Latest Projects
Our projects aim to have tangible impacts for all barley-related industries in the breeding, farming, malting, brewing, feed, food and health sectors.
AGREGEN: Regenerative Agriculture Programme for Malting barley
2023- 2025
This project funded by Diageo aims to promote the use of regenerative practices in the barley value chain and drive holistic benefits including enhanced biodiversity, improved water stewardship, carbon reduction and better soil health management. The project will monitor the impact of the practices on soil health in systems across Scotland.
COUSIN: Crop Wild Relatives Utilization and Conservation for Sustainable Agriculture
2022- 2027
A 5-year project funded by the EU Horizon Europe programme with the aim of enabling conservationists, breeders, farmers and consumers to migrate towards a crop wild relative (CWRs) improved system by showcasing representative examples of CWRs for five major European crops, including barley. The COUSIN multi-actor approach will contribute priority traits to support crop diversity, agricultural sustainability and healthy consumer dishes.
BOLD: Biodiversity for Opportunities, Livelihoods and Development
2021- 2030
A 10-year project to strengthen food and nutrition security worldwide by supporting the conservation and use of crop diversity in 7 target crops including barley. Led by the Crop Trust and funded by the Government of Norway IBH’s data science expertise helps support the project and its informatics challenges.
BEST-CROP: Boosting photosynthESis to deliver novel CROPs for the circular bioeconomy
2023- 2028
A 5-year project focused on barley to increase photosynthetic efficiency and O3 uptake while transforming barley straw into high-value bio-based products for the feed, green chemistry, building and composites sectors. Includes 18 project partners from academia and industry.
Root2Res: Root phenotyping and genetic improvement for rotational crops resilient to environmental change
2022- 2027
A 5-year project funded by he EU Horizon Europe programme with the aim of developing root phenotyping tools both in field and controlled conditions, genetic tools with a set of relevant markers and genetic resources and modelling tools to extrapolate the results in other environments and agricultural contexts.
Uncovering the mechanisms of the root gravitropic set-point angle and its application in agriculture
2-year fellowship
A 2-year Marie Curie fellowship, analysing how the gravitropic set-point angle in barley roots is regulated transcriptionally, the signalling mechanism of known players in gravitropism, and the role of the root angle in regard to nutrient and water availability.