Bringing fungi into natural capital and environmental assessment!

Supported by Imperial Global Connect, in June Prof Martin Bidartondo and his team hosted Dr. Nur Ain Izzati, head of the Biology Department at Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), for a one-month research visit to familiarise herself with cutting-edge fungal research in the context of the UK Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment programme, Defra’s largest research and development programme. She interacted with members of two Levehulme Holobiont Centre research groups (Stanley and Bidartondo).

Following the research visit, in July Prof. Bidartondo travelled to Malaysia for a two-day collaborative workshop at the UPM campus in Selangor with research talks (hybrid with 86 online participants), networking and hands-on laboratory sessions for 14 students, nine early- to mid-career scientists and five senior scientists, from eight institutions in Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and the UK, to share innovative approaches in holobiont research and understand how these can be translated into policy in the context of mycorrhizal assessments. The project supported our international engagement and activities by seeding a strategic, policy-relevant, cutting-edge environmental research partnership in Southeast Asia that builds on a UK government’s flagship programme.