Aberystwyth University and Germinal Horizon have announced the appointment of Dr. Kerrie Farrar as Germinal chair of Translational Plant Breeding.

This position is funded by Openfolde Ltd., the parent company of Germinal Horizon and Germinal GB and Ireland.

Dr. Kerrie Farrar is currently leading the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council’s (BBSRC) Resilient Crops Strategic Programme, focusing on three main crop areas: forage crops (ryegrasses and clovers), oats, and Miscanthus.

In her new role as Germinal chair of Translational Plant Breeding, Dr. Farrar will use her scientific insights and experience to identify new areas of research and technologies that can be translated into Germinal Horizon plant breeding programmes.

She will also support governmental and industry stakeholder engagement to secure and coordinate research funding for the range of plant breeding programmes underway at Germinal Horizon at IBERS.

Commenting on her appointment, Dr. Farrar said: “I am delighted to be taking up the role of Germinal chair of Translational Plant Breeding and to continue my work contributing to the long tradition of forage crop breeding at Aberystwyth.

"I look forward to working with Germinal Horizon to translate IBERS’ strategic research into resilient crop varieties, supporting farmers and sustainable agriculture more broadly.”

Director of the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS), Prof. Iain Donnison added: “I warmly congratulate Kerrie on her appointment.

"IBERS and Germinal Horizon have a longstanding partnership focused on developing new and improved varieties of forage crops, underpinned by cutting edge research, and this appointment reconfirms our mission to see the latest science applied to plant breeding.

"The Germinal chair plays a vital role in translating this research from the laboratory to the field, delivering real world impact for sustainable, productive farming.”

Dr. Kerrie Farrar

Dr. Farrar currently leads the BBSRC Resilient Crops Institute Strategic Programme providing research leadership in crop genomics, spanning fundamental discovery through to translational breeding and deployment.

She graduated in 1996 with a Plant Sciences degree from the University of Edinburgh and also holds a PhD in Plant Molecular Biology from the University of Durham.

She completed three years postdoctoral study at Aberystwyth University and is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (FRSB).

Past research included a focus on sustainable agriculture, with the aims of increasing crop yields in low-input systems and facilitating the transition to a sustainable low-carbon future, through both genetic and genomics approaches and a mechanistic understanding of plant-soil-microbe interactions.

Plant breeding

With a plant breeding heritage tracing back to the Welsh Plant Breeding Station, established in 1919, the IBERS at Aberystwyth University hosts over 35,000 forage grass and legume seed accessions in the IBERS Seed Biobank.

IBERS also hosts the UK’s National Plant Phenomics Centre and manages over 1,000ha of diverse farm research and teaching platforms including extensive trial plots that utilise the latest sampling and measuring technologies.

Germinal

Germinal Horizon is the research and product development division of the Openfolde Group (formerly Germinal Holdings Ltd.), which has been a commercial partner of Aberystwyth University for almost 40 years.

It conducts plant breeding and varietal testing for a wide range of crop applications, including forage and alternative protein crops, at Germinal Horizon Aberystwyth and Germinal Horizon Wiltshire.

The new plant varieties and other sustainable solutions developed by Germinal Horizon are brought to market by Germinal GB and Ireland, and Openfolde’s other international partners, for use in a range of growing applications by farmers, and across the amenity and landscape architectural sectors.