Kew's gardens, collections and research offer extraordinary opportunities to artists. Informed by an analysis of selected arts collaborations at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew since the 1960s, 'Future Ecologies of Art' is the first interdisciplinary project that explores Kew's potential to work with artists on diverse and inclusive storytelling about two specific issues: the climate crisis and social justice. Increasingly botanic gardens are turning to artists to create links between scientists, horticulturalists and the public in order to expand their narratives. The project traces these developments and proposes to take botanic gardens seriously as sites of experimental artistic research and engagement. It emphasises the power of artists to capture imaginations, advance alternative and interdisciplinary forms of knowledge-creation and inspire audiences. The project maps arts collaborations, their evaluations and learnings at Kew via interviews with artists, curators, archivists and scientists as well as through archival research. In this context, it asks how diversifying access to collections and centring artists from marginalised backgrounds can feed into future arts projects. Here it places particular emphasis on investigating - with artists and researchers at Kew - how the increasingly urgent themes of the climate crisis and social justice can be mediated by artistic practices and support Kew's mission to protect plants and fungi for the wellbeing of people and all future life on the planet. The project investigates how art can build bridges between disciplines and audiences in the context of the botanic garden to give visibility to the climate crisis and social justice. It is structured in three phases, (1) an initial phase of scouting interviews, strategy and literature analysis, (2) a research development phase including interviews with Kew staff and artists who have worked with a range of botanical organisations (3) a public outcomes phase which will see two teaching collaborations with UK universities (the MA Art and Ecology at Goldsmiths and the BA Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art), two workshops, two journal articles and a best practice report for Kew. Throughout each phase it is also informed by a placement with the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh to explore its arts strategy, broken down into three one-month research stays. The project is situated in the interdisciplinary Plant Humanities and dialogues with museum and heritage studies, particularly a recent focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. It also responds to recent developments in contemporary art theory and art history, especially current turns to ecology and social justice in art practice and a cultural climate in art institutions where artists globally critically engage with plants. It takes seriously Kew's recent commitment to arts collaborations which was highlighted in Kew's Manifesto for Change (2021) aiming to bring together artists and scientists to explore storytelling; and in the current Science Strategy (2021) as a commitment to arts collaborations as societal bridges. The project is conceived around the following research question: Drawing from Kew's history of arts collaborations, how can present and future artistic collaborations support GLAM sector organisations to explore diverse storytelling around the themes of climate crisis and social justice? It is further structured around these guiding questions: - How have official collaborations between Kew and artists evolved and been evaluated since 1960? What have been avenues for informal collaborations? - How can Kew encourage artists from marginalised backgrounds to work with collections? - How can art collaborations strengthen Kew's mission and advance interdisciplinary forms of knowledge-creation? - What roles can artists take in botanical research organisations to interpret collections for different audiences, and how can these translate to teaching materials?

Nearly everyone alive today depends on agriculture for subsistence. The origins of agriculture are widely viewed as a prerequisite to the rise of urbanism and complex societies and are foregrounded in popular syntheses of human history. Likewise, archaeological research on the trajectories of agricultural crop plants tends to focus on domestication in prehistory, with little attention to the more recent trajectories that have shaped the agricultural landscapes of today. Yet attention to these more recent trajectories is essential to improved efforts at preserving agricultural biodiversity and heritage. Cultivation, conservation and reintroduction of diverse plant species, including 'underutilized' crops, contributes to global agrobiodiversity, living ecosystems and sustainable food production. Such efforts benefit from traditional and historical knowledge of crop plants' evolutionary and cultural trajectories. By delving into the history of agricultural plants, researchers have gained valuable insights into the diversity of evolutionary paths taken by cultivated plants, including cases of geographic expansion, contraction, and extinction. Globally, these pathways are often part of a single phenomenon in which a few select crops of global economic importance push aside and drive to extinction traditional cultivars. Meanwhile, traditional and indigenous knowledge of crop plant diversity and usage is rapidly disappearing due to urbanisation, migration, and socio-cultural changes affecting people's preferences. To better understand these processes in the present it is essential to understand them in the past. The Crop History Consortium (CHC) brings together researchers working on historical crop diffusion - particularly of the past 2,000 years - to promote synthesis and dissemination of knowledge on the historical trajectories giving rise to current agricultural landscapes and diversity. Our focus is on the data and research possibilities provided by ancient plant remains and texts from the Middle East and Mediterranean, as well as Central Asia and South Asia. This data has reached a critical mass which now justifies bringing together archaeological specialists, historians, and ethnobotanists to produce multi-disciplinary collaborative research and syntheses. To attain these goals, outputs will be pursued through collaborative work. First, we will initiate an online seminar series showcasing the latest in multi-disciplinary crop history research, especially by early career researchers. Second, we will collaborate on a joint synthesis paper on historical crop diffusion in Afro-Eurasia. While addressing important historical questions, the paper will also showcase the added value of consortium-level interdisciplinary collaboration in crop history research. Third, as part of a commitment to accessibility of knowledge, we will produce interactive maps and other digital engagement tools, informing on where crop plants went between their original domestication and their current cultivation. These will be showcased on the consortium website, and a social media community will be cultivated. Through these outputs we expect to build the consortium on the basis of collaborative efforts that will promote both research and eventual public engagement. Project outputs are designed not only to make the CHC an attractive choice for larger grants, but also to enable low-level maintenance (of online seminars, media presence) in the event of a gap in funding. The CHC addresses a genuine and timely need for interdisciplinary integration and multidisciplinary synthesis in crop history research, bridging between archaeological and historical specialisms involved in crop history research. The proposed project aims at establishing the CHC through joint outputs aimed at synthesising crop histories and making them more accessible. Strategically, this project represents a crucial stage in a long-term plan for cultivating the CHC.

