Niab

About

Our vision
A thriving world powered by crop science

Our mission
We pioneer crop science for the benefit of society

Our values
Integrity first, drive Impact and promote Diversity

Our aims
• Coordinate the sector through change – clear leadership, stakeholder cohesion and knowledge transfer to drive innovation in agriculture.
• Secure our financial future – achieve 5% surplus, improve commercial income and sharpen entrepreneurial approach.
• Harness and grow our talent – maximise and re-align skills and attract new talent.
• Strengthen collaboration and one-Niab culture – break silos, connect teams, share success.
• Respond proactively to a changing environment – adapt to market, customer, tech, and policy shifts.

Niab is a leading UK crop science organisation, with research capabilities in plant genetics, agronomy, farming systems and data science, the largest national field trials capability, and strong research links with industry, Government and academia.

With headquarters in Cambridge, and regional offices across the country, employing 360 people across the UK, Niab provides scientific research, technical services and practical advice to improve the yield, efficiency and resilience of crop production across the arable, forage and horticulture sectors.

Niab has the skills, assets, facilities and capacity to understand the contributions made by crop varieties (genetics), environment and management, individually and interactively, to improve crop and food production. We translate sustainable innovations to farming solutions so that the food system can take these benefits from the farm to the fork.

For every £1 spent at Niab at least £17.60 is return to the wider UK economy through improved production efficiency, economic growth, import substitution, export earnings and inward investment.

www.niab.com

Niab in brief
• Headquarters in Cambridge
• East Malling horticultural R&D centre in Kent
• £29 m income: 47% commercial, 33% research (UKRI, charity, Defra), 20% statutory and levy
• Regional field trials centres covering multiple trials sites - 100+ UK field trial sites, 100k+ plots
• 360 FTE staff (crop scientists, pathologists, data scientists, technical specialists, lab analysts, agronomists, trials teams)
• 2,000+ subscribing members (farmers, agronomists, industry specialists)

Strategic research programmes
• Climate smart farming
• Under utilised and functional crops
• Resource use efficiency
• Productive and profitable cropping.

We need to grow enough nutritious crops for an increasing population while: reducing use of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides; increasing the land available for biodiversity; reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, and sequestering carbon; adapting to climate change, and protecting and restoring the soil.

All these goals must be achieved without offshoring the associated climate and environmental impacts.

In response Niab’s activity is based around these four programmes, designed to ensure the organisation remains at the forefront of agricultural innovation and continues to deliver value across the UK cropping system.

Commercial services
Niab provides independent agronomy and science-based technical and commercial services to government, the seeds industry and the wider agricultural and horticultural industries. We are a full service provider offering integrated services from molecular genetics and breeding, plant growth and trials and data collection through to analysis and interpretation on a wide range of crop species, (food, non-food and ornamentals).

• Analytical services
• Business development
• Commercial trials – field and glasshouse
• Agronomy membership
• Plant breeding
• Plant characterisation and seed certification
• Training