A new Centre for Sustainable Agricultural Systems (CSAS) has been launched by the University of Nottingham to provide expert support and research into enhancing sustainability and climate resilience in agriculture.
CSAS brings together over 50 researchers from across the university, and over £10 million in current research projects to create one of the UK's largest groups working on global agricultural sustainability.
The Centre is focussed on building long-term strategic partnerships to empower UK and global businesses of various sizes (from SMEs to multinationals) to adopt greener practices, foster resilience, and deliver change, shaping the future of sustainable production in an evolving global landscape.
There is wide-ranging industry support for the Centre, with the Anglo-American, Diageo, FenlandSOIL, Pelagia,Premium Crops, and Pulse Growers Research Organisation (PGRO), amongst others have signed up as founding partners.
The launch of the Centre is hugely exciting as it allows us to utilise the vast expertise and research from across the University to support business and help them deliver practical sustainability innovation. We are looking forward to working with our founding partners and a range of other businesses across the sector to shape and support the future direction of the centre, and address global challenges.
Founding partner Pelagia is working with the University on its Sea2Soil project to analyse its soil improver products that use responsibly sourced fish by-products. They have been conducting a range of performance trials exploring impacts on soil biodiversity and carbon sequestration.
It's very important Sea2Soil continue trial work with the University of Nottingham to develop further understanding of how amino acids increase the microbial activity and add value to the different farm systems. It's an exciting time working on this novel research as its new knowledge of how the underground livestock affect the soil, fungi and bacteria over a period of time. 2025/2026 will bring a wealth of new biodiversity data to the forefront.
Another founding partner, Anglo American, is working with soil scientists at the University to understand how their new natural mineral fertiliser, polyhalte, positively impacts soil aggregate stability and to research the role of fertiliser placement on crop emergence.
Agriculture needs to change and adopt new solutions rapidly and at scale to tackle urgent food security and climate challenges. We are confident that our partnership with the University of Nottingham will help deliver the necessary cross sector research, leadership and knowledge sharing required to achieve this and we are excited about what we will deliver together in the years ahead.
Dr Hannah Cooper, Co-director of CSAS adds: "As well as benefitting business partners, the work of the Centre also benefits our undergraduate and postgraduate students, creating new opportunities for them to engage with businesses and apply their research skills to practical areas of agriculture that can have a positive environmental impact."
