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Annual Report for the Year Ended 31St March 2020

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Annual Report for the Year Ended 31St March 2020 Annual Report for the year ended 31st March 2020 Registered charity number: 223852 Registered company number: 00511709 ANNUAL REPORT Contents Trustees’ Report including the Strategic Report Introduction to the Annual Report 03 Achievements and Highlights 05-19 Future Plans 20 Financial Review 21 Stakeholder Engagement Statement 22 Risk Assessment and Management 23 Structure, Governance and Management 25-28 Independent Auditor’s Report 29-30 Financial Statements 31-50 Charity Information 51 Cover image: Water droplet on Streptomyces coelicolor John Innes Centre (‘JIC’) is a company limited by guarantee and a registered charity. The Annual Report provides information on the legal purposes of the charity, the activities it undertakes and its main achievements. The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the Charities Act 2011, the Companies Act 2006, the Memorandum and Articles of Association, and Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2015). 2 Annual Report | Year ended 31 March 2020 ANNUAL REPORT Trustees’ Report including the Strategic Report The Board of Trustees of the John Innes Centre (Governing Council) presents its Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2020. The Annual Report provides details of the John Innes Centre’s objectives, achievements, scientific and financial performance in the year, future plans, risk management and its governance and management structure. About us Delivery The John Innes Centre (JIC) is a world-leading To date the knowledge generated by the John international centre of excellence in plant Innes Centre has resulted in many innovative science and microbiology. Our mission is to and practical solutions to global challenges. generate knowledge of plants and microbes This is the result of ground-breaking research, Dr Will West through fundamental research. We use this combined with collaboration to develop Chair – Governing Council & knowledge to benefit agriculture, the specific and applied scientific solutions. We Remuneration Committee environment, human health and well-being, to have addressed societal problems and aided train excellent scientists for the future and to economic development in the UK and globally. engage with policy makers and the public. The task of the Governing Council is to ensure Our strategy that the John Innes Centre retains its position Healthy Plants, Healthy People, Healthy Planet as the key national and international centre (HP³) is our strategy for achieving a safer, of scientific excellence in plant and microbial healthier and more sustainable future through science. the power of plant and microbial science. In collaboration with world-leading academic partners we are uniquely positioned to lead the fundamental scientific advances needed to address three intertwined, era-defining challenges: feeding the world; combating global health threats and climate change. John Innes Centre 3 HealthyANNUAL REPORT Plants, Healthy People, Healthy Planet Facing the world’s major social and environmental challenges Plant and microbial science has a key role to play in helping us face the world’s major social and environmental challenges FOOD HEALTH AND CLIMATE SECURITY WELL-BEING CHANGE Growing populations, coupled with the The dual challenges of obesity and Never before has climate change been effects of climate and the emergence malnutrition affect every country more firmly on the global agenda, but of new, plant-damaging pathogens, in the world, increasing rates of the effects of increasingly volatile are putting the volume of available chronic health conditions and placing temperatures are already impacting food under increasing strain. unnecessary strain on public services. food availability and crop yields. At current growth rates, there will Food quality has a direct and causal Intensive, commercialised agriculture is be an additional 2.1 billion mouths link to the health and wellbeing of also one of the most resource-intensive to feed by 2050. It is crucial that populations. We need to find ways industries on the planet, with many of crop yields are protected and to increase the nutritional value of its key operations and resources either increased to meet this demand. the most widely consumed foods. using or being derived from fossil fuels. 4 Annual Report | Year ended 31 March 2020 ANNUAL REPORT Achievements and Highlights Professor Dale Sanders FRS, Director of the John Innes Centre It is clear that we live in exceptional times. Our Unprecedented situations call for new world is changing. From the climate emergency to a global pandemic. Responding to these ways of thinking. This is a critical moment to challenges demands a global scientific community united by a common purpose. come together to achieve a collective goal. With this in mind we have developed a future strategy for the John Innes Centre, entitled “Healthy Plants, Healthy People, Healthy Planet”. This articulates our vision for the future of plant and microbial science and outlines our mission to respond to the challenges that humanity and Dean FRS was awarded the prestigious Wolf amidst uncertain times two weeks before the our environment face. A world with a rapidly Prize in recognition of her pioneering discoveries end of the 2019/20 financial year. In mid-March changing climate, facing massive losses in and significant breakthroughs in the field of 2020 the spread of COVID-19 meant we took biodiversity, a growing global population to feed biology. The Wolf Prize is awarded annually to steps to ensure the safety of our people, and and the urgent need to decarbonise agricultural prominent scientists and artists for their unique the local community. practices requires science to play its role in contribution to humanity, it is sometimes Unprecedented situations call for new delivering solutions. considered to be equivalent to the ‘Nobel Prize ways of thinking. This is a critical moment to The John Innes Centre continues to uncover in Agriculture’. This prize recognises Caroline’s come together to achieve a collective goal. and understand the fundamental biological contribution to our understanding of how plants For those of us in the scientific community, mechanisms which can begin to provide the sense and remember winter, and how this is the aim is to unite to safely unwind from the solutions so desperately needed. critically important to agriculture in the face of lockdown, and to learn as much as possible Our Institute Strategic Programmes are a changing climate. from this pandemic, so we are ready when the founded on discovery science and aim to deliver This recognition highlights the importance of next one emerges. strategic impact. This year we passed the institutes and the role of discovery science in The synergy across the research institutes on mid-point of the five-year funding cycle. I am society. Without the continuity of support the Norwich Research Park and the co-location proud to report that all four ISPs were rated as provided by funding to allow curiosity-led with the Norfolk and Norwich University Excellent in the mid-term reviews, a truly research to be explored over many decades, the Hospital and the University of East Anglia means remarkable achievement. I would like to extend prospects for delivering societal impact and we have an exceptional bioscience resource my gratitude to everyone involved. real-world solutions would be much diminished. here in Norwich with the critical mass to At the start of 2020 Professor Dame Caroline The John Innes Centre closed its doors respond rapidly and appropriately. John Innes Centre 5 ANNUAL REPORT Institute Strategic Programmes (2017-2022) Molecules from Nature The scientific challenge: The strategic challenge: To provide a new level of understanding of the nature, To use this knowledge for the discovery and engineering of origins and functions of the vast array of chemicals new molecules that drive advances in health, medicine and produced by plants and microbes. sustainable manufacturing and agricultural practices. Genes in the Environment The scientific challenge: The strategic challenge: To obtain a deep understanding of how the environment To use this knowledge to enable the breeding of crop plants that influences plant growth and development. are more resilient to a wider range of growing conditions, to improve the stability of crop yields and improve security of global food supplies. 6 Annual Report | Year ended 31 March 2020 ANNUAL REPORT Institute Strategic Programmes (2017-2022) Plant Health The Plant Health ISP is a cross-institute programme between the John Innes Centre and The Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich. The scientific challenge: The strategic challenge: To understand the molecular dialogue between plants, pests and To influence the interactions between plants and associated microbes, establishing how they communicate with each other organisms to increase future crop productivity and enhance and how they have evolved in relation to one another. agricultural sustainability. Designing Future Wheat The Designing Future Wheat programme is coordinated by the John Innes Centre, and spans eight research institutes and universities. The scientific challenge: The strategic challenge: To develop a new wheat germplasm containing the next Accelerating plant breeding by understanding
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