DCCIT directs Durham University's research strength in Agritechnology towards major challenges, especially food security and industrial plant-biotechnology, and works closely with collaborators from across the UK and overseas. The Centre has established a crop transformation and gene editing facility - a unique enabling technology amongst the N8 universities. We have developed efficient transformation procedures for wheat, rice and barley, and have genome editing expertise in wheat and rice.  

DCCIT took the lead in shaping the successful N8 AgriFood proposal on behalf of Durham University, resulting in £8M HEFCE funding across the N8 universities. The success of the N8 AgriFood Resilience Programme is evident in the research income generated (over £150m from UKRI, with £11.4m of this leveraged from industry), as well as the continuation of the programme into its second phase. The consortium enabled the creation of the N8 Crop and Soil Innovation Pipeline (CSIP) – an innovation platform that integrates from fundamental crop and soil science to state of the art farms to generate transformative solutions for the AgriFood sector. DCCIT played an instrumental role in the creation of this ambitious hub that aims to bring together businesses, farmers and academics.  We look forward to strengthening our links with external collaborators and further successes in the future.