Seeds are the natural means of species regeneration, the product of pollinator activity, the basis of agriculture, a type of non-woody product and a source of essential protein and vegetable fat (seed oil) with many potential uses (industrial oils, biofuels, cosmetics). Consequently they are one of the mainstays of continuing ecosystem services. The Amazon is one of the most biodiverse regions of the world and the forests near Manaus are considered priority conservation areas. Therefore, ecological research in the region is fundamentally important to the sustainable and innovative use of species and yet the scientific capacity in seed biology in the Amazon region is extremely limited. BESANS will train 20 members of the Amazon Seed Network or students, 9 staff and up to 60 seed/seedling producers in Amazonian species seed biology, and upskilling in conservation biology. The partnership is sector specific, linking plant science institutes and aiming to understanding the seed supply chain (seed development, yield, processing and storage) associated with the nascent seed trade in the Amazonas. Research on seed biology is critical to accessing species for various development activities (food/energy security, ability to mitigate/adapt to climate change) and the collection and conservation of germplasm, the sustainable exploitation of biodiversity and restoration of degraded land are key objectives of the Ministry of the Environment (MMA) and INCRA (National Institute for Agrarian Reform). We will ensure the development outcome of a much more functional Amazon Native Seed Centre in Manaus, better able to provide high quality seeds of more species for various industries.

Context: Ethiopia has historically been the world's largest recipient of targeted food aid, yet little food-insecurity has been reported for the southern Ethiopian highlands even during the devastating famines of the 1980s. Today, the agri-systems of the southern Ethiopian highlands successfully support one of the highest rural population densities in Africa (up to 1000persons/sqkm). Here, we investigate the landscape scale dynamics, interactions and resilience of these agri-systems, using interdisciplinary environmental modelling, crop genomics and natural capital approaches to understand how best to manage their response to climate change whilst continuing to provide food security for a growing Ethiopian population - predicted to reach 172 million by 2050. Ethiopia is an important center of diversity for food crops, with an agricultural history defined by the domestication of numerous species including coffee, tef and enset. Southern Ethiopian agri-systems include more than 78 cultivated species encompassing roots, tubers, cereals, vegetables, fruits and pulses, including a very high proportion of indigenous crops. Typical farms average 19 different crop and livestock species underpinned by over 120 species of useful trees and shrubs co-occuring across the homegarden landscape. Research on individual crop species also indicates extremely high diversity, for example we have recorded >600 enset varieties, including up to 24 on a single farm, and 37 varieties of yam. This diversity aggregated at multiple scales may be the key to the past resilience of the southern Ethiopian highlands in times of famine, and the source of future resilience to climate change. Aims: Building on previous research, we hypothesize that the biotic drivers of high agri-system productivity and resilience are: (1) cultivation of a high crop diversity within farms, (2) cultivation of high genetic diversity within crop species and (3) cultivation practices that commonly involve diverse mixes of annual and perennial, indigenous and alien, semi-domesticated and domesticated crops. This rich diversity at multiple scales can in principle support food security and sustainable intensification whilst buffering seasonal food deficits, emerging pests and diseases and facilitating agronomic adaptation; despite an average farm size of only 0.9 hectares and very few off-farm inputs such as irrigation systems and fertilizers. In contrast to this indigenous diversity, farmers also grow highly domesticated introduced crops such as maize, avocado and banana, providing an ideal opportunity to evaluate these hypotheses. These crops are high yielding but likely to contain less genetic diversity. This may limit their capacity for adaptation to new or altered environments and their resilience to climate change. The prevalence of these introduced crops is increasing, together with a reported loss of indigenous crop diversity and a shift away from agro-forestry. The impacts of these trends as well as the projected impact of climate change on the resilience of Ethiopian agri-systems is unknown. Applications and benefits: Our research will generate landscape scale environmental suitability, genomic and natural capital data to underpin a decision making tool for sustainable agri-system development and climate adaptation in the region. By enhance future resource provision and resilience, we will generate clear economic and social impact on the livelihoods they support. The novel methods employed here will be of both broader academic interest in the fields of agronomy, crop breeding and conservation and provide immediate knowledge-transfer and resources to enhance Ethiopia's research capability. Most importantly, capitalizing on our strong existing UK-Ethiopian partnerships and links to regional government we will seek development and implementation of science-based regional agri-systems strategy to bring immediate impact within the life of the project.

Doctoral Training Partnerships: a range of postgraduate training is funded by the Research Councils. For information on current funding routes, see the common terminology at https://www.ukri.org/apply-for-funding/how-we-fund-studentships/. Training grants may be to one organisation or to a consortia of research organisations. This portal will show the lead organisation only.