Resonate Roadshow Day Out: Seeds, Soil and Sustainability at the Innovation Campus
On Sunday 11th May, our celebration of the University of Warwick’s 60th anniversary sparked curiosity, creativity and collaboration with visitors from across our region!
On a beautiful Sunday in May we opened the doors to Warwick’s Innovation Campus to share the incredible stories of where our food comes from, how it’s grown, the incredible innovations by Warwick staff and students, and what exciting developments are on the horizon!
250 visitors, ranging in age from 1 to 79, joined us to explore hands-on, interactive activities and to discuss the past, present and future of agriculture, food and sustainability. We watched aerial silk displays depicting protein folding, listened to worms burrowing, sniffed smelly plants to identify the best ones for companion planting, learnt how to sort our recycling, watched an AI-based weeding robot, and explored how innovative biodiversity projects are succeeding in bringing endangered animals to settle on our campuses.
Visitors described the event as 'interesting', 'friendly', 'exciting', 'engaging', 'fun', 'fascinating', 'inspiring'.
“Thank you for engaging my whole family! We learnt a lot and have food for thought. Literally.”
Throughout the day, speakers from the University, external partners and our teenage and adult attendees had in-depth conversations about the past, present, and future of food. Together we explored our visions for community growing, sustainable food systems, and the role that the innovation campus has played and continues to play over time.
There were so many activities to dive into, from studying poorly plants under a microscope, to investigating pan traps to work out how we can tell bees from flies. We also tried out using natural dyes such as beetroot and matcha, and constructed intricate plant pathogens out of pompoms, pipe cleaners, and googly eyes - learning has never been so cute!
Visitors went home with heritage seed varieties from Garden Organic, who told us all about the value of heirloom crops, a packet of the first UK-grown beans developed by Warwick researchers (now under the name Nurtural Food), and recipe cards by Eatwise of the tasters eaten today as well as recipe cards created by Innovation Campus staff in 1977!
In the beautiful grounds of the Innovation Campus, we savoured both the sunshine and the locally sourced tasters that Eatwise cooked up for us. Each taster contained an ingredient developed and/or grown at the Innovation Campus - completing the full journey of the day from plot to plate! We devoured marinated bean salad, cheese and tomato pizzas, tomato cakes and bean brownies. There was even the chance to go on a tour to the tomato polytunnels to see them growing for ourselves, as part of the UK’s first project harnessing British UV rays to allow for boosted tomato growth.
“I thought that it was a wonderful experience, I learned a lot. ”
We hope you had a fantastic day exploring the Innovation Campus! If you’ve planted your seeds or beans, or tried one of the recipes at home, post a picture and tag @Warwickresonates on Instagram!
A huge thank you to the 85 amazing students, staff and external partners who worked together to organise and deliver this event.
Thank you so much for joining us! We hope to see you all soon!