Written by Jennifer Davies. I (along with so many others) had a rocky start to the first year of my PhD but, for me, the end of the year was much smoother. After 12 months of being limited to virtual gatherings, it was great to finally meet and spend time with the Waitrose CTP cohorts […]

Written by: Miranda Burke. The global food security programme, if you haven’t heard of it, is a UK cross-government programme on food security research. They use interdisciplinary and whole system research to make fundamental impact across the food system for sustainability and food security. The programme and their team run several events throughout the year […]

Written by: Ed Hill-King I am a PhD student with the Waitrose CTP in the first year of my four-year programme and beginning my laboratory research in the Lancaster Environment Centre. My research is focused on exploring novel approaches to detecting internal defects in intact potato tubers. Internal defects in potato tubers pose a unique […]

Written by: Dion Garrett – My experiences of working with an industry partner and taking advantage of the opportunities they have to offer As part of the Waitrose Collaborative Training Partnership (CTP), I am in a unique situation to gain insight into how a business operates and how research directly feeds into it. Now in my […]

… and we should take advantage of that. Written by: Lucy Crowther. In recent decades, our agricultural system has grown increasingly reliant on chemicals for the control of insect crop pests. But what do we do when those controls start to fail us? And what happens when governments ban whole chemical groups due to their […]

Written by: Nick Buck & Michelle Fountain Background SWD is a fruit fly native to south east Asia capable of causing yield reductions by ovipositing in soft and stone fruit increasing fruit susceptibility to pathogens and overall degradation. SWD overwinters in habitats neighbouring soft fruit crops especially in the winter months. These neighbouring habitats (e.g. woodland […]

Written by: Jessica Fostvedt Austin After a tedious number of years processing endless samples at the lab bench, I decided that my talents were best served in scientific writing, teaching, and outreach.  This was not a sudden career crisis; I entered this PhD programme knowing I would rather author a textbook than work in a laboratory.  […]

Written by Patrick Skilleter:  In my blog post last year, I gave an overview on how soil compaction inhibits potato root growth and tuber quality by increasing the force required to overcome the soil and reducing availability of nutrients, water and oxygen in the soil. In this blog post, I will explain about the difficulty of […]

Written by: Miranda Burke During the current crisis, everyone is facing difficulties. Amid a pandemic, the global population are being forced to adjust every part of our lives and undergo a complete attitude change. We hear a lot about antibodies, vaccines and immune systems. The capability of humans to survive, adapt and potentially gain immunity […]

Written by Amanda Weston   The Waitrose Collaborative Training Partnership Administrator, Roz Wareing, has recently gone on maternity leave and I have taken over the role on a secondment basis from another department within Lancaster University.  This an exciting opportunity for me and I am thrilled to join such an energetic and friendly group.  Due […]