Crops for the Future

随着英国将重点放在粮食安全、生态系统管理、减少投入和环境变化（包括新出现的害虫和病原体）的影响等重要问题上，作物科学将在未来几年成为一门关键学科。与这一迫切需要形成鲜明对比的是，培训新作物科学家的必要基础设施严重老化。由于学生需求的灾难性下降，现在英国大学几乎没有植物科学本科学位课程。更糟糕的是，这种情况发生的背景是许多高级植物育种家即将退休。如果要实现具有挑战性的粮食供应目标，就必须作为一个非常紧迫的问题来解决这种情况。我们的授课硕士课程“未来作物”旨在提供农业和食品行业所需的高水平农业科学技能培训。在作物科学方面的培训最好通过大学之间的伙伴关系来进行，这些大学具有基础理论科学的优势，而研究机构具有互补的专业知识，包括对实用作物科学的坚定承诺。“未来作物”是邓迪大学（UoD）和SCRI的合资企业，被认为是大学、研究所和作物产业三方协同作用的自然延伸。该课程于2009年9月接受了第一批学生，它结合了英国最强大的作物科学研究所（SCRI）和英国前三大生命科学大学之一的生命科学学院（UoD College of life sciences）。两所大学在教学、研究和设施方面的卓越表现均得到国际认可。SCRI是该提案的平等合作伙伴，其与商业作物育种和下游加工行业的密切联系为将知识转移到商业应用提供了工作管道。因此，硕士生将接触到基础和应用作物科学的各个方面。我们特别自豪的是4个月的全日制研究项目组成部分，这足以让研究生在世界级的研究环境中获得真正的研究经验。我们渴望帮助成功的MRes毕业生进入与商业作物科学当前需求密切匹配的领域进行博士研究。本课程旨在培养作物科学关键领域的毕业生，这些领域将成为21世纪可持续农业的基础。我们在作物基因组学、高通量技术、关联遗传学、害虫/病原体生物学、生物燃料研究、转基因技术、作物处理和植物育种等领域的独特研究和教学优势反映在课程内容中，我们在这些领域处于世界领先地位。日益严重的世界粮食危机将鼓励年轻科学家进入严重缺乏合格人才的领域。我们期望并将鼓励该项目的毕业生成为专业的作物科学家，他们将为现代农业的发展做出重大贡献，例如成为“下一代”植物育种家。这门课程设计灵活。对于全日制学生，核心教学模块和项目是必修的，并辅以必修和选修的通用/就业技能培训机会（见案例支持和课程规范-手册）。模块化结构允许兼职学习和开放和远程学习，通过我们多功能和强大的“我的邓迪”远程虚拟学习环境。

Crop science will become a critical discipline in the coming years as the UK focuses on the important issues of food security, ecosystem management, reducing inputs and the impact of environmental change, including newly emerging pests and pathogens. In stark contrast to this imperative, the necessary infrastructure for training new crop scientists is badly decayed. There are now virtually no plant science based undergraduate degree courses in UK universities because of catastrophic drops in student demand. To make things worse, this is happening against a background where many senior plant breeders are about to retire. This situation needs to be redressed as a matter of great urgency if the challenging targets for food supply are to be met. Our taught masters course 'Crops for the Future' aims to provide training in the high level skills in agricultural science needed by the agriculture and food industries. Training in crop science is best carried out by partnerships between universities, with strengths in the underlying theoretical science, and research institutes with complementary expertise including a strong commitment to practical crop science. 'Crops for the Future' is a joint venture between the University of Dundee (UoD) and SCRI, which has been conceived as a natural extension of the three-way synergy between University, Research Institute and crop industry. The course, which accepted its first entrants in September 2009, combines arguably the strongest UK crop science research institute (SCRI) with one of the top three UK life sciences university departments (UoD College of Life Sciences). Both organisations are internationally recognised with regard to excellence in teaching, research and facilities. SCRI is an equal partner in this proposal and its extremely close contacts with the commercial crop breeding and downstream processing industries provide a working pipeline for the transfer of knowledge to commercial application. Masters students will thus have exposure to all aspects of basic and applied crop science. We are particularly proud of the 4-month full-time research project component which is substantial enough to give real postgraduate research experience in a World Class research environment. We are eager to facilitate entry of successful MRes graduates into PhD research in areas closely matched with the current needs of commercial crop science. The course is designed to train graduates in the key areas of crop science that will be required to underpin sustainable agriculture in the 21st century. Our particular research and teaching strengths in crop genomics, high throughput technologies, association genetics, pest/pathogen biology, biofuel research, GM technologies, crop handling and plant breeding, where we lead the World, are reflected in the course content. The growing World food crisis will encourage young scientists to enter areas where severe shortages of suitably qualified people are about to make themselves felt. We expect and will encourage graduates from the programme to become professional crop scientists who will make a significant contribution to the development of modern agriculture and become, for example, 'next generation' plant breeders. The course is designed for flexibility. For full course students, the core taught modules and project are compulsory and are supplemented by both mandatory and optional generic/employment skills training opportunities (see Case for Support and Programme Specification - Handbook). The modular structure allows part-time study and Open and distance learning via our versatile and powerful 'My Dundee' remote Virtual Learning Environment.