May marks the beginning of Tourette Syndrome Awareness Month. It aims to destigmatise Tourette Syndrome (or Tourette’s) and increase public understanding of this often-misunderstood condition. As part of our ongoing Understanding, Valuing and Celebrating Neurodiversity Project, we're focussing on how research institutions can better support and harness the unique strengths of colleagues with Tourette Syndrome.

Parliament has now passed the secondary legislation to implement the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act for plants in England. It has taken years of hard work behind the scenes and a great number of people in our organisation, the Norwich Research Park Public Affairs Group, and beyond to encourage this change in legislation.

As part of our Understanding, Valuing and Celebrating Neurodiversity Project, we've been taking tangible steps to create a workplace where Autistic researchers and staff can truly thrive.

As part of the Rosalind Franklin Women in Wheat Champions programme, we welcomed twenty-nine early-career female wheat researchers from twelve different organisations to undertake female leadership training at our Dorothea de Winton Field Station.

Laboratory-based research is essential for advancing society but it is also extremely energy and resource intensive. It’s estimated that laboratories are responsible for around 2% of global plastic waste and use 3-10 times more energy per metre squared than a typical office.

In our journey towards creating truly inclusive workplaces, understanding Neurodiversity allyship has become increasingly important. But what does it mean to be a Neurodiversity ally, and how can we meaningfully support our Neurodivergent colleagues? We spoke to some of our colleagues to find out.

At the John Innes Centre, diversity is at the heart of what we do. Just as we celebrate and leverage biodiversity in our research to solve global challenges in plant and microbial science, we recognise that Neurodiversity - differences in how people think, process, and interact with the world - is equally vital to our success.

To truly understand and embrace Neurodiversity, we must examine how it intersects with other identities, such as race, gender, and LGBTQIA+ identities. At the John Innes Centre, our Neurodiversity Project aims to understand and acknowledge these intersections, shedding light on the unique challenges faced by individuals who navigate multiple layers of marginalisation.

Our Strategic Engagement and the Communications teams recently hosted Harshanie Dasanayaka, a Microbes, Microbiomes and Bioinformatics (MMB) programme PhD student funded by the UKRI Medical Research Council (MRC). Harshanie’s professional placement helped her delve deeper into how policy is informed by science, and she shared with us what she had learnt. We caught up with...