Institutional Partners

The Plant and Agricultural Biosciences Research Centre has established formal and informal linkages with a range of institutional partners in Ireland and internationally. These include the following:

INTERNATIONAL

European Plant Science Organisation (EPSO): EPSO is an independent academic organisation that represents more than 226 plant research institutes, departments and universities from 30 countries in Europe and beyond. EPSO's mission is to improve the impact and visibility of plant science in Europe. The NUI Galway Plant & AgriBiosciences Centre is an institutional member of EPSO.

AGRINATURA: AGRINATURA is the association of the major research and education stakeholders in Europe dealing with agricultural research and higher education for development. AGRINATURA is an alliance formed by 35 European universities and research organisations working in agricultural research, education, training and capacity strengthening for development. The Plant and AgriBiosciences Centre (PABC) at NUI Galway is an institutional member of AgriNatura.

PAEPARD: The Platform for African European Partnership on Agricultural Research for Development (PAEPARD) supports research collaboration between a wide range of organizations in Africa and Europe. PAEPARD is coordinated by the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) in collaboration with Agrinatura, a consortium of research and education organizations in Europe. The initiative is supported by the European Union through its Food Security Thematic Programme.

Tropical Agriculture Association (TAA): The TAA is a professional association of individuals and corporate bodies concerned with the role of agriculture for development throughout the world. TAA brings together individuals and organisations from both developed and less developed countries to enable them to contribute to international policies and actions aimed at reducing poverty and improving livelihoods. The Plant & AgriBiosciences Research Centre and Concern Worldwide are both Irish-based corporate members of the TAA.

University of California, Davis, USA Biotechnology Program: The multi-institutional National Science Foundation (NSF) funded Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program, entitled Collaborative Research and Education in Agricultural Technologies and Engineering (CREATE), provides a structured, well-integrated graduate research and educational training program that focuses on the use of transgenic plants and in-vitro plant systems for the production of industrial non-food products and biopharmaceuticals. 

International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA): The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) is one of the world's leading agricultural research organizations developing solutions for hunger, malnutrition, and poverty. IITA's award-winning research for development (R4D) addresses the development needs of tropical countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. IITA works with research partners to enhance crop quality and productivity, reduce producer and consumer risks, and generate wealth from agriculture. The mandate crops of IITA are cowpea, soybean, banana/plantain, yam, cassava and maize.

International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT): ICRISAT is a non-profit crop research organization conducting agricultural research for development in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa with partners throughout the world. Covering 6.5 million square kilometers of land in 55 countries, the semi-arid or dryland tropics is home to over 2 billion people, and 644 million of these are the poorest of the poor living on less than 1$ per day. ICRISAT and its research partners help empower these poor people to overcome poverty, hunger and a degraded environment through agricultural research for development. ICRISAT is headquartered in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India, with two regional hubs and four country offices in sub-Saharan Africa.

Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS): The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) is a strategic partnership of CGIAR and Future Earth, led by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). CCAFS brings together the world’s best researchers in agricultural science, development research, climate science and earth system science, to identify and address the most important interactions, synergies and tradeoffs between climate change, agriculture and food security. CCAFS is a collaboration among all CGIAR research centers and coordinates with the other CGIAR research programs, in  partnership with over 700 institutional partners worldwide.

Concern Worldwide: Concern Worldwide are an innovative international humanitarian organisation dedicated to tackling poverty and suffering in the world’s poorest countries. Concern Worldwide works in partnership with the very poorest people in at least 28 developing countries, directly enabling them to improve their lives, as well as using knowledge and experience to influence decisions made at a local, national and international level that can significantly reduce extreme poverty.

NATIONAL

TEAGASC: Teagasc is the agriculture and food development authority in Ireland. Its mission is to support science-based innovation in the agri-food sector and the broader bioeconomy that will underpin profitability, competitiveness and sustainability. PABC scientists collaborate with TEAGASC on a wide range of plant and agribiosciences topics.

Science Gallery: The Science Gallery is a key science communication partner and collaborator with the PABC. Prof. Spillane (PABC) is a member of the Leonardo Advisory Group for the award-winning Science Gallery. The Science Gallery is one of the world's most exciting science communication initiatives. Science Gallery is a public science centre located in Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. Opened in 2008 it holds various exhibitions and lectures with a view to science outreach and art-science collaborations. Unlike most science centres, it has no permanent collection, but rather develops a series of 4-6 temporary exhibitions each year. In 2014, Science Gallery International embarked on the development of a Global Science Gallery Network in partnership with leading universities worldwide.

National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Ireland: The National Botanic Gardens were established in 1795 by the forerunner of what is now called the Royal Dublin Society (RDS). The original purpose of the Gardens was to promote a scientific approach to the study of agriculture. Researchers at the Gardens are actively describing new species; increasing our knowledge of the Irish flora; conducting collecting expeditions; and investigating the needs of our most threatened native plant species.

Nutramara: Nutramara is Ireland's marine functional food research initiative. NutraMara aims to identify novel marine food ingredients and products with focus preliminarily on these main marine sources; fish processing waste streams, under utilised species of fish and seaweed and aquaculture. Dr. Dagmar Stengel leads the NUI Galway component of Nutramara.