Stapledon Memorial Trust

Providing awards to both individuals and organisations on all aspects of grassland use

Award of Travelling Fellowships

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At its AGM in December 2014, the committee agreed to award the following Fellowships to be taken up in 2015.

  • Dr Juan Andres Quincke (INIA, Montevideo, Uruguay) to Rothamsted Research North Wyke UK (host: Dr Martin Blackwell), for 6 months to carry out research on effects of grazing animals on forms of nutrient losses from grasslands to surface waters.
  • Dr Veronica S. Ciganda (INIA, Montevideo, Uruguay) to Rothamsted Research North Wyke (host: Dr Laura Cardenas), for 6 months, to carry out research on nitrous oxide emissions from grasslands.
  • Dr Preeti Nandal (Dept of Microbiology, University of Delhi, India) to IBERS, Aberystwyth (host: Dr Sreenivas Rao Ravella) for 6 months to work on biorefining in which three different pre-treatment methods and enzymes will be assessed for the ability to recover the xylooligosaccharides fraction from grass samples.
  • Ms Ina Nikolaeva Stoycheva-Mavrovska (Institute of Forage Crops, Pleven, Bugaria) to IBERS Aberystwyth (host: Dr Mariecia Fraser) for 4 months. The aim of the proposed research is determine enteric methane emissions from stock consuming mixtures of different moorland plant species; specifically testing whether the inclusion of dwarf shrub species reduces emissions relative to predicted rates based on diet digestibility.
  • Dr Alison Bennet (James Hutton Institute, UK) for a 4-week visit to Australia to assess changes in plant, soil, and insect communities in a grassland associated with altered rainfall and root herbivory in the DRI-GRASS field experiment at the University of Western Sydney Hawkesbury campus.
  • In 2015 the Trust also awarded a summer vacation bursary to Ms Natalie Plummer (School of Agriculture, Policy & Development, University of Reading) to support a 6-week period of research experience under the supervision of Professor Peter Gregory at East Malling Research. The aim was to measure root growth of Festulolium grasses and wheat lines with introgression from wild emmer which may increase the resilience of grass and wheat crops to abiotic stress.
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