Queen's-AFBI Alliance
What is the Queen's-AFBI Alliance?
Global food systems are fast changing and Northern Ireland is no different. Local agriculture and food production are facing many urgent challenges including climate change, the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic and geopolitics such as the war in Ukraine and Brexit.
The Queen's-AFBI Alliance is a response to those changes, to create a more 'joined-up' agrifood knowledge base in Northern Ireland, and to pool resources, talent, facilities, capabilities and risks.
The Alliance is creating a research, education, enterprise and knowledge-exchange partnership to address the global challenges to food security from a NI perspective, but also to better equip future generations of agrifood systems leaders in this part of the world.
There is a cohort of PhD students now working under the Queen's-AFBI Alliance, researching innovative ways to create a more sustainable agrifood sector. Watch the videos to find out more
Francesca Johansen speaks about her research into robotic milking systems for dairy cows and how the resulting increased productivity can help with environmental sustainability
Harry McGuigan explores the potential of biochar to improve soil quality and carbon capture as well as benefitting the circular economy
Kayley Barnes investigates native Irish and British seaweeds as an additive in animal feed to improve nutrition and reduce methane GHG emissions
Aine Anderson talks about the potential to transform excess slurry across NI into a biofuel for the national gas grid
Joshua Thompson explains how a sustainable crop like willow could be used in animal feed to promote the circular economy and potentially reduce methane
