Mar 2016 - Milling and Grain magazine

News

MAR 16

Milling

An aerial view of East Malling Research, Kent

Despite the huge contribution millers make to the global supply of food, milling is still a niche industry.

Boost for UK crop science as NIAB and EMR join forces

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wo leading UK crop research institutes are joining forces to create a major new centre for applied crop science and innovation.

East Malling Research (EMR) has become part of the NIAB group.

This alliance, bringing together internationally renowned expertise in crop genetics, agronomy, environmental and data science, will strengthen NIAB’s ambition to lead the UK in crop innovation.

EMR brings international leadership in top fruit and soft fruit research, complementing NIAB’s scientific expertise in arable crops, potatoes and ornamentals.

Both organisations have a focus on industry-facing, applied research aimed at addressing the challenges facing UK and global agriculture. The partnership will strengthen the UK’s crop science infrastructure and capabilities, with the pooling of complementary research expertise, and a shared commitment to the translation and application of science to support crop production in the UK and internationally.

In research terms, the integration will align EMR’s internationally renowned capabilities in horticultural and environmental science, including expertise in plant breeding, soil science, water use and biological pest control, alongside NIAB’s existing strengths in genetics and pre-breeding, variety evaluation, agronomy research, precision farming and informatics.

The combined organisation, employing more than 300 staff and with a turnover in excess of UK£22 million, will provide long-term stability, scale and capacity for investment in crop science. NIAB EMR will be established as a wholly owned subsidiary of NIAB, and will continue to operate from its existing site at East Malling in Kent.

CEO of the combined organisation, Dr Tina Barsby, said “This is a vitally important time for crop innovation, with a rapidly advancing knowledge base and renewed interest in productive, efficient agriculture, driven by the challenges of global food security, climate change and resource conservation.

“The move creates a potent new force in independent applied research, bringing together the scientific expertise required to support progressive crop production at all levels, and represents a major step forward in NIAB’s plans. Our experience of merger and acquisition in recent years – including the successful integration of TAG and CUF as part of the NIAB business - puts us in a strong position to realise the full potential of a combined organisation.”

6 | March 2016 - Milling and Grain

Companies which supply equipment and processing technology, ingredients and additives and other services to millers are finding it increasingly difficult to attract and/or identify individuals who either have the experience and/ or the skills or who would simply like to work in our sectors to take up positions that become available.

At any one time a large multi-national milling industry supply company might have 10’s of positions unfilled; some have 100’s of position available.

In this edition of Milling and Grain we introduce a dedicated page near our Interview and People pages we call the ‘Career Hub’ which highlights positions that are available now for those wishing to apply for a new job.

This month we identify a host of positions from just three companies and this list is only a fraction of the positions these companies have on their files and which they wish to fill.

We are not wanting to become a recruitment agent nor collect job information or individual CVs. That’s for others to do.

Our sole objective is to alert readers of Milling and Grain that there is a myriad of employment opportunities out there among our industry’s suppliers if your willing to look and are prepared to relocate.

These companies need staff who are both committed to milling and have experience that is relevant to milling. It is our task to highlight those opportunities and attempt to put job seeker in contact with employment provider. Each job is categorized by the degree of experience required, its job title and location plus a link to more information either via a QR code or a short web link.

Our ‘Career Hub’ is simply providing a ‘hub’ for job leads. We will publish each job twice (in successive editions) which is free to our advertisers and for a small charge for nonadvertisers.

- The Publisher

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