The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) is leading a collaboration with the Medical Research Council (MRC), Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) to invest over £16 million through the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) Foundation Awards for Global Agriculture and Food System Research in order to address key global development challenges ins securing future food supplies.
35 individual projects were awarded to 27 lead organisations. The awards connect the UK’s word-class research base with partners in Low and/or Middle Income Countries to address key sustainable challenges including:
- systems that deliver safe and nutritious food for all
- food system resilience to climatic variability
- reduce losses through the Agri-food chain and reusing unavoidable food waste
- agriculture within the context of the wider landscape
Dr Amanda Collis, BBSRC Executive Director of Science said in a press release “This investment will address a number of different threats to the sustainable production of safe and nutritious food, ranging from tackling pests and disease, examining human behaviours, and improving food safety and nutrition, through to the sustainability of agricultural soils and the wider cultural and social context of food and farming.
“The complexity of the research requires collaborative effort from a range of disciplines, and this is an exemplar of research councils coming together to address broad international development research challenges.”
