School of Computer Science to lead UKRI Technology Touching Life Network
Technology Touching Life is a joint initiative between the Medical Research Council (MRC), Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), all part of UK Research and Innovation. Five research networks, awarded a total of £3M, will harness new and emerging developments from the engineering and physical sciences to advance discovery research in the life sciences.
PhenomUK, a network led by Professor Tony Pridmore, will focus on the technologies needed to provide quantitative data on the structure and function of plants - the phenome - to help improve crop performance to meet the increased food demands of our growing population. The network will be multidisciplinary, encouraging engineering, physical and computer scientists to work alongside plant biologists to develop automation, sensor and data analysis technologies that can profile plants in a variety of environments.
Through activities including an annual UK conference on Crop Phenotyping, issue-based and outreach workshops, pilot projects and feasibility studies, PhenomUK aims to ensure that UK scientists have access to the innovative technological capabilities needed to drive world-leading basic discovery research in the plant, crop and agricultural sciences.
Posted on Friday 13th April 2018