NIAB
NIAB is a major organisation in the UK for research on horticultural crops and their interactions with the environment. NIAB EMR, located in Kent, England, has a history dating back to 1913 when it was established by the fruit growing sector to address the many challenges faced by growers. Since its establishment, the team at East Malling have introduced wide-ranging advances to horticulture which have shaped the way produce is grown and supplied to the consumer.
Today, our mission is to conduct high-quality strategic and applied research in horticultural and environmental sciences, and to deliver knowledge, products and services that benefit public and private customers.
Our vision is to be recognised as the pre-eminent research institute in the UK, with a significant international reputation for strategic and applied research, development and innovation in horticulture, with particular emphasis on perennial and clonally propagated crops.
Main task in the project
NIAB have a role in germplasm collation (WP1), qualifying genetic components associated with traits (WP2) and development of advanced phenotyping techniques (WP3) with a particular focus on enhancing ‘Breeding Value’ in strawberry. NIAB will phenotype a genome wide association population of 400 individuals for yield and fruit quality metrics over two seasons. This data will assist the generation of genetic information for use in marker assisted selection and genomic prediction. Further to this NIAB will develop and implement advanced phenotyping strategies including 3D imaging and hyperspectral imaging in order to provide robust quantification of strawberry fruit quality.
