Agritech

Improvements in the wellbeing and supply of livestock can be achieved through the use of data-related technologies such as the Internet of Things and genomic selection techniques. Researchers at the Easter Bush Campus have partnered with many world-leading organisations in agriculture, pharmaceuticals and genetics to bring improvements to the industry, such as reduced risk of disease.

Image of a school of fish.

Gene-editing Tool to Speed Disease Studies in Fish

An improved gene-editing tool could improve the understanding of the genetic basis of disease resistance in valuable species of farmed fish, researchers have found. Scientists at the Roslin Institute have developed the optimised technique to efficiently introduce changes in fish cell cultures in the lab.

Image of a school of fish.
3 rams eating grass

Food and Agriculture Science Transformer

There is huge potential to bring improvements in the wellbeing and supply of livestock through the use of data-related technologies such as IoT and genomic selection techniques. The Food and Agriculture Science Transformer (FAST) programme is just such an example.

3 rams eating grass
Picture of Roslin Innovation Centre at the Easter Bush Campus

Crunching data to feed the world

The way the world produces food has to change, quickly and fundamentally. One person seeking to make his own small contribution is Simon Fraval - by harnessing multiple, complex datasets to examine the relationship between land, livestock, people and the environment.

Picture of Roslin Innovation Centre at the Easter Bush Campus
3 rams eating grass

Could data help the dairy industry recover from the pandemic?

Lucy Saddler opens the lid on DairyMine, a research project that uses multiple datasets to support the dairy industry’s recovery from the pandemic.

3 rams eating grass
A Brown Chicken

From policy to action in the fight against malnutrition

Malnutrition is often viewed as purely a health issue, but it has far wider implications. By affecting the growth and cognitive function of individuals, it has social, developmental and broader economic impacts.

A Brown Chicken
A Brown Chicken

Our AgriTech Hub

Easter Bush

The mission of the Easter Bush Agritech Hub is to achieve sustainable agriculture, control diseases and enhance health through pioneering animal bioscience. Toward sustainable agriculture, the Hub partners with animal breeding companies with global reach to improve the productivity, efficiency and welfare of terrestrial and aquatic farmed animals by dissecting the basis of heritable traits and implementing genomic selection in breeding programmes. With funding from the Gates Foundation and Foreign & Commonwealth Development Office, it also aims to drive genetic gain in farmed animals indigenous to low- and middle-income countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.

Our Expert Profiles

Image of Helen Dundas

Helen Dundas

With a growing number of people suffering from malnutrition and chronic hunger, the United Nations FAO is predicting that by 2050 the world population is expected to rise by another 2.5 billion people. This is likely to create some major challenges for the planet: a 50% increase in demand for global agriculture production, with a particular demand for protein and dairy products.

Image of Helen Dundas