Innovating agriculture

Linda Partridge works on the biology of ageing. Her research is directed to understanding the mechanisms by which healthy lifespan can be extended in laboratory model organisms and humans. Her work has focused in particular on the role of nutrient-sensing pathways, such as the insulin/insulin-like growth factor signalling pathway, and on the role of diet.

She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Royal Society's Croonian Prize Lecture, and was honoured with a DBE for Services to Science in 2009. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Academy of Medical Sciences and a foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is Director of the Institute of Healthy Ageing at UCL and the founding director of the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne, Germany.

Lisa Ainsworth is the Research Leader of the Global Change and Photosynthesis Research Unit, co-located on the campus of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She received her BS in Biology at UCLA and PhD in Crop Sciences from the University of Illinois. Her research addresses crop responses to global atmospheric change and potential solutions to mitigate climate change through agriculture. She studies photosynthetic responses of plants to climate change, and her research is broadly integrative, from genetic to agronomic scales. She directs the Soybean Free Air Concentration Enrichment (SoyFACE) facility, the longest running open-air experiment for studying crop responses to atmospheric change. In 2019, she was awarded the National Academy of Sciences Prize in Food and Agricultural Sciences and was an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2020. 

Simon is a wheat geneticist based at the John Innes Centre in Norwich. He leads Delivering Sustainable Wheat, which is a cross institutional programme funded by the BBSRC. DSW uses state of the art genetics and genomics tools to deliver new and useful genetic diversity into wheat breeding programmes. Simon has a particular interest in the AE Watkins Collection of wheat landraces.

Mick Watson is a genome scientist, data scientist and bioinformatician with over 25 years' experience in animal health and nutrition research. Currently Principal Data Scientist at dsm-firmenich, where he works on connected data infrastructure, Mick was formerly an academic for 20 years, most recently as Head of Genetics at The Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh. He has published over 130 peer-reviewed publications, on subjects such as livestock microbiome diversity, animal genetics and genomics, functional genomics, genome editing, and bioinformatics/computational biology. Mick retains a position at Scotland's Rural College as an associate professor.

Professor Diane Saunders is Head of the Crop Genetics department at the JIC leading research into (re-)emerging plant pathogens that pose a significant threat to agriculture. Diane is well known for her breadth of expertise in plant pathology that she has applied to study three of the world’s most important plant diseases: rice blast, potato late blight and cereal rusts, making many notable contributions. These include recent work evaluating re-emergence of wheat stem rust in the UK and development of pioneering techniques in pathogen surveillance; the revolutionary “field pathogenomics” and “MARPLE diagnostics” techniques, where she was awarded the BBSRC Innovator of the Year award in the International Category (2019). She also works closely with industry to ensure her research discoveries are rapidly progressed to practical solutions for agriculture. In addition, her receipt of the Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award in 2022 reflects her passion for mentoring early-career researchers and advocacy for promoting gender parity in wheat research.

Carlo Boutton obtained his PhD in 1999 at the University of Leuven (Belgium) on a subject that investigated the physico-chemical behavior of proteins under high-electromagnetic (laser) fields. 

After his PhD he joined Algonomics, a small start-up that focused on rational design of therapeutics in the broad field of immunotherapy. 

In 2003 he moved to Tibotec (a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson) where he supported multiple HIV and HCV discovery programs via a structure-based design and chemo-informatics approach. 

He started working with single domain antibodies, so called Nanobodies in 2007, when joining Ablynx where he held multiple positions. Throughout his Ablynx tenure he mainly focused on improvements of the NANOBODY® platform and on new therapeutic applications for single domain antibodies, such as multispecifics, immunotherapeutics and antibody-drug-conjugates. He was also involved in multiple external collaborations as member of Joint Steering Committees. After the acquisition of Ablynx by Sanofi he continued focusing on innovation. In his last position as Global Head Innovation for Large Molecules Research he was responsible for all innovation efforts of all biological modalities, including Nanobodies, antibodies and cytokines. In May 2022 he joined Biotalys as Chief Scientific Officer to focus on the technology platform and the research pipeline. He is responsible for all research and early development activities and is leading a multidisciplinary team of ~50 scientists. Carlo is co-inventor on more than 20 patent applications and brings more 20 years of R&D expertise to Biotalys.

