Norwich Institute for Sustainable Development

🎉Congratulations to Theresa Cassandra Saini for being awarded the John Innes Foundation-funded Nuffield International Farming scholarship.

Her work will investigate the global best practices in establishing local capacity for producing clean, disease-free cassava planting materials.

Socio-economic insights for Kenyan wheat improvement: Lessons from the field - The Norwich Institute for Sustainable Development Deima Daujotaite spent six weeks working with local communities to understand needs and opportunities for wheat improvement.

This summer, Deimantė Daujotaite conducted her fieldwork with Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), Njoro, a global expert for wheat rust research.

Deima worked to understand what Kenyan farmers need from new wheat varieties.

nisd.ac.uk/socio-econom...

NISD intern awarded pioneering agricultural scholarship NISD Intern Georgia Oliver has been awarded the 2025 Norfolk International Scholarship to study environmental schemes for agriculture.

🎉NISD intern Georgia Oliver has been awarded Royal Norfolk Agricultural Association Norfolk International Scholarship to study environmental schemes internationally.

She will compare UK schemes, such as SFI and ELMS with schemes in other countries to inform UK policy 🚜

nisd.ac.uk/nisd-intern-...

Trends-Trouble-Tenacity: The Food Security Picture for 2050 Dr Cary Fowler speaks about the challenges for food security and the importance of crop diversity for agricultural resilience and productivity

👩‍💻 Catch up with our seminar from Dr Cary Fowler in this blog from Theresa Cassandra Saini.

"Global food systems are not on track to meet food and nutritional needs around the world [...] there are strategic, urgent, and essential actions we can take to counter these risks."

tinyurl.com/2czb65r6

Join us 18 June at UEA for the 2025 Piers Blaikie Lecture:
“Exploring the contours of feminist political ecology” @thenisd.bsky.social @uniofeastanglia.bsky.social

Voices from Norfolk and beyond on land, justice & hope.

🎟️ Free, but booking required: store.uea.ac.uk/conferences-...

There's a great event coming 18 June with @gejgroup.bsky.social and @developmentuea.bsky.social - "Exploring the contours of feminist political ecology: Dialogues in the Norfolk Landscape”

A keynote from Rebecca Elmhirst, Professor of Human Geography at the University of Brighton

More details👇

📅📢RESCHEDULE: Please note our seminar with Alan Spearot on enabling sustainable access to high value markets will no longer take place this Thursday (29 May), and instead will be arranged for a future date, which we share as soon as we have an update.

Join us 29 May with Alan Spearot of University of California, Santa Cruz and The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) speaking on "Enabling Sustainable Access to High Value Markets: Maize Cooperatives in Rwanda"

⌚ 12pm
📍 ZICER 0.01, UEA
✔️ Join in person or online

All welcome

Trends - Trouble - Tenacity: The food security picture for 2050 2025 World Food Prize Winner Dr Cary Fowler gives the JIF 2025 lecture on how to meet global food demand and need by 2050.

🗓️ Save the date: 2024 World Food Prize Foundation Winner Dr Cary Fowler is giving this year's John Innes Foundation Lecture at @johninnescentre.bsky.social Centre on 23 May

"Trends – Trouble – Tenacity: The food security picture for 2050"

More information👇
nisd.ac.uk/event/trends...

Dr Cary Fowler will give the 2025 John Innes Foundation lecture with NISD on 23 May.

🎉 We are delighted to announce that 2024 World Food Prize Foundation Winner Dr Cary Fowler will give our 2025 John Innes Foundation lecture this May.

The lecture will take place:
🗓️ 13:30 (BST) 23 May
📍 @johninnescentre.bsky.social Conference centre

More details soon!

A banner announcing that Maren Duvendack is joining the Norwich Institute for Sustainable Development.

🎉 We're proud to welcome Prof. Maren Duvendack as an NISD member, building on many years of close working. Great to have Maren working with us to enhance the impact of our research.

Maren is based at @developmentuea.bsky.social focusing on financial inclusion, gender & smallholder agriculture

🧑‍💻 Join us today at 12pm: Could computational breakthroughs guide more sustainable farming and fisheries? A chance to develop more cross-disciplinary collaborations 💡🤝

⏰ Today 12pm (GMT)
💻 Virtual seminar

Link to register 👉 events.teams.microsoft.com/event/43fb47...

Can computational breakthroughs guide more sustainable farming? Professors from the UEA School of Computing Science share opportunities for collaboration with AGRIFORWARDS for sustainable food systems.

Sorry about that, please find the link here: nisd.ac.uk/event/could-...

Seminar next week: Could computational breakthroughs guide more sustainable farming and fisheries? 🧑‍💻🥗

Join us with Beatriz De La Iglesia and Michal Mackiewicz of the University of East Anglia School of Computing Sciences

⏰ 12pm (GMT)
📆 27 March

Register to join 👉https://tinyurl.com/4ww5ewra

👩🥗 Nitya Rao's University of East Anglia Lasdun lecture is now available to watch on Accelerating Action towards Gender Justice ​for Climate and Food.

