John Innes Centre

The Crop Trust is a non-profit international organization dedicated to conserving crop diversity and making it available for use globally, forever, for the benefit of everyone.

We work with donors and partners to lead global projects that protect crop diversity, conserve crop wild relatives and develop technology to make this diversity accessible worldwide.

We seek professionals with a passion for global food security and a strong drive to contribute to our mission of conserving crop diversity for future generations.

Headquarter: United Kingdom Website: https://www.jic.ac.uk/

Location

Norwich, UK

Overview

The John Innes Centre (JIC) is an independent, international centre of excellence in plant science, genetics, and microbiology. It was founded as the John Innes Horticultural Institution in 1910 and became the John Innes Centre in 1994. Its history highlights achievements such as the release of a commercial improved blackberry variety in 1933; the publication of its compost formula in 1938, which remains popular in UK gardening; the elucidation of self-incompatibility mechanisms in plants in 1954; the first use of protoplasts in plant virology in 1975; the development of the first hybrid antibiotic through genetic engineering in 1985; involvement in sequencing the first plant genome in 1999; the identification and isolation of the gene for reduced height in wheat in 1999; the creation of genetically modified tomatoes that could benefit human health in 2008; and the development of a high-protein “super pea” that could replace soybeans in Europe in 2015.

Mission

To generate knowledge of plants and microbes through innovative research
To apply the knowledge of nature’s diversity to benefit agriculture, the environment, human health and well-being
To train scientists for the future
To engage with policymakers and the public

Related Projects

BOLDER: The JIC Germplasm Resource Centre is conducting nutritional phenotyping and marker development on grass pea (Lathyrus sativus) on behalf of the BOLDER project. This information is being made publicly and freely available using Germinate (https://germinate.hutton.ac.uk), in collaboration with the James Hutton Institute.