Plant Crops Bioenergy Research UK

UK Research Groups

Research group	Crops covered	Main themes of research on specific energy crops
University of Aberdeen, School of Biological Sciences	All dedicated energy crops	Modeling the carbon balance and green house gas mitigation concerning land-use change to bioenergy crop systems.
Centre of Ecology & Hydrology (Wallingford)	SRC poplar and willow Dedicated energy grasses	Access the current and future impacts of bioenergy crops on water resources and biodiversity.
Cranfield University, Institute of Water & Environment	SRC poplar and willow Miscanthus	Improving the productivity and management of energy crops, and the effects of energy crops on hydrology.
Forestry Commission, Forest Research (Alice Holt) SRC yield models project	SRC poplar and willow	National field trials of SRC poplar and willow. Development of both an empirical yield model and a process model for SRC.
Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research (IGER)	Energy grasses Associated with projects of SRC poplar and willow	Breeding and improvement of energy grasses for yield and quality. Coordinates the Miscanthus genetic improvement programme in the UK. http://www.iger.bbsrc.ac.uk/Miscanthus/ Coordinates Willow for Wales.
Rothamsted Research, Plant and Invertebrate Ecology Division	SRC willow Dedicated energy grasses	Breeding and improvement of SRC willow, particularly yield, quality, pests and diseases. Holder of national willow germplasm collection. Coordinator of BEGIN. http://www.biomass4energy.org/ Yield trials and improvement of dedicated energy grasses and development of a growth model. Several long-term trials on energy crops.
Senova UK	Reed canary grass Switch grass	Seed production of reed canary grass and switchgrass. Crop development and marketing.
University of Southampton, School of Biological Sciences Laboratory of Gail Taylor	SRC poplar and willow	Appling latest poplar genomics for yield improvement and elite genotype selection. Responses of poplar to future climates. Coordinator of POPYOMICS. http://www.soton.ac.uk/~popyomic/ Modeling the spatial supply of SRC biomass fuels in current and future climates. Impacts of SRC willow on biodiversity.
Cardiff School of Bioscience, Wales Biomass Centre	SRC willow Miscanthus Reed canary grass	Ecological impacts of commercial scale SRC willow. Ecology of land use change to energy grass cropping.
Willow for Wales	SRC willow	Landscape change and biodiversity of SRC willow. Assess commercial deployment.