Agricultural Crop Research

Robert is the lead UAV pilot and senior data scientist within NIAB’s Data Sciences Team. He is an expert in the use of remote sensing tool, including drones, to assess a variety of crops under field conditions. The Data Sciences Team is combining phenotyping, genotyping and environmental data, to developing open-source hardware and software to address yield, quality, and disease related challenges for UK’s key agricultural and horticultural crops such as wheat, brassicas, strawberry and orchard fruits.

Margaret, along with Stephen Flack, leads the Agricultural Crop Characterisation team delivering Seed Certification in England and Wales, and UK DUS (Distinctness, Uniformity and Stability) testing of combinable crops, sugar beet, fodder kale and ornamental species as contracted by Defra and APHA - the Animal and Plant Health Agency.

Research interests

Understanding the physiological limitations to yield formation and the adaptations of plants to abiotic stresses such as drought. The current research emphasis is on wheat, although past work involved maize, oats, sugar beet and tropical legumes. New information and tools are needed to increase food production and the effective use of water.

Research Interests:

Molecular plant breeding and the study of genetic diversity and domestication of crop plants using molecular markers to identify and quantify genotype changes.

Since joining NIAB from the commercial sector in 2007, Phil has worked on key breeding and pre-breeding projects including NIAB's flagship wheat resynthesis programme, the multi-partner WISP, DFW and DSW wheat pre-breeding initiatives, and the development of wheat MAGIC populations.

Phil is now leading and managing NIAB’s portfolio of pre-breeding work across a range of broad-acre arable crops, including cereals, legumes and others. This is often collaborative work with industry partners from breeding companies, end-users and other parts of the supply chain.

Stephen Flack has responsibility for the management of the ACC work on the APHA contract for agricultural DUS and seed certification of agricultural species in England and Wales. Throughout his career, Stephen has worked mainly with crop certification, initially of potatoes and later for all agricultural crop species covered by the UK Seeds regulations, especially with the non-cereal crops.  He has also been responsible for DUS (Distinctness, Uniformity and Stability) testing of sugar beet, field beans and for potato variety trials. 

Research interests

Lesley has lead a research programme investigating the genetics, cellular and molecular biology of partial, adult plant expressed and nonhost resistance to fungal pathogens in wheat since 1995. In 2012 Boyd moved her research programme to NIAB.