Weeding the Gems

Report from UKPSF Working Groups

In 2014 the UK Plant Science Federation (UKPSF) published a report on ‘Current Status and Future Challenges‘. This report included a recommendation to establish four ‘Working Groups’ that would investigate future directions for UK plant science under these broad areas:

– Training and Skills

– Funding

– Translation

– Regulation

At the end of 2015 the results of these working groups were published in PDF format on the UKPSF blog along with a brief analysis of their content by Dr Sandy Knapp from the Natural History Museum. As Sandy did a great job there is no need to repeat this analysis but GARNet has put together a brief single page PDF summary:

UKPSF_WorkingGroup_Summary.

One real outcome from these working groups is the establishment of a consultatation period that will then produce a Roadmap for UK Plant Science for the next 25 years. This comprehensive document aims to be published by mid-2016 and the invitations to attend discussion groups in London and York will go out in the next few weeks. Hopefully this Roadmap will have as successful an impact as a similar project did which focussed on the UK capacity for Synthetic Biology. Fingers crossed!