FoodBioSystems: biological processes across the Agri-Food system from pre-farm to post-fork

The UK’s BBSRC is funding a new wave of doctoral training partnerships that will embed PhD students across the entire agri-food system, from soil biology on farms to the microbes in a consumer’s gut. This matters because the food system faces interconnected challenges—crop resilience, waste reduction, sustainable processing, and human nutrition—that no single discipline can solve alone. Traditional PhDs often isolate students in one lab or one crop type. This programme deliberately trains researchers to work across the biological processes that link pre-farm inputs (like fertiliser and seed genetics) with post-fork outcomes (like digestion and metabolic health). If successful, these partnerships will produce a cohort of scientists who can see the full chain: how a change in soil microbiome affects a crop’s nutrient profile, how processing alters that nutrient’s availability, and how the human gut microbiome responds. The immediate impact is on the UK’s research workforce, not on a product or policy. Over a decade, however, these cross-trained researchers could reshape how food companies design products, how regulators assess health claims, and how farmers choose inputs. This is a fundamental investment in people, not a specific technology—but the people trained here will be the ones who connect the biology of the field to the biology of the fork.