UC joins the Bio-Protection Research Centre

UC joins the Bio-Protection Research Centre

The University of Canterbury has officially become a partner in the Bio-Protection Research Centre.

The Bio-Protection Research Centre (BPRC) is focused on novel research to develop sustainable solutions for controlling plant pests, weeds and diseases in New Zealand. UC will extend the BPRC’s capability in ecology, genomics, biological control and computational biology.

University of Canterbury Professor Matthew Turnbull, Head of the School of Biological Sciences, says UC officially became a partner following a formal invitation from the BPRC in April.

“The University of Canterbury is delighted at becoming a partner – it recognises the University of Canterbury’s contribution to the successful Centre of Research Excellence bid, and key role in four out of seven Centre research projects,” says Professor Turnbull.

“Our work contributes to the Centre’s broader aims and we are happy to be part of it.”

Professor Turnbull says UC’s involvement includes modelling the resistance of pests to biological control agents, developing genomic tools to predict virulence, and understanding how complex networks of interactions among species above and below ground determine the success of plant invasions. This work contributes to the BPRC’s broader aims of supporting the exclusion, eradication and effective management of threats to plant species, in order to enhance the economy, environment and human health and wellbeing in Aotearoa New Zealand.

“We wanted to acknowledge the significant contribution of the University of Canterbury to our science as a whole. We now have several talented University of Canterbury investigators working across multiple national research projects,” says the BPRC’s board chairman, Dr John Hay.

The BPRC is a partnership between Aotearoa New Zealand universities and Crown Research Institutes (CRI), with numerous international linkages. UC is the sixth full partner in the BPRC, joining Lincoln and Massey universities and three CRIs: AgResearch, Plant & Food Research and Scion.

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