News

Warwick Crop Centre staff Rob Lillywhite and Carla Sarrouy have contributed to the development of a new on-line course 'Food and the City'. The course has been developed through a collaboration of individual experts from universities based in the West Midlands region of England - in particular, Coventry University, Harper Adams University, University College Birmingham and the University of Warwick – working together as part of the Food Smart City Project funded by Universities West Midlands and the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

An international study, headed by Dr Jose Gutierrez-Marcos from the School of Life Sciences and published in the journal Science, provides the first evidence that plants have evolved ways to control embryo growth and development by emitting information from surrounding cells. A breakthrough that could lead to the creation of a new generation of high yield plants.

Representatives (staff and PhD students) from the School of Life Sciences, including Warwick Crop Centre, attended and presented at the 19th Crucifer Genetics Workshop and Brassica 2014 in Whan, China last week. The meeting provided a platform to exchange research and production information, and to explore the opportunities for cooperations in studies on Brassicaceae genetics and genomics, and their applications in genetic improvement of crop species.

Researchers at the University of Warwick’s School of Life Sciences have been awarded substantial funding from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). The grants, worth £1.712m to the University, will support cutting-edge research in environmental microbiology, crop evolution and facilities improvement.