tbc

Plantation ecosystems underpin the production of a range of commodities including tea and coffee and supports the livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers. However, these ecosystems face a range of challenges, including declining soil fertility and increased soil erosion, and yields that are maintained through high nitrogen fertiliser applications. Across most production areas, climate change is reducing yields and crop quality, impacting farmer livelihoods. Regenerative agriculture (RA) describes a suite of practices designed to deliver beneficial outcomes for agroecosystems, with a focus on improving soil health and soil carbon sequestration, lower agrochemical inputs, and increasing biodiversity. This results in a healthier, more climate resilient ecosystem. For plantation crops, approaches include agroforestry and intercropping, reduced soil disturbance, and the use of organic fertilisers and composts as alternatives to inorganic fertilisers. At present, adoption is low due to limited research on specific techniques for certain crops, and knowledge and financial barriers. However, many techniques have significant similarities across regions and crops, and thus evidence of the benefits and possible trade-offs have the potential to be more widely applied. Adopting such an approach will help accelerate the incorporation of RA into current management practices. In this project, we will focus on the adoption of RA in tea and coffee production in East Africa. We will primarily work in Kenya, as tea and coffee are key regional exports and underpins the livelihoods of over a million smallholder farmers, but production is vulnerable to climate change. In the longer-term, and with the help of our partners and networks, we hope to expand our scope to include further crops and regions. To achieve our aim, this fellowship will facilitate knowledge exchange between researchers, agribusinesses, NGOs and smallholder farmers in tea and coffee ecosystems, building on the relationships and networks already established by the applicants (Dr Nick Girkin and Dr Kenisha Garnett) and Cranfield University. We will adopt a transdisciplinary approach, bringing our diverse background, experience and collective expertise in tropical ecosystem processes, RA, and the social sciences. We will synthesise NERC-remit science on RA's environmental benefits for tea and coffee ecosystems, with evidence of the social and economic impacts of adoption and combine this with new knowledge generated through the sharing of ideas, experience and expertise between researchers, agribusinesses and smallholder famers. We will adopt a co-production approach to our work with smallholders, to generate insights on current sustainable practices, and identify barriers to change, and delivery models. We will use this evidence to create materials to inform discussions with policymakers (e.g. the All-Parliamentary Group on Agroecology for Sustainable Food and Farming), NGOs (e.g. Rainforest Alliance) and businesses (e.g. Ekaterra) around the benefits of RA and means of incentivising adoption. Working collaboratively with our partners and a network of smallholder farmers, we will co-develop a RA toolkit for plantation crops, which can inform practice and promote adoption. A key impact of this fellowship will be the translation of NERC-remit science to improve the sustainability of tea and coffee production, bringing environmental, social and economic benefits to smallholders in the long-term. We will achieve our aim with support from a range of partners including agribusiness (e.g. Ekaterra), NGOs (e.g. Rainforest Alliance) and regional research institutions (e.g. Kenyatta University). We anticipate the knowledge exchange and engagement of stakeholders across our networks can be sustained and that the network will be self-maintaining after the fellowship, to deliver a long-term legacy by increasing the sustainability and climate resilience of plantation ecosystems.

Growing a new head, arm or leg is something humans obviously can’t do. But we do have cells that have some capacity to generate other cell types when they are needed, for example in response to cuts or bruises we are able to heal and replace damaged cells. In this study, a planarian worm will be used to understand the basic biology of stem cells, regeneration and healing. Planarians have a large number of stem cells which are capable of giving rise to every other cell type. For example, if a planarian is cut into small pieces, these cells will allow each piece of the worm to regenerate into a whole new, albeit smaller, worm. The intention of this research is to understand how the planarian worm’s stem cells are able to divide and give rise to the right cells at the right place in the new worm. If we can understand this process we may be closer to understanding our own capacity to regenerate lost or damaged cells. This type of research is particularly important for understanding diseases in which cells have been lost or damaged and new cells are needed (such as Alzheimers), or for diseases like leukemia where our own stem cells go haywire and divide too quickly and/or produce the wrong types of cells.

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

Renewable fuels are promising solutions to replace conventional fossil fuels across heavy transportation, as they are relatively clean (both at the production stage as well as in end use). The proposed experimental research will study one pathway for introducing renewable fuel into an existing heavy duty diesel engine. The experiments will involve using a much smaller amount of diesel to initiate power generation from the main renewable fuel, which will be injected into the engine separately of the diesel. Such an engine will still be capable of operating effectively on conventional diesel when renewable fuels are not available. The goal is to understand the detailed thermodynamics involved and to measure the efficiency and detailed emissions of the engine under a wide variety of operating conditions.