A centre of excellence is planned following a symposium between the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the John Innes Centre.
The symposium highlighted shared scientific goals that will drive the step change in agriculture needed to produce food sustainably in the future.
The world population threatens to reach 9 billion by 2050, putting the challenges for plant science firmly in the spotlight.
The JIC and the CAS Institutes share strength in crop genomics and in understanding how plants and microbes produce natural products.
Building on these relations, the JIC and CAS signed a Memorandum of Understanding in June 2011 to combine their strengths for the public good, especially in the areas of food security, sustainable agriculture and healthy living.
This will be achieved through a series of exchanges and by establishing a joint CAS-JIC Centre of Excellence in China.
The John Innes Centre is strategically funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). BBSRC also support UK-China partnerships via its China Partnering Awards.
It is envisaged that the Centre of Excellence will run joint research programmes, overseen by CAS and JIC scientists, focused on producing new varieties of ’future-proofed’ wheat and rice, two of the world’s most important crops.
The aim is to improve these cereals through rational design based on research at JIC and CAS into their fundamental biology and genetics.
The centre will design crop plants for the future, delivering improved performance and yield while reducing reliance on inputs such as fertilisers and pesticides. It will exploit the potential to produce new natural products using the biodiversity of plants and microbes.
