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Food security workshops

March 2010 - International workshop on food security, Beijing, China

• A gathering of food security experts from academia, industry and non-governmental organisations to inform decisions on future food security policy and further develop international collaboration
• Speakers will introduce papers on their speciality subjects and contribute to discussions
• Topics for discussion include food utilisation, access, and availability; and increasing food production by improving plants and animals, and using novel crops and management systems
• A position paper summarising recommendations from the meeting will be produced
• Speakers include:
• Giles Oldroyd (John Innes Centre) on pathway engineering in cereals: nitrogen fixation
• David Powlson (Rothamsted Research) on increasing nitrogen use efficiency
• Martin Parry (Rothamsted Research) on improving photosynthesis

October 2009 - Skills and translation of agri-food research in the UK

BBSRC organised this workshop to bring together representatives from organisations across the agri-food sector, including:

• Universities
• Agricultural colleges
• Research institutes
• Levy bodies
• Farming sector
• Industry

The morning session was chaired by Professor Maggie Gill and involved discussions around issues for agri-food skills and translation of research, feeding into cross-government work in this area.

The afternoon session was chaired by Dr Celia Caulcott, BBSRC Director of Innovation and Skills, and focussed on high-level skills in the agri-food sector, with an overview of a new BBSRC Advanced Training Partnership (ATP) scheme and presentations from partner perspectives within the sector, as well as an overview of professional doctorates.

Further information can be found in workshop presentations (below).

Workshop presentations

• Morning session - Workshop on skills and translation of agri-food research in the UK (PDF 743KB)
• Afternoon session - Introducing BBSRC advanced training partnerships (PDF 1.37MB)

February 2009

BBSRC organised this workshop to bring together leading scientists, policymakers and funders with farmers, food manufacturers and retailers to identify the challenges to delivering sustainable food security and the science we need to overcome them.

The Government Chief Scientific Advisor Professor John Beddington gave the keynote address at the workshop, which was attended by over 50 other invited guests.

The programme comprised 3 sessions focusing on different aspects of food security:

• Food
• Livestock and fisheries
• Crops

Each session included short presentations by experts in the field, followed by breakout discussion in small groups.

We are taking forward the issues raised at the workshop by drafting a set of research priorities that need to be addressed to deliver sustainable food security. We will lead on developing these into a strategic roadmap for research, which will bring together the interests of all the funders in food security.

Further information can be found in workshop presentations (below) and related media release (see related links).

Workshop presentations

• Introduction - Prof Doug Kell (PDF 383KB)
• Keynote - Prof John Beddington (PDF 2.57MB)
• Food session (PDF 864KB)
• Livestock and fisheries session (PDF 1.02MB)
• Crops session (PDF 1.36MB)

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