Last week I attended #monogram26! It was great to present my PhD project and I really enjoyed co-chairing a session!

Had a great time reconnecting with the @monogram-uk.bsky.social community and meeting new cereal researchers ☺️.

Til next time!
@niab-uk.bsky.social
@aabiologists.bsky.social

The Monogram week kicked off @niab-uk.bsky.social with an #ECR workshop expertly organised by @nikkiwalter.bsky.social from @uniofnottingham.bsky.social, and included an introduction to #wheat crossing by breeders Carus John-Bejai from @kwsgroup.bsky.social and Joshua Ham from RAGT...

Two great talks by members of the Borrill group at #Monogram2026 today: Miles Curl telling us about drought tolerance in wheat and @beccatesta.bsky.social investigating the role of NAC3 in senescence in wheat. Great chairing of a whole session by @amy-newell.bsky.social too! Well done all 👍🏼

So happy to see this out online by @nikkiwalter.bsky.social

Katie Hawkins from my group talks about exploiting #wheat wild relatives for BYDV resistance at #Monogram2026. Funded by Limagrain, KWS, RAGT and @uonresearch.bsky.social BBSRC DTP studentships in collaboration with @kostya-kanyuka.bsky.social @niab-uk.bsky.social

Fascinating talk by Bernice Waweru from @johninnescentre.bsky.social @cristobaluauy.bsky.social lab on kmer techniques for identification of candidate disease resistance genes
#Monogram2026

Malcolm Bennett from @uonresearch.bsky.social introduces the Rank Prize @rankprize.bsky.social support to cereal research at #Monogram2026

Really excellent talk on day 2 of #Monogram2026 by @ecarmosilva.bsky.social on improving wheat’s resilience to heat by studying rubisco activity during photosynthesis. Funded by @dsw-isp.bsky.social

Day 1 of @monogram-uk.bsky.social was a great success! The UK small grain research network is alive and well! #monogram26

Excellent talk by @nikkiwalter.bsky.social from @uonresearch.bsky.social on N fixing bacterial inoculatants to improve wheat yields in SubSaharan Africa. Funded by @gatesfoundation.bsky.social Legume Technology and FCDO UK. #Monogram2026

#Monogram2026 Session 2 - Cultivating Good Company: Probiotics for Plants

🦠 Tim Mauchline @rothamsted.bsky.social
🌾 Nikki Walter @nikkiwalter.bsky.social
🎯 Cristina Barrero Sicilia @herts.ac.uk
🍺 Karol Kukula @uonresearch.bsky.social

And so it begins... #Monogram26

For the second year, the ECR workshop organised by
@nikkiwalter.bsky.social was very well attended...

Lovely to host so many Monogram researchers at @niab-uk.bsky.social for a day.

#plantsciences #crops

♥️🌾

Following the successful inaugural event (developed by the fantastic @nikkiwalter.bsky.social), the Monogram UK Pre-conference ECR Workshop sign ups are now open again! Free to attend, with loads of skills development and fun networking opportunities.
Travel awards are available too!

#ECR #network

@monogram-uk.bsky.social Monogram UK 2026 Pre-conference ECR Workshop sign ups are now open! Free to attend, with loads of skills development and fun networking opportunities.

Sign up via QR code below.

Please share!

Happy to see our publication online! 🌾

Grateful for all the wonderful support during my PhD, especially from @surbhigrewal.bsky.social, which has been especially recognised with the Edward Cocking Award 2025 - the same one she won in 2011!!

Only 8 days left to apply for our ECR Travel Award! Up to £500 to support workshop, training or visits to other members of the community to encourage collaboration. See website for more details.
monogram.ac.uk/index.php/mo...

Long, hot, sticky but thoroughly satisfying day of field data collection. Huge thanks to @lornamca.bsky.social for the help and positivity! It’s a blessing to have such awesome lab members 🙏 #fieldtrials

Most of all, thank you to the wonderful ECRs who attended and embraced all the opportunities thrown at them. We have started to create a brilliant community - I look forward to seeing all the conversations, collaborations, and changes that we make together. #MonogramUK2025

..Aiswarya Gijira from @ibers.bsky.social who helped with all the logistics such as rooms and food, and our inspirational speakers @tweeticum.bsky.social , Carus John-Bajai and @lornamca.bsky.social. Also, thanks to @sebiology.bsky.social for part-funding this workshop.

A huge thank you to the @monogram-uk.bsky.social Steering Committee for their incredible support of this project from its conception to the day, Stephanie and @ecarmosilva.bsky.social who helped develop and run the workshops..

I was pleased to hear that an ECR presenter felt more confident due to looking out and seeing the friendly faces they’d met during the workshop.

The feedback we received over the rest of the conference was gratifying. However, it really spoke for itself in that we (ECRs) were able to find familiar faces at the conference wherever we looked, and enjoyed continuing our conversations in conference breaks.

After these ice breaker sessions, some complimentary drinks and delicious pizzas, we started our science pub quiz. Everything from carnivorous plants to chocolate bar cross sections. Congratulations to our winners, Barley Brigade!

After some delicious pastries provided by @aberuni.bsky.social, we started workshop 2 on mentorship by Stéphanie Swarbreck and Conference goals by @ecarmosilva.bsky.social. A challenging aspect of the workshop, ECRs embraced being thrown into different groups in order to discuss topics.

We kicked off first with speakers
🎤 @tweeticum.bsky.social
🎤 @lornamca.bsky.social
🎤 Carus John-Bejai
sharing their career journeys then a Q&A. ECRs really engaged with this session. I certainly left feeling very inspired! Big thanks @ecarmosilva.bsky.social for excellently chairing the session.

This week, I found myself in my proudest moment yet - Implementing the @monogram-uk.bsky.social ECR pre-conference workshop. I really underestimated how it would feel to accomplish something like this, but I was in awe of the community we developed over the day.

Some great times had with great colleagues at #MonogramUK2025 at @aberuni.bsky.social. @monogram-uk.bsky.social @ibers.bsky.social @surbhigrewal.bsky.social

We are privileged at @UoNResearch to have Martin Mascher of @leibnizipk.bsky.social talking to us. Thanks @surbhigrewal.bsky.social for hosting!