Warwick HRI (formerly Horticulture Research International) was a

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

organisation tasked with carrying out

horticultural Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in Europe as research and technological development (RTD), is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products, and improving existi ...

and transferring the results to industry in England.

History

Horticulture Research International (HRI) was constituted in May 1990 from the

Agricultural and Food Research Council The Agricultural and Food Research Council (AFRC) was a British Research Council responsible for funding and managing scientific and technological developments in farming and horticulture. History The AFRC was formed in 1983 from its predecessor ...

Institute of Horticultural Research Stations at

Wellesbourne Wellesbourne is a large village in the civil parish of Wellesbourne and Walton, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of the UK. In the 2021 census the parish, which also includes the hamlet of Walton, had a population o ...

(the National Vegetable Research Station), East Malling (the East Malling Research Station) and Littlehampton (the Glasshouse Crops Research Institute), the Hop Unit at Wye College and the ADAS Experimental Stations of the

Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food An agriculture ministry (also called an) agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister ...

at Efford, Kirton and Stockbridge. Warwick HRI was formed on 1 April 2004 following the integration of HRI's sites at

and Kirton with the

University of Warwick , mottoeng = Mind moves matter , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £7.0 million (2021) , budget = £698.2 million (2020 ...

. The Kirton site was closed by the university in February 2009. In November 2009, Warwick University announced that it had decided to close Warwick HRI as the centre was losing the university £2 million a year. Warwick HRI was merged with the University's Department of Biological Sciences into a new School of Life Sciences in October 2010. Some research work on vegetable genetic improvement continued at the Crop Centre.

Research

The Wellesbourne site covered an area of 191 hectares and contained protected crop facilities, state-of-the-art glasshouses, a Bioconversion Unit, controlled environment units and first-class laboratory facilities including the Genomic Resource Centre. The Kirton site spanned 50 hectares, with modern seed handling equipment and a 4-hectare organic area. Research at Warwick HRI fell within four main areas:

plant science Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

, crop and environmental sciences, applied microbial sciences and applied horticultural research. The department was home to internationally recognised research scientists and was at the forefront of teaching in these areas with a number of taught MSc courses and also research degrees leading to MSc, MPhil or PhD. Warwick HRI was a member of the European Plant Science Organisation (EPSO).

References

External links

The University of Warwick - Warwick HRIThe European Plant Science OrganisationWarwick HRI to closeHistory of Warwick HRI / NVRS
{{authority control Agricultural research institutes in the United Kingdom Horticultural organisations based in the United Kingdom Research institutes in Warwickshire Science and technology in Lincolnshire University of Warwick

History

Research

See also

References

External links