My last post (Building the Plant Health Profession) called for applications from academic researchers to offer undergraduate summer studentships that address Plant Health research. We had a good response and applications are now open for undergraduates to apply for one of 9 studentships to run this summer. The skills focus on offer is varied, from developing pioneering disease detection technology …
Building the Plant Health Profession
After a successful pilot scheme last year with 4 studentships, the RSB is now offering 9 Plant Health Undergraduate Summer Studentships to be run in 2018. In addition to funding from Defra, the BSPP and N8-Agrifoods are contributing funding to help address Defra research priorities in 8 themes. Maybe other funders will be inspired to join this scheme too in …
Pushing at an Open Door
Last week I attended my 3rd annual meeting of the Plant Health and Seed Inspectorate to promote the RSB Plant Health Professional Register https://www.rsb.org.uk/careers-and-cpd/registers/plant-health-register I was delighted to share in the success of some of those now on the register who received their certificates. Defra’s Chief Plant Health Officer Nicola Spence, gave an introductory talk entitled “Communicating our message” and I …
Proud to be a Plant Health Professional
This week I attended the Animal and Plant Health Agency Annual Technical meeting to promote the Plant Health Professional Register on behalf of the Royal Society of Biology (https://www.rsb.org.uk/careers-and-cpd/registers/plant-health-register) From its first year, we now have 54 professionals on the register and hopefully many more now considering their applications. The meeting is an important annual event for the plant health …
Recognition for the Plant Health Professional Register
After only 1 year, the plant health professional register was nominated for a Civil Service Skills Award and shortlisted. http://www.civilserviceawards.com As one of three on the shortlist, 4 guests were invited to attend the award ceremony at Lancaster House on 24th November. I was honoured to be one of the team and delighted to join Prof Nicola Spence, Defra’s chief …
Early Career Researchers can mean Undergraduates too
Yesterday I attended an interesting 1 day meeting organized by SCI on New Frontiers in Crop Research http://bit.ly/2cQxOjd. During the discussion about how to engage business and academic communities, I made the point that Undergraduate Research Studentships can be useful here. Typically, these are carried out over the summer pre-final BSc year to help students see if research is for …