Giles Oldroyd studies the mechanisms by which plants form beneficial interactions with micro-organisms, both bacteria and fungi, that aid in the uptake of nutrients from the environment, including nitrogen. A long-term aim of this research is to reduce agricultural reliance on inorganic fertilisers and he currently heads an international programme funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Agricultural Innovations.

He completed his PhD in 1998 at the University of California, Berkeley, studying plant-pathogen interactions and then moved to Stanford University, USA, to work on nitrogen fixation in the laboratory of Prof. Sharon Long. After working 15 years as a group leader at the John Innes Centre in the UK, he moved to the University of Cambridge in 2017 and in 2019 was elected the Russell R Geiger Professor of Crop Sciences. In this role he directs the Crop Science Centre, an alliance between the University of Cambridge and NIAB. The Crop Science Centre strives to deliver transformative technologies that sustainably increase agricultural productivity for all the world’s farmers. In 2020 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and a member of EMBO and in 2021 he was elected foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences, USA.

Martin is the Director of the Sustainable Soils and Crops Strategic Area at Rothamsted Research, and the lead of the “Growing Health” Institute Strategic Programme. His research seeks to increase our understanding of mineral nutrient dynamics in the context of different agricultural and food systems and at multiple scales. A personal research focus is on improving the nutritional quality of crops for human and livestock diets. This work includes collaborations with soil and crop scientists, human/animal nutritionists, and social scientists. From 2017–2021, Martin was a part-time Senior Research Fellow (Agriculture & Food Systems) in the Research and Evidence Division of the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO); he retains a Chair in Plant Nutrition at the University of Nottingham.

Debbie has a strong agricultural background and 30 years’ experience in research across crop physiology, agronomy and sustainable agriculture. After studying Agricultural Botany at University of Reading, Debbie moved to the University of Nottingham in 1992 for her PhD in Agriculture, then was appointed as Lecturer in Agronomy in 1995 and subsequently promoted to Associate Professor in 2007 and Professor in 2017.  Debbie’s research has always been industry focussed, working in collaboration with growers, levy boards and the wider agri-food industry. In April 2023, she joined Diageo as Agave Science Manager. Her role is focussed on the sustainable supply of agave for tequila production and also extends to other key crops in Diageo’s supply chain.

Following achieving a degree in Agricultural Botany at Reading University in 1989, Mark worked as a commercial agronomist in the agricultural supply industry, advising farmers on both plant protection and crop nutrition for 10 years. Following this he spent two years as an independent agronomist for Aubourn Farming in Norfolk. In 2002 Mark joined Yara UK Ltd as their Company Agronomist, directing the agronomic policies, R & D, and interacting with the marketing function. In 2011 he completed The Frank Arden Nuffield Scholarship titled ‘Life after Manufactured Fertilizer – Nitrogen’. In 2012 he became the Chief Agronomist for Yara BU North and East Europe which has given him experience with other crops, including Soybean, and precision farming developments in agricultural environments from Russia, Ukraine, The Baltics, Finland and the Nordic region. In September 2015 he returned to Yara UK as Marketing and Agronomy Manager, Yara UK & Ireland. More recently in December 2023, Mark took up the position as Partnership & Value Chain Manager, Yara Europe that has a focus on introducing the ultralow carbon fertilizers into the local markets.

Dr Mike Craven holds a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Liverpool for his work on designing catalysts for multiphase oxidation reactions. As a Postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Electronics, he contributed significantly to a DfT-funded project developing a plasma-pyrolysis system converting waste biomass into liquid fuels. His work also explored the use of plasma catalytic systems for ammonia synthesis and converting CO2 emissions into valuable chemicals and fuels.

