CEPAMS Newton Fund: Sino-UK excellence with impact on the Sustainable Development Goals

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The John Innes Centre's track record in China is very significant indeed. Just one year after Deng Xiaoping's opening reforms were initiated in 1978, the first Chinese scientist to arrive at JIC was Zhihong Xu. Professor Xu went on to be President of Peking University and Vice-President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Since that time, hundreds of Chinese scientists have received their training at JIC. Today, the very best Chinese scientists maintain their close association to JIC. Their work has had real impact on China's food security and health.In 2014, JIC established the Centre of Excellence for Plant and Microbial Sciences (CEPAMS) with the Chinese Academy of Sciences. CEPAMS has been a scientific and diplomatic success story. Building on JIC's long association with China, CEPAMS has seeded excellent, productive research collaborations, established new, world-leading laboratories and nurtured the Sino-UK bilateral relationship.This new project builds on past success to launch a second phase focussed on the impact of CEPAMS on the sustainable development goals in the developing world. The second phase of CEPAMS will involve collaborative research projects between JIC and CAS scientists plus dedicated CEPAMS laboratories in Beijing and Shanghai. The work of both will be explicitly linked to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and underpinned by an emerging Africa-Britain-China initiative.One theme of research in this new project will explore the anti-cancer properties of some plants used in traditional Chinese medicine (Skullcaps). A better understanding of these plants could lead to improved efficacy (health outcomes) of traditional medicines and also improved commercial impact of these medicines on the Chinese economy. In addition to JIC and CAS, this theme will also recruit the expertise of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew to explore medicinal plants in other developing countries and involve African partners.Another theme will look at the close association between plants and microbes and how this association can be both harmful and beneficial. A better understanding of these associations could lead to future growth in crop yields, reductions in crop disease and fewer chemical treatments for crops (e.g. fertilizers and pesticides). The research will look crops that are of growing importance in China (and other developing countries) including oats, tomatoes and kiwi fruit