Welcome to the latest FGC newsletter. There’s been plenty happening in the Centre and I hope you enjoy reading about some of our highlights.

Centre members have been enjoying a lot of success recently. Rachael Wood has been successful in obtaining a scholarship to travel to IRRI to learn about rice production. Sion Tan was successful in his application for the AB Blakeney early career research travel award. Dan Waters was successful in his application to participate in the Rice Industry leadership program. Michelle, Shiwangni, Stephen and Esther were all successful in making the final of the Charles Sturt University Three Minute Thesis 3MT competition. Deb Metcalf has been successful in her application for a PhD scholarship and will commence working on a hemp seed project soon. Well done everyone!

We have been pleased to welcome some new staff to the centre recently. Wei Zhou has commenced as a postdoc working on rice digestibility while Quincy Zhang has commenced an internship with the FGC, funded by the Graham Centre. Aysa Pourvali has joined us to work on a lupin alkaloids project. We are also sad to farewell John Mawson who will be returning home to New Zealand soon. John has made an enormous contribution to the Centre and will be sorely missed.

Funding for our Centre will come to an end soon. I am currently working with the External Advisory committee on a rebid strategy. While we have excellent support from our current partners, we are hoping to provide the opportunity to welcome new partners in our next funding application. If there are other partners out there who are as passionate as us about transforming the grains industry, we would like to hear from you.

Regards,

Professor Chris Blanchard

Photo caption: Professor Chris Blanchard (right) is pictured with Tom Howard, SunRice General Manager AGS, Grower Services and Agronomic Development, and Heather Stokoe, SunRice R&D Manager during a workshop in May where the FGC rice team presented their research.

Photo caption: Best wishes to Shiwangni, Stephen, Michelle and Esther who will compete in the Charles Sturt 3MT final.