Mike then worked at United Utilities in an ISO 17025 accredited laboratory, analysing water samples, and holding the role of Senior Scientist in his final year.

Returning to the University of Liverpool, Mike served as the Entrepreneurial Lead for Plasma2X Limited in the ICURe Programme, exploring the market potential of their innovative process for producing sustainable fertiliser from air and water, powered by renewables. Transitioning to COO at Plasma2X, he runs business operations, development, and R&D.

Simon Pearson is Professor of Agri-Food Technology,  Director of the Lincoln Institute of Agri Food Technology (LIAT) as well as FRUITCAST.AI, a spin out company from the University of Lincoln and founded in collaboration with the University of Cambridges’ CERES Agri-Tech program. LIAT is an interdisciplinary research group focussing on applications of robotics and AI in agriculture. It conducts research that spans all technology readiness levels, including the commercial translation of its own research. Working with CERES Agri-Tech, LIAT has now spun out two leading agri-tech companies; FRUITCAST.AI that uses AI to help farmers forecast yields  and AGARICUS ROBOTICS who have developed commercial mushroom harvesting systems. Both companies have now received follow on or commercial funding and are in advanced commercial testing  on UK farms. FRUITCAST.AI was founded by Raymond Tunstill, a former University of Lincoln PhD student. Simon is also Director of the £5M EPSRC LINCAM PBIAA fund investing in research transaction projects to drive place based agri tech impact.  He is a member of the FSA Science Ccuncil, chair of the Innovate UK Bridge AI program advisory board and with the Secretary of State led the Defra Automation and Robotics Review for Horticulture. LIAT were awarded the 2023 Queen's Anniversary Prize for contributions to Agri-tech.

Angie is developing an ARIA research programme in the area of Programmable Plants. Angie's background is in plant biology, where her research career has focused on investigating the responses of crop plants to environmental stresses, such as drought and extreme temperature. Angie's research united a range of disciplines including plant physiology, biochemistry and remote sensing to understand what limits plant growth. Angie worked as a Consultant at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Brookhaven National Laboratory in the USA and a Research Associate at the University of Cambridge, before joining ARIA in 2023.

Andy is Interim Director for Agri-Food Systems at Innovate UK, leading programmes within the theme to accelerate UK economic and productivity growth through business-led innovation. Prior to this, Andy was Head of Business Interaction at BBSRC, responsible for leading BBSRC’s activities to ensure businesses benefited from biosciences research investments in universities and research institutes. He has also been involved in the development of a number of key initiatives to support the UK agriculture sector including UK Agri-Tech Strategy, Agricultural Productivity Working Group and Task Force and the Farming Innovation Programme. Throughout his career Andy has worked at the interface between research and commercialisation, championing the drive to increase the impact of publicly funded research and development. 

Dr Andrew Muir is a Director of Future Planet Capital Ventures, an FCA-authorised fund management company, and is the fund principal for the £102M UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund. He also co-manages the Future Planet Capital Blue Ocean investment vehicle backed by the government of Monaco.

After an initial scientific career at Zeneca Andrew went on to roles in research and business development at the medical device company Biocompatibles and was then Vice President of Technology for a US start-up in disinfection of medical equipment.

He started his career in venture at NESTA (the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts). Andrew has previously advised the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society of Edinburgh on their entrepreneurship support programmes and has held a number of portfolio company director positions. He has a degree and a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Oxford.

Angela Karp is Scientific Director of the Rothamsted Centre for Bioenergy and Climate Change. Her research focuses on optimising perennial biomass crops (especially willows) for bioenergy and biofuels.  Amongst many projects, Dr Karp is responsible for the UK willow breeding programme and also coordinated a RELU-Biomass project on the social, environmental and economic implications of increasing land use under energy crops. She now leads the BSBEC-BioMASS Programme - one of six research hubs comprising the BBSRC Sustainable Bioenergy Centre. In 2007 she received the RASE Research Medal and, in 2008, the Alfred-Toepfer prize for research achievements in willow.