria for beans include a maximum acceptable level of damaged beans of 2% and no live Bruchids within the seed. In some years, the maximum damage level in some crops of beans has been as high as 40%. Blemishes to broad beans caused by bruchid larvae can result in total crop rejection by processors/retailers, with no other outlet. Thus failure to control bruchid has resulted in many UK growers abandoning bean production altogether. Currently the pest can be found in southern and eastern counties of England, but as beans expand in England and in the borders of Scotland, the risk of further dispersal of the pest is increased and in particular, if weather patterns change over time, then summer temperatures may be more favourable for bruchid survival in the more northerly and western parts of UK. In the UK, field bean or faba bean (Vicia faba) is an important and economically valuable legume break crop since it provides a source of home-grown protein for livestock, a lucrative quality export market for human consumption, and environmental benefits through the requirement of no artificial nitrogen fertiliser but a return of fixed nitrogen to the soil and a source of food for pollinating insects. In order to maintain a continuing crop with export potential, growers need confidence in agronomic practices to be able to produce beans of consistently high quality. The additional potential of an increase in the area grown will add further to the diversity of cropping and the environmental benefits of a legume crop. The provision of a reliable local Decision Support System for UK growers will restore grower confidence by ensuring: a) bruchid damage levels are more predictable, and b) insecticide applications are effective, accurately timed to give optimum control levels and that no unnecessary applications are made. An increased UK production of high quality, unblemished beans for human consumption, with an export potential of £9.8m p.a. in all markets, will allow growers to compete more effectively with growers in other countries. The proposed Decision Support System is unlike any currently used in UK or Europe since it combines a web-based forecasting system and a monitoring trap to allow growers to monitor on farm but to access a nationally available forecasting system to enable local decisions on crop management to be made. Although the pest is also present in France, the local warning system available to French growers is based entirely on local weather forecasting and any treatment is recommended in the absence of knowledge of pest activity in individual crops. The proposed system will not only improve timing of sprays but will eliminate the need for prophylactic treatments where the pest may not be present, thereby improving the economics of pest control for UK growers. The main challenge for the provision of the Decision Support system will be the development of an effective monitoring trap. A prototype trap already exists and will be developed and improved to provide growers with an alert to the pests arrival in the crop. However, alternative monitoring methods such as field counts will be compared throughout the project during the calibration and determination of damage thresholds. Trap catch will be calibrated with the number of pests in the crop at particular crop growth stages and with the damage resulting from that level of pest and the information fed back into the DSS. The design and operation of the DSS will be based on an existing forecasting system used successfuly for potato blight. The working DSS will provide the grower with advice about the need for and timing of insecticide application by relating local meteorological conditions, including maximum day time temperature, which is important for bruchid activity, to the growers trap catch and crop growth stage.

Take-all is one of the most important fungal diseases of UK winter wheat, with up to half the crop being affected with losses costing farmers up to £60m per annum. The disease causes root system damage, resulting in reduced water and nitrogen uptake, which impacts on both yield and quality. Current control measures are not 100% effective and include cultural practices and chemical control. Previous work at Rothamsted Research has shown that the varieties Avalon and Cadenza show differences in the amount of the take-all fungus left behind in the soil after harvest. This influences the inoculum available for infection of a second wheat crop. The genetic loci controlling this trait have been identified and the aim of this project is to utilise these results in developing varieties which resist take-all build up (TAB). The 1st objective will be to assess a further range of UK varieties and lines from the partners with respect to this take-all build-up phenotype. The 2nd objective will be to map the genetic loci further, using more lines from the Avalon x Cadenza WGIN mapping population. From this analysis we aim to map this trait more finely in order to give us diagnostic markers for use in marker-assisted selection (MAS). During this project, we will have selected varieties and advanced material for direct use in the market place which show this reduced TAB phenotype, giving added value to material currently entering registration. Development of UK varieties carrying this unique trait will benefit not only our companies, but also wheat productivity by increasing yields by up to 1.9m tonnes pa.

l-Octen-3-ol is a valuable natural product that is used universally in commercial trapping systems for monitoring populations of major worldwide pests of medical and veterinary importance, e.g. mosquitoes, tsetse flies and biting midges. To date, however, racemic material, i.e. (RS)-l-octen-3-ol, which is widely commercially available, has been used, because production of enantiopure, Le. pure (R) or (S)-isomers, is currently financially prohibitive on a commercial scale. The use of racemic material means tbat the trapping systems are not optimal, through the inability to use enantiopure materials or specific optimised isomer ratios that are more active. This project aims to develop a commercial package for UK-based commercial-scale production of pure (R) and (S)-l-octen-3-ol, and to provide the science base necessarv for development of optimised trapping svstems.