On 26^th March there was a celebration in London of the successful completion of the Waitrose Collaborative Training Partnership. With funding from BBSRC and the Waitrose Agronomy Group the partnership has trained 31 PhD students. The partner institutions were Lancaster (lead), Reading and Warwick Universities together with Rothamsted Research. Each of the PhD projects was developed in partnership with a supervisor working in the fresh produce industry and they spent time with suppliers in the place of work.

The students who completed their degrees at the University of Warwick were:

Jamie Pike – new tools for predicting the spread of Fusarium wilt in bananas (Industrial partner: Primafuit) New tools for understanding and identifying Fusarium wilt - WRAP: Warwick Research Archive Portal

Dion Garrett – using landscape genomics to improve management of pest insect species (Industrial partner: G’s Fresh; Research partner: Rothamsted Research) Utilising ecology and molecular techniques to identify alternative hosts, Green Bridges, and population structure of a serious aphid pest - WRAP: Warwick Research Archive Portal

Nicholas Kuht – enhancing salad onion yield and quality through an understanding on in-field variability (Industrial partner: G’s Fresh) Enhancing salad onion yield and quality through an understanding of in-field variability - WRAP: Warwick Research Archive Portal

Anastasia Sokolidi – smart detection of airborne diseases in protect crops (Industrial partner: APS Group; Research partner: Rothamsted Research) SMART detection of airborne pathogens for improved disease management in the UK tomato industry - WRAP: Warwick Research Archive Portal