The Centre for Dairy Research (CEDAR), University of Reading has been named an Innovation Centre by LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming), the leading organisation promoting more sustainable farming.
CEDAR joins a select group of nine other Innovation Centres made up of some of the country’s most prestigious education and research organisations, set up to support the research, evidence, development and promotion of LEAF’s Integrated Farm Management (IFM) to help deliver more sustainable food and farming.
Speaking at the launch, Caroline Drummond, chief executive of LEAF said: “CEDAR is a unique, state of the art scientific facility for applied and strategic large animal research. Their extensive research capability, looking at areas such as milk composition and human health, dairy cow nutrition and the environmental impacts of meat and milk production, will further strengthen LEAF’s technical outreach activities. Being able to access CEDAR’s ground-breaking research will support our members and the wider livestock sector to become more innovative and to take advantage of new technologies in order to turn agricultural innovations into commercial opportunities.”
“We are delighted to welcome CEDAR as a LEAF Innovation Centre and are hugely excited about the opportunities this new partnership will offer.”
Professor Chris Reynolds, Director of CEDAR, added: “CEDAR has a proud history of cutting-edge research and this exciting collaboration with LEAF will enable future research at CEDAR to achieve greater impact through joint knowledge exchange between both parties..
“Of the nine LEAF Innovation Centres that currently exist in the UK, only four are universities. So, we are delighted to be part of such an elite team that aims to provide robust scientific data on how to minimise the environmental impact of both livestock and arable farming, while maintaining high levels of quality food production that can be disseminated through LEAF to the agricultural community.”
The launch forms part of CEDAR’s celebrations to mark the 25th anniversary of the research centre and is part of a series of events taking place.
The other LEAF Innovation Centres are:
- Bangor University, Gwynedd
- Bayer CropScience, Cambridgeshire
- Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, Leicestershire
- Harper Adams University, Shropshire
- The James Hutton Institute, Aberdeen/Dundee
- Rothamsted Research North Wyke, Devon
- The Royal Agricultural University, Gloucestershire
- The Dairy Research Centre, SRUC, Dumfries and Galloway
- The Stockbridge Technology Centre, Yorkshire
