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OryzaNet Rice Research, Communication and Innovation Grants Available!!
Have an idea that could connect, develop or advance rice research? OryzaNet Rice Research, Communication and Innovation Grants Available!!
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£1 billion
The UK rice industry is worth nearly £1 billion annually.
20%
Rice provides around 20% of the daily calories consumed worldwide
10 billion
A growing global population by 2050 makes sustainable, resilient rice production urgent
Rice is essential and under pressure
Rice is a staple food for around half of the world's population and a vital source of calories and protein. It is grown across diverse and often challenging environments, from flooded lowlands to marginal upland soils, making it particularly vulnerable to climate change.
With a projected global population of 10 billion by 2050, improving the sustainability, resilience, yield, and nutritional quality of rice is critical. Rice research plays a central role in enhancing food security, strengthening livelihoods, and supporting climate resilience worldwide.
The UK delivers world-leading rice research across genetics, plant science, nutrition, computation, and social science, but greater coordination is needed to maximise its global impact.
OryzaNet brings this community together.
Our mission
OryzaNet is a BBSRC-funded network that connects people, capability, and knowledge across the UK and internationally to strengthen rice research and its global impact.
International and interdisciplinary collaboration
Training in cutting-edge technologies and methods
Early Career Researchers as future leaders
Equitable, inclusive, and ethical global partnerships
Together, we aim to shape the future of rice science and production.
Join the network
Join the OryzaNet community
XXX members and counting
- — students
- — researchers
- — industry
Be part of a growing international network of researchers and industry partners working to advance rice science.
Free to join • Open to researchers and industry collaborators
A growing international network
Connecting UK-based rice research with global partners and programmes.
Latest news
Congratulations to Oryzanet co-lead Professor Julie Gray in securing £800,000 BBSRC project funding
Professor Gray led her team at the University of Sheffield School of Biosciences in securing £800,000 project funding by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). The project in collaboration with researchers from Penn State University, University of Würzburg and the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines. The project will grow and compare different genetically enhanced rice varieties in both controlled environments and tropical field trials in the Philippines. Through this they will be able to identify the specific traits that have a positive effect on resilience and use advanced tools such as machine learning to predict which plants will perform the best under stressful conditions.
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ISRFG 2026 Registration open - Closing August 1st 2026
23rd International Symposium on Rice Functional Genomics (ISRFG 2026) ISRFG26 will be a great opportunity to showcase rice research in emerging rice-growing countries whilst bringing together collaborators at a historic venue in London.
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Professor Erik Murchie
Project Lead
Dr Katherine Steele
Project Co-Lead
Professor Ari Sadanandom
Expert Advisor
Dr Paul Williams
Project Co-Lead
Professor Julie Gray
Project Co-Lead
Dr Gareth Norton
Project Co-Lead
Dr Pallavi Singh
Project Co-Lead
Professor Andrew Jones
Project Co-Lead
Our partners
A leading UK research university and the home institution of the OryzaNet project lead.
A research-intensive university in Wales with expertise in plant sciences and environmental research.
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A Russell Group university in Northern Ireland contributing to rice genetics and stress-tolerance research.
A leading UK university with strengths in plant biology and molecular genetics.
A historic Scottish university with research strengths in plant science and sustainability.
A UK university with world-leading research in photosynthesis and crop improvement.
A Russell Group university contributing expertise in plant–microbe interactions and crop resilience.
A top UK university providing gene editing and transformation hubs for rice research.
OryzaNet is funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation.