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Farms of the Future

Our ambition is to go beyond the ‘farm to fork’ strategy to straddle the environment-farm-food-health-economics web in a holistic manner that redefines global food-integrity research 

AGRICULTURE AT QUEEN'S - RANKED IN  UK TOP 3 (COMPLETE UNIVERSITY GUIDE 2019)

Top 150 worldwide (QS World Rankings by subject 2019)

Globally, there is a growing understanding that the current farming practices are unsustainable, failing to support a decent standard of living for farmers and not providing enough food to support projected population growth.

Climate-change predicts greater flooding, drought, disease and invasive pests, but in a manner that is not well understood, generating diverse challenges that will demand research-led solutions.

Volatility and instability of global markets impacts the price and availability of raw materials.

IGFS actively explores new ways of enhancing agricultural outputs without compromising ecological stability, from research into reducing livestock methane emissions and novel ways of 'soaking up' ammonia in farmyards, to incorporating new technologies such as smartphones to empower farmers and vets to monitor and control disease, check soil health, etc, all on-site.   

  • The Institute will develop a range of paradigm shifts in agricultural practices to enhance profitability and sustainability without compromising biodiversity and ecological stability 

 

Researchers working under this theme:

Keywords (subject areas) in alphabetical order; click on a researcher's name to access their profile

Name Email  Grand Challenge? Keywords (subject area) Post-Doc/s?
Prof Niamh O'Connell  Niamh.oconnell@qub.ac.uk Farms of the Future; Global Food Integrity Animal behaviour & welfare; animal health; environmental enrichment; lameness; biosecurity; broiler chickens; pigs; dairy cows Dr Maeve Palmer, Dr Mary Baxter
Dr Gareth Arnott g.arnott@qub.ac.uk Farms of the Future Animal welfare; animal behaviour  Dr Asad Javied
Prof Irene Grant i.grant@qub.ac.uk Farms of the Future; Food, Nutrition and Health Animal health; Paratuberculosis/Johne’s disease; Tuberculosis; zoonotic pathogens; diagnostic method development Dr Antonio Foddai
Prof David Michael Scantlebury m.scantlebury@qub.ac.uk Farms of the Future Animal physiology; ecology; animal behaviour; energetics; life history  
Prof Rudolf Krska r.krska@qub.ac.uk Farms of the Future; Food, Nutrition and Health; Global Food Integrity Bioanalytics & biotoxicology; mycotoxins; organic trace analysis; plant and microbial metabolites; LC-MS/MS;  plant-fungi-metabolomics; urine biomarkers  
Prof Andy Meharg aa.meharg@qub.ac.uk Farms of the Future Biogeochemistry; arsenic; atmospheric; plants; rice; soil; waters Dr Yogesh Gupta
Prof Chris Creevey chris.creevey@qub.ac.uk Farms of the Future; Food, Nutrition and Health; Global Food Integrity Ecological/evolutionary genomics; microbiome; computational biology; evolution; ecology; environmental genomics; AMR; novel therapeutics; genomics Dr Karen Siu Ting, Dr Benjamin Thomas 
Dr Tancredi Caruso t.caruso@qub.ac.uk Farms of the Future Ecology & soil; plant-soil interactions; biodiversity; ecosystem functioning; climate change  
Dr Paul Caplat p.caplat@qub.ac.uk Farms of the Future Ecology; landscape ecology; modelling; macroecology; invasive plants; range-shifts; life-history traits Dr Dina Sadykova
Dr Lisa Connolly l.connolly@qub.ac.uk Farms of the Future; Food, Nutrition and Health; Global Food Integrity Endocrine disruptors; in vitro bioassays; toxicology; detection; environment; food; health Dr Stephen Drain
Prof John McGrath j.mcgrath@qub.ac.uk Farms of the Future Environmental sustainability; microbes & pathogen biology; microbes (plant & environmental) nutrient cycling; biogeochemistry; bioenergy; environmental microbiology; phosphorus cycling; waste treatment; pollution microbiology; microbiome Dr Jason Chin, Dr Katrina Macintosh, Dr Damian Magill, Dr Luciana Minieri, Dr Magdalena Serkis-Rodzen, Dr Sudhirkumar Shinde
Dr Martina Bozzola m.bozzola@qub.ac.uk Farms of the Future; Food, Nutrition & Health  Environmental sustainability; environmental economics; agricultural economics (decision making under risk, technology adoption, food and nutrition security); climate change adaptation in agriculture; sustainable value chains; economics of wildlife management; applied econometrics  
Dr Katrina Campbell katrina.campbell@qub.ac.uk Global Food Integrity; Farms of the Future; Food, Nutrition and Health Food safety; biosensors; diagnostics; food supply chain; toxin analysis; biosecurity Dr Jordi Nelis, Dr Tatiana Panov, Dr Chikere Nkwonta
Prof Paul Brereton Paul.brereton@qub.ac.uk Global Food Integrity; Farms of the Future; Food, Nutrition and Health Food integrity; food value; food education; EIT Food; gamification; engagement; teachers; qualitative survey; schools; educators; social media Dr Niamh O'Kane; Dr Stephanie Brooks
Dr Caroline Meharg caroline.meharg@qub.ac.uk Farms of the Future; Food, Nutrition and Health Gut ecosystems; microbes (plant & environmental); microbiome; microbes; plants; environment; big data Dr Yogesh Gupta
Dr Sarah Helyar s.helyar@qub.ac.uk Farms of the Future; Global Food Integrity Marine & freshwater genomics; population genetics; eDNA; metagenomics; fish; amphibians Dr Amanda Naaum
Dr Fuquan Liu Liu F.liu@qub.ac.uk Farms of the Future; Food, Nutrition and Health Microbes (plant & environmental); plant development; plant/environment interaction; immuno-detection of microbial Dr Thomas Fleming, Dr Ruramayi M Nzum, Dr Frederic Mineur, Dr Antonio Foddai
Dr Deepak Kumaresan D.kumaresan@qub.ac.uk Farms of the Future Microbes (plant & environmental); ecosystem biology; ecology; global change biology; microbiome; ecosystem health; climate change; microbial eco-physiology; methane biotechnology  
Dr Christopher Law c.law@qub.ac.uk Global Food Integrity; Farms of the Future; Food, Nutrition and Health Molecular/cellular biochemistry; membrane transporters; structural biology; biocatalysts  
Dr Johnathan Dalzell j.dalzell@qub.ac.uk Farms of the Future  Plant biology; parasitology; plant parasitic nematodes; parasitic plants; entomopathogenic nematodes; molecular biology; genetically modified crops Dr Neil Warnock
Prof Aaron Maule a.maule@qub.ac.uk Farms of the Future Parasitology; animal health; disease; infection biology; drug discovery Dr Paul McVeigh; Dr Erin McCammick; Dr Emily Robb

Prof Eric Morgan

 eric.morgan@qub.ac.uk Farms of the Future Parasitology; veterinary; epidemiology; parasite control; livestock; climate change Dr Kyriacos Kareklas

Dr Mark Robinson

 mark.robinson@qub.ac.uk Farms of the Future Parasitology; host-parasite interactions; proteomics; molecular parasitology; helminths; liver fluke; rumen fluke Dr Kathryn Huson

Next Grand Challenge

Global Food Integrity