Warwick HRI, formerly part of Horticulture Research International, is an United Kingdom organisation tasked with carrying out horticultural research and development and transferring the results to industry in England.
Warwick HRI was formed on 1 April 2004 following the integration of Horticulture Research International’s (HRI) sites at Wellesbourne and Kirton with the University of Warwick. The HRI was constituted in May 1990 from the AFRC Institute of Horticultural Research Stations at Wellesbourne (the National Vegetable Research Station), East Malling (the East Malling Research Station) and Littlehampton (the Glasshouse Crops Research Institute), the Hop Unit at Wye College and the ADAS Experimental Stations of MAFF at Efford, Kirton and Stockbridge. The Wellesbourne site covers an area of 191 hectares and contains protected crop facilities, state-of-the-art glasshouses, a Bioconversion Unit, controlled environment units and first-class laboratory facilities including the Genomic Resource Centre. The Kirton site, which was closed by the university in February 2009,[1] spans 50 hectares, with modern seed handling equipment and a 4-hectare organic area.
Research at Warwick HRI falls within four main areas: plant science, crop and environmental sciences, applied microbial sciences and applied horticultural research. The department is home to internationally recognised research scientists and is at the forefront of teaching in these areas with a number of taught MSc courses and also research degrees leading to MSc, MPhil or PhD.
Warwick HRI is a member of the European Plant Science Organisation (EPSO).
In November 2009 Warwick University announced that it "has decided to close Horticultural Research International, which it took over in 2004, as the centre was losing the university £2 million a year".[2] Warwick HRI was merged with the University's Department of Biological Sciences into a new School of Life Sciences in October 2010.[3]. For details of the closure, see 'What's Going on at Wellesbourne?'[4]. Some research work on vegetable genetic improvement continues at the Crop Centre.[5]
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