A University of Exeter team in Cornwall, based in the Environment and Sustainability Institute, has received two grants totalling £1.45 million to understand and remediate the effects of climate change at a microbiological level.

The funding from The Wolfson Foundation and Garfield Weston Foundation will support the newly established Centre for Microbiology and Planetary Health at the Penryn campus near Falmouth.

Researchers from the European Centre for Environment and Human Health are part of the team that secured the grant, which will help to catalyse an interdisciplinary approach to planetary health: accelerating research infrastructure, attracting new talent, and expanding work across health, climate, and sustainability.

Professor Will Gaze, who leads the European Centre’s work on antimicrobial resistance, said: “The funding will help us to develop innovative techniques to tackle some of the world’s most pressing issues, helping us to understand at a microbiological level how to combat climate change, antimicrobial resistance, and food insecurity.”

Microbial processes are key regulators of global carbon and nitrogen cycles, contributing to greenhouse gas regulation, nutrient mineralisation, plant growth, and mineral extraction. Additionally, the overuse of antimicrobials in human, animal, and plant health has accelerated the emergence of drug-resistant microbes, making this research more urgent than ever.

The Centre for Microbiology and Planetary Health is part of the University’s Strategy 2030, which is aiming to help create a greener, healthier and fairer world.

It adds to Penryn’s established Microbes and Society network, which brings together over 300 researchers, representing one of the largest interdisciplinary microbiological communities in the UK.

Read more about this funding here.