Derek Stewart is the Director of the Advanced Plant Growth Centre (APGC), a £27M flagship project at the James Hutton Institute. The APGC is a major industry collaborative effort that aims to deliver increased commercial, economic and environmental benefits to the agricultural, food and drink sectors in the UK and internationally by innovative use of precision controlled environment technologies. In this directorial role he is responsible for establishing the Advanced Plant Growth Centre (APGC) strategic research and business plans, and ensuring their implementation through annual Operational Plans to deliver a dynamic basic, translational and applied research programme
Derek was previously the AgriFood Business Sector leader and before that the head of the Crop Productivity and Utilisation Theme. He previously held the Chair of Food Chemistry in the Department of Engineering and Physical Science at Heriot Watt University, and this is now an honorary role. Over 30+ years he has pursued a career in crop production, raw material composition and its relation to product quality, functionality, bioactivity and utility and this is reflected in his >200 refereed publications and an H-Index of 62. Across his career he has, and continues to have, coordination and WP leader positions in large EU grants and significant experience as a PI in RCUK and Innovate UK projects. Professor Stewart sits on many national and EU review panels and is currently one of the experts on the Quaker Centre of Excellence and Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre scientific advisory boards.
More recently Derek became a director on the board of Bloom Biotechnologies Ltd., an innovation joint venture between Epigentica, a company delivering biotechnological innovation to industry stakeholders, and James Hutton Ltd.
Controlled Environment Agriculture/Vertical Farming- The developments in the APGC, including the spin in of Intelligent Growth Solutions and Liberty Produce Ltd, have brought intense focus on the emerging files of total controlled environment agriculture, including vertical farming. This approach exploits integrated systems to facilitate sustainable, local crop growth on a large scale and, via some of the grants identified below, are being shown to have many benefits such as significantly reduced water and nutrient use compares to filed and existing glasshouse systems, offer the ability to alter the taste, texture, appearance and nutritive value of a crop without and genetic manipulation, and if linked to renewable energy sources offer a route to decarbonising the crop production supply chain.
Organoleptic, bioactivity and functionality basis of plant-derived foods- the functional qualities, flavour, aroma, texture, visual appearance bioactivity etc are often the driving factors in food consumption. However, each of these parameters are multi-component and interrelated. However, through collaborations with geneticists in academic and industry organisations, who have unique germplasm segregating in organoleptic parameters, and by applying rigorous and concerted chemical, biochemical, physical and molecular biological approaches we are taking this area forward. Aligning this with the activities in Controlled Environment Agriculture/Vertical Farming makes this a central activity to the APGC.
Circular BioEconomy- The landscape for society, industry and policy is ever evolving but the last few decades have seen a sharpening focus on the key issues of climate change and the sustainable use of resources. This has led to the development of policies and initiatives around factors mitigating and adapting to climate change and activities, particularly industrial, that deliver equivalent or enhanced outputs but with reduced greenhouse gas emissions. All of this highlights a shift away from fossil fuel-based feedstocks and the requirement for sustainable/renewable resources and processes. This shift to alternative resources means the feedstocks will need to come from land- and marine-based systems. These new feedstocks could be grown (or harvested) or, as is the focus here, be bioarisings (wastes or co-products) from established rural economy processes such as crop and animal production. We have established a portfolio of approaches looking at agri-food bioarisings (waste or poorly used biomass) and how they can be valorised via biorefining technologies and ensure value is captured. This is another approach towards ensuring we transition to allow carbon economy
Recent Grants
Recent Publications
2019-present: Tayside Circular Economy Ambassador (voluntary role)
2017-2020: AgriFood Business Sector Leader, The James Hutton Institute (JHI).
2011-2021: Chair of Plant and Food Chemistry (0.2FTE), Institute of Mechanical, Process and Energy Engineering, Engineering and Physical Sciences, Heriot Watt University (HWU), Edinburgh. (Now an honorary position)
2012-2017: Research Leader Bioforsk, Nord Holt, Tromsø, Norway (0.2 FTE equivalent)
2011-2017: Head of Enhancing Crop Productivity and Utilisation Theme.
2009-2011: Grade G, Head of Plant Products and Food Quality Programme, Scottish Crop Research Institute (SCRI).
Links:
[1] https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9838-4265
[2] https://www2.gov.scot/Resource/0050/00504335.pdf
[3] https://doi.org/10.1111/nbu.12485
[4] https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12113547
[5] https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox9100970