A group of world-leading crop scientists, including Professor Wayne Powell, Principal & Chief Executive of SRUC, has called for a global crop network to systematically tackle threats to global food security.

Writing in the journal Science this month, the group recommend founding a Global Crop Improvement Network (GCIN) to take a worldwide approach to crop research. They envision the Network encompassing most staple crops, and claim it would “revolutionise” research, as stakeholders would gain an insight into crop performance in different environments, speeding up breakthroughs and implementation of research findings.

The approach, the experts say, would harmonise international research practices and data sharing. They believe the Network could work with existing national crop research systems and could be supported through public-private partnerships.

Their model for the GCIN is based on the successful International Wheat Improvement Network (IWIN). Established in the 1960s, the IWIN is part of international agricultural research group CGIAR.

Prof. Powell, who is a former CGIAR chief scientists, said, “Through the international research collaboration and data-sharing that underpins IWIN and the recommended GCIN, we have a huge opportunity to tackle in new ways the big global challenges of food and nutrition security.

“For Scotland and the UK to make its rightful contribution to such important global initiatives we must become better at sharing resources through a commitment to open science. SRUC and the other Scottish research institutes are major producers and curators of long term experimental and observational data, meaning we are ideally positioned to generate new knowledge of benefit to tackling national and global food production issues.”