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ECRR > Member organisations > SCRI
SCRI plays an important role in studying the likely impact of climate change on Scotland and the wider world. Major areas of research are:
Environment plant interactions The broad objective is integrating processes that occur above and in the soil. Topics include improving understanding of sustainable arable systems and devising 'green' engineering solutions for slope stabilisation with vegetation.Genetics The principal challenge is relating variation at the level of the gene and genome to variation in characteristics which are relevant to end user needs. Appropriate germplasm is therefore essential and well maintained bio-diverse plant collections underpins all aspects of the research programme.Plant pathology Research on plant pathology provides underpinning knowledge to support sustainable agricultural production systems. The aim is to understand the mechanisms of plant resistance and susceptibility using molecular, cellular and whole plant techniques, and to discover how parasites evolve to overcome plant defences.Quality, health and nutrition The focus is to understand the processes that regulate the quality and nutrition of our major commodity crops. Improving the nutrition of food is a major area of work: for example, transgenic potato plants have been generated in which the tuber carotenoid content has been enhanced up to seven-fold.Staff More than 400 people work at SCRI, from graduate scientists and visiting workers to support staff and students.Training is provided for PhD students and visitors from overseas by senior research scientists at SCRI who supervise postgraduate students from universities throughout Scotland, the rest of the UK and across the world. Facilities SCRI scientists have access to almost 5,000 m2 of fully-equipped, high-quality laboratory facilities.The Institute has 172 hectares of land, mostly free draining, rising from 15 to 140m above sea level, adjacent to the laboratory complex and which is available for field experiments. There is a total of over 11,000m2 glasshouse accommodation on site, most of it with heating and supplementary lighting to provide year-round growing conditions. For more closely controlled conditions, there are over 90 growth cabinets and walk-in rooms of varying capacity totalling c. 700m2 floor area. Postgraduate training At SCRI, the primary aim of postgraduate training is to equip the individual with a wide range of modern scientific skills whilst developing technical and intellectual competence that can be applied in a range of scientific careers. Delivery of this training and personal development is robustly monitored to ensure the individual achieves the highest standards of intellectual flexibility, whilst presenting a comprehensive range of scientific and transferable skills demanded by today's employers of scientific personnel.International collaboration In the last five years, collaborative research links have been maintained with over 300 institutions in 54 countries.Location The headquarters of the Scottish Crop Research Institute is situated in Invergowrie, a small village on the north shore of the Tay estuary, to the west of Dundee, in eastern Scotland.For further information, please contact: Professor Peter Gregory Tel: +44(0)1382 562731 |
Member Organisations
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© ECRR Edinburgh Consortium for Rural Research
BioSS, JCMB, King's Buildings, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JZ.
Tel(Fax): 0131 650 4890 (4901)
