Meeting report: How to access funding for tree health and plant biosecurity

Rebecca Hill reports from a BBSRC tree health and plant biosecurity town meeting in London and later spoke to researchers planning to apply to a £7m fund.

The Living with Environmental Change partnership is to launch the second phase of a project investigating tree heath and plant biosecurity. The funders held a meeting on 14 February in London to tell potential applicants what they would need to know to access the funding pot, which is expected to be at least £7 million.

In the first phase, funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, seven short small-scale, capacity-building projects were awarded up to £50,000 each. The second phase will support more ambitious three-year projects using interdisciplinary approaches to tackle current and emerging threats to trees and woodland from pests and pathogens.