Funding will support LED lighting for a next-generation glasshouse, insectary and horticultural research facility serving the John Innes Centre and The Sainsbury Laboratory.
The Wolfson Foundation is investing £1.6 million in new plant growth facilities at the John Innes Centre (JIC) and The Sainsbury Laboratory (TSL) in Norwich, England.
The funding will support Technology Platform 1, a 4,500-square-metre glasshouse, insectary and horticultural research facility designed to help scientists study crop performance under controlled, reproducible conditions.
Research Under Future Climate Conditions
The facilities will support research into crop resilience, plant immunity, sustainable agriculture and plant-derived products for human and environmental health.
Researchers will be able to examine interactions among plants, insects and microbes at scales ranging from individual molecules to whole plants. The infrastructure will also provide research capabilities that can be accessed nationally.
The Wolfson Foundation’s investment will fund the construction and installation of an LED lighting system. The system will provide the environmental control needed to reproduce potential future climate conditions and integrate experiments with genomics, imaging and computational modelling, according to a press release.
“Together the John Innes Centre and The Sainsbury Laboratory are building a world-class centre of research excellence in Norwich, tackling the challenges of sustainable food production in a fast-changing climate. We are delighted to renew our support for this impressive initiative, after an earlier grant of £1.1 million in 2021, and will look forward to seeing how the research supports people and planet in the years to come,” said Paul Ramsbottom, chief executive of the Wolfson Foundation.
Facilities Will Accommodate One Million Plants Annually
Technology Platform 1 is part of a broader research infrastructure development at Norwich Research Park. It supports the Healthy Plants, Healthy People, Healthy Planet initiative, known as HP3.
The initiative is intended to advance plant and microbial science, train researchers and entrepreneurs and support innovation related to agriculture, human health and environmental sustainability.
“The new horticultural and insectary facilities will be the beating heart of our research, enabling us to grow over a million plants each year, test crops under future climate scenarios, and accelerate discovery across plant and microbial science. The challenges we face demand a step change in scientific capability, and this funding strengthens our ambition that the UK retains its world-leading status in plant and microbial science,” said Professor Cristóbal Uauy, director of the John Innes Centre.
Environmental Controls to Support Crop Research
The new plant growth facilities will give scientists greater control over lighting and other environmental conditions when studying crop resilience and sustainable production.
“We are delighted that the Wolfson Foundation recognizes the enormous potential of plant and microbial sciences to help secure a safer, healthier and more sustainable future. Their investment in our state-of-the-art plant growth facilities will provide the precise environmental control needed to drive future-proof research into crop resilience and sustainable agriculture. The Foundation has been an important part of our journey from the outset, and we are proud to have such a prestigious partner alongside us as construction progresses and our ambitious HP3 vision takes shape,” said Professor Nick Talbot FRS, executive director of The Sainsbury Laboratory.
Part of Broader Infrastructure Redevelopment
Technology Platform 1 forms part of the Next Generation Infrastructure program, a redevelopment of the JIC and TSL site at Norwich Research Park. The facilities are expected to use 30% less energy than the existing infrastructure, reducing operating costs and improving environmental performance.
The broader redevelopment will bring JIC and TSL together under one roof for the first time. More than 600 researchers will have access to the new infrastructure and research technologies.
JIC and TSL conduct research into crop resilience, plant disease resistance, microbiomes and plant-derived medicines. Their scientists include 12 Fellows of the Royal Society, and researchers from the institutes have twice received the Wolf Prize in Agriculture over the past five years.
