About the Division

The Plant and Crop Sciences Division at Nottingham is one of the largest communities of plant scientists in the UK. The Division consists of 26 academic staff whose research and teaching expertise covers a broad range of plant biological topics as shown by the six research groupings. Around 170 people work in the Division, housed mostly in a purpose built facility opened in 2002. Within this population of researchers are over 20 post-doctoral scientists and over 90 postgraduate students. Visiting scientists included, the Division hosts researchers from many different countries, reinforcing the Plant and Crop Sciences Division as a world renowned centre.  With the establishment of a University of Nottingham campus in Malaysia and the development of the Fudan-SJTU Nottingham Plant Biotechnology Centre in Shanghai, it is anticipated that Plant and Crop Sciences will host many more researchers from Malaysia and China in the near future.

Research

Our strategy for the Plant and Crop Sciences Division is to carry out research on fundamental processes and their applications in the regulation of plant growth, development and quality and to study the interaction between plants, their environment, and other organisms. Our goal is to harness this knowledge to improve crop quality and agronomic performance in an environmentally friendly and sustainable manner. The Division adopts an integrated approach to research extending from studies at the molecular and biochemical level to physiological analysis of whole plants and the performance of crop communities. The Division hosts the Nottingham Arabidopsis Stock Centre (NASC ), a key strategic resource for the plant science community worldwide. The Division also contributes significantly to the new Centre for Plant Integrative Biology (CPIB ).

Teaching

Staff teach on a wide variety of undergraduate and postgraduate courses covering many varied areas of plant biology.  Teaching of plant and crop science contributes to several degree programmes including Plant Science, Applied Biology, Biotechnology and Food Science.  Several postgraduate courses are run in the Division including the MSc. in Plant Genetic Manipulation , the MSc. in Crop Improvement and the MSc. in Plant Biotechnology and Entrepreneurship , which is run jointly with the University's Business School .