In a major development for UK horticultural research, East Malling Research (EMR) and STC Research Foundation (STCRF) signed an agreement on Wednesday to provide integrated applied science resources to the horticulture industry.
The collaboration links these two industry-focused organisations and their resources not only to bring solutions to horticultural problems for growers, but also to give funders confidence to invest in a stable expertise resource.
EMR and STCRF are both owned and governed by boards of trustees drawn from across the different horticultural disciplines and whose aims are solely based around research and knowledge transfer. The collaboration will enable staff to share and build a larger expertise base and also put UK horticulture research on a sounder footing and enable new staff expertise to be more confidently recruited.
The collaboration addresses some of the challenges laid down in the Jamieson report for the National Horticultural Forum last year.
Horticultural Development Company (HDC) chairman Neil Bragg said the HDC’s board had greeted news of the announcement “with considerable approval.”
Sarah Pettitt, chair of the National Farmers’ Union Horticultural Board, also welcomed the development. She said: “The industry needs a focus like this to persuade government to commit funding to help us cope with damaging legislation that is based on dogma rather than science, such as the EU pesticide proposals directive 91/414. We will be encouraging our members to support this initiative fully, which takes control of our innovation facilities back under the ownership of growers.”
Graham Ward and Oliver Doubleday, respectively the chairmen of STCRF and EMR, were delighted that this groundbreaking agreement had been achieved to bring together specialist organisations to create a total horticultural focus and resource for scientists. They said: “We believe it offers a new stable partnership, to bring together the various parts of research funding from pure research to growers, for long-term future delivery of innovation to the industry.”
No comments yet