Centres of Research Excellence Fund

2006 Expressions of Interest

The Bio-Protection Research Centre

(Existing CoRE, formerly the National Centre for Advanced Bio-Protection Technologies)

Director: Prof. Alison Stewart
Host:       Lincoln University

Partners:  Massey University
                AgResearch Limited
                Crop & Food Research

Abstract:

The protection of New Zealand’s (NZ’s) plant-based productive ecosystems from actual and potential threats caused by pests, pathogens and weeds is of vital importance to the future development of our agricultural economy. Burgeoning and diversifying trade and tourism have intensified this need. Such pressure is further compounded by climate change leading to the establishment of new pests, changing societal attitudes towards the acceptability of pest management strategies and land use intensification. These developments are increasingly damaging NZ’s $19B land-based economy and our unique natural ecosystems.

Dealing with biosecurity problems calls for broad-based, ecologically sustainable inputs that include Māori concepts of guardianship. This challenge can only be met through the application of comprehensive knowledge that comes from world-class, innovative, fundamental science. The Bio-Protection Research Centre brings together researchers from NZ’s major bio-protection groups, and by applying the latest biotechnologies and ecological theory is leading a paradigm shift in pest control, from chemical to ecological and beyond. The Centre incorporates the strongest postgraduate training group in plant protection in the Southern Hemisphere, closely linked to renowned overseas institutes and benchmarked with the world’s best.

  The Centre’s research is embodied in four themes:

• World-leading biosecurity: Developing ultra-sensitive detection systems and mathematical models to protect against plant pest incursions.
• Sustainable bio-protection: Understanding ecosystem dynamics for sustainable agriculture and environmental protection.
• Plant bio-protection systems biology: Understanding cellular interactions to develop superior crops with enhanced pest and pathogen resistance.
• Māori bio-protection: Protecting plants from pest threats using systems which value and sustain matauranga and tikanga Māori.

 

Application of future-focused research will protect agro-ecosystems from plant pests and biosecurity risks, provide new opportunities from novel technologies, ensure ongoing market access for high value land-based products and develop a uniquely NZ dimension to the bio-protection of our environment.