Watch the presentation 👉 lnkd.in/eFCvBqQk

⏰Join us this Thursday: Prof Nitya Rao gives the University of East Anglia 2025 Lasdun Lecture on "accelerating action towards gender justice for climate and food" 👩🥗

🗓️ 13 March
⌚ 18:30 (GMT)
📌 In person and online. All welcome

Registration 👉 nisd.ac.uk/event/accele...

Accelerating Action towards gender justice for climate and food - The Norwich Institute for Sustainable Development For the 2025 UEA Lasdun Lecture, as part of International Women's Day, Professor Nitya Rao speaks on gender justice for climate and food

Join our Director Nitya Rao next week for the University of East Anglia 2025 Lasdun Lecture on "accelerating action towards gender justice for climate and food" 👩🥗

🗓️ 13 March
⌚ 18:30 (GMT)
📌 In person and online. All welcome, registration required.

More details 👇
nisd.ac.uk/event/accele...

Working with @thenisd.bsky.social helps me put my #marine #ecosystem #sustainability work in a broader context and I value the collaborations greatly. Ecology [oîkos] is all about relationships - we are all organisms in an environment

📢 Call for Papers & Delegates!

Join us for #Gender & #Development: Debates for a Changing World

📅 19-20 June 2025, UEA, Norwich
📝 Submit your abstract by 21 March: gender.conference.dev@uea.ac.uk

YouTube video by Norwich Institute for Sustainable Development Farming in 2050: a 25-year vision for England’s food, farming and land use

💻 You can now watch online Emily Norton's seminar with us on the future of UK farming.

A fantastic insight on the major pressures UK agriculture and some potential paths ahead 🚜

youtu.be/DfqOVJAYV98?...

NISD member Julie Bremner, Principal Marine Ecologist at Cefas.

🐟Meet NISD member @wormbotherer.bsky.social A Principal Marine Ecologist at Cefas & Assoc. Prof at @uniofeastanglia.bsky.social

Julie specialises in biodiversity, marine food & climate change. Her work bridges science, policy & industry to drive sustainable marine resource use 🌊

A systematic review of the impact of post-harvest aquatic food processing technology on gender equality and social justice - Nature Food Fisheries and aquaculture production are key to livelihoods, food and nutrition, yet over one-third of global aquatic harvest is lost or wasted. The post-harvest sector, key to reducing these losses, ...

Very happy that Cefas' parent ministry Defra published my blog on #gender in #fisheries for #InternationalDayofWomenAndGirlsInScience.
We need better understanding of gender/social equity across seafood value chains. Read the original paper here www.nature.com/articles/s43... @thenisd.bsky.social

🚜UK farming is at a crossroads for the future of food production and land management. Join us and @developmentuea.bsky.social with Emily Norton at 2pm on Thursday to discuss what is needed for the way forward.

📆 13th Feb
⏰ 2 PM GMT

In-person or online, more details 👉
nisd.ac.uk/event/farmin...

Join us for a seminar on the future of UK farming 🚜

Emily Norton dives into England's food and farming landscape, exploring tensions, opportunities, and the 25-year vision for farming at a time of change.

📆 13th Feb
⏰ 2 PM GMT

In-person or online, more details 👉
nisd.ac.uk/event/farmin...

Chromosome-scale assembly of the African yam bean genome - Scientific Data Scientific Data - Chromosome-scale assembly of the African yam bean genome

Excited to share our Nature Scientific Data publication! NISD members were involved in the assembly of the #genome of African yam bean, a protein-rich, climate-resilient opportunity crop using @nanoporetech.com This unlocks potential for advanced breeding and food security. Read more: bit.ly/4jnDm1h

Meet NISD’s Matthew Osborne! Based between Biodiversity and Sustainability Solutions (BASS) and @uniofeastanglia.bsky.social, Matthew’s research takes a transdisciplinary approach combining behavioural science, experimental methods, and service design approaches to address complex global challenges.

Underutilized crops hold untapped potential for resilient food systems. A new @naturecomms.bsky.social paper, co-authored by NISD’s Peter Emmrich, calls for genomics & traditional knowledge to drive sustainable innovation.

Read more: go.nature.com/49zftPR

#crops #food #innovation #sustainability

How can we prepare the next generation for the climate crisis? NISD Intern & @developmentuea.bsky.social student, Sophie Wheeler’s review of the UK’s DfE strategy highlights the need for an interdisciplinary approach to climate education.
Read more: bit.ly/4fJuy37

#climateeducation #climatechange

Women are the backbone of post-harvest fisheries, yet face systemic inequities. A new NISD review with @naturefood.bsky.social explores how tech: traditional, community-based, and factory impacts women’s roles, health, and agency. Policies must prioritize inclusion.

Read more: bit.ly/4irEMHN

#fish

Meet Mairi Franklin, NISD’s newest member and JIC researcher. From CRISPR to legumes, she is advancing tools for sustainable farming with a focus on impact. Mairi says, it’s about plants and the people growing them.

Discover her groundbreaking work: bit.ly/4it33NG

#agriculture #biotechnology #food