HORTICULTURAL RESEARCH AT WARWICK HORTICULTURAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE

That this House is concerned that the planned merger of Warwick Horticultural Research Institute (HRI) and the University of Warwick's Department of Biological Sciences will result in the closure of the internationally renowned Wellesbourne site, further eroding the UK's applied agricultural and horticultural research capabilities at a time when policy imperatives recognise the urgent need for such research to address the threat to food security posed by population growth, climate change and environmental degradation; calls for the redundancy process facing most of the academic and skilled technical staff at Warwick HRI to be halted pending a proper independent review of the potential impact this merger will have on the UK's ability to meet future food security objectives; and asks the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs personally to intervene to ask the University of Warwick to consider the impact of this decision on the UK's agri-food science base.