University Centre Sparsholt Lecturer, Dr Kate Johnson wins £6,500 in funding from The Farmers Club Charitable Trust 2021 Agricultural Educators Awards

Dr Johnson is a Higher Education Lecturer for Fisheries, Aquaculture and Marine and is a course tutor for the FdSc Marine Ecology and Conservation degree at University Centre Sparsholt (UCS). The prestigious award will fund, when restrictions allow, travel to Malaysia to visit universities and fish farms to study novel aquaculture.  On completion Dr Johnson will produce a report on ‘An investigation into the development of novel fin fish aquaculture, with a focus on minimising environmental impacts.’ The report once completed will be submitted to the Farmers Club Charitable Trust and a summary of the report may be published in the Farmers Club Journal.

Agriculture Educator Awards are specifically designed to help those employed in agricultural education to widen and develop their own technical expertise through study activities either in the UK or abroad which then can be shared with both students and others involved in the agriculture and agricultural education sector.

In order to be considered for the award, Dr Johnson submitted a comprehensive proposal outlining her plan of the trip, intended visits, budget and most importantly the educational benefits to students.  After a formal interview during which she was able to expand on the proposal and answer questions from a panel of industry experts she was delighted to find out she had been awarded the funding.

Commenting on the award, Dr Johnson said “I’m so grateful to be awarded this prize and to get started on this fascinating research topic. Malaysia will be such an experience to learn and investigate this topic before sharing my findings with UCS students.”

Caroline James, Dean of Higher Education at UCS said “It is such an achievement for Kate to win this award and funding to explore this fantastic area of research further. Here at UCS we pride ourselves in the expertise of our talented lecturers and this is a great example of just how much the skills, knowledge and industry expertise of our research active team can have on our students, the experts of the future.”

Lisa Turner, Awards Ambassador for the Farmers Club Charitable Trust, said “The trust received applications for some excellent project this year and the Trustees are delighted to be able to offer funding for Dr Johnson to travel to Malaysia to expand and share her learning of novel aquaculture.