The Morley Agricultural Foundation (TMAF) is a charity that supports farming in the East of England by funding agricultural research, student studies, educational programmes for schools and the professional development of farmers and others. Its annually awarded Morley PhD Studentships are highly competitive and come with a stipend and a project budget.
The following projects are fully funded by TMAF through its annually awarded Morley PhD Studentship and are partnerships between the University of Cambridge, NIAB, and TMAF:
- Improving nitrogen use efficiency in cereal crops for sustainable food production - aiming to develop cereal crops that use less nitrogen fertiliser by characterising the roles of brassinosteroid phytohormones in direct and symbiotic nutrient uptake pathway;
- Increasing climate resilience and yield stability in wheat through genetic improvement of root systems - building the analytical tools required for practical yield stability comparisons, and test the idea that optimising root development and function, particularly when soil moisture and nutrients are limiting, will help stabilise yields in the face of climate change and meet the challenges of low input, regenerative agriculture;
- The soil microbiome in legume rotations - focused towards enhancing fundamental understanding of the legume crop-microbiome interactions and elucidating which microorganisms and associated factors can positive or negatively influence crop productivity.