About the School

The School of Agriculture, Food and Wine was formed in 2003 in response to the new opportunities that are emerging with respect to science and technology, the heightened expectations of the consumer in relation to food safety and diet together with the social and political responsibilities associated with sustainable environmental and economic development. The creation of the School provides an opportunity to establish an Internationally acclaimed and contemporary school for undergraduate and postgraduate education, training and research which has both national relevance and global outreach and networks in the public and private sectors.

The Head of School is Professor Mike Wilkinson.

The School currently comprises 45 academic staff, 165 research postgraduate students, 130 coursework postgraduate students, 700 undergraduates, and 380 externally registered students. During 2005 the external grant income for the school was $30 million. The school is organised into discipline groups with a strong emphasis on inter-disciplinary research and a recognition that our research cannot be divorced from the marketplace. A particular strength of the school is its ability to combine basic and enabling research to deliver new options and opportunities for "added value farming".

Teaching and Research Disciplines:

• Farming Systems
• Food & Nutrition
• Plant Breeding & Genetics
• Plant Protection
• Plant Physiology, Viticulture & Horticulture
• Soil Science
• Wine Science

The School is committed to connecting scientific excellence with relevance, this philosophy guides and inspires our teaching and education programmes. The extensive international network of academic and commercial collaborators provides a stimulating and unique environment for student training. By being exposed to the latest technologies and learning from leaders in their respective research fields, our graduates are able to enter the workforce with confidence and awareness of the latest research developments and are able to "see the big picture". This probably explains why more than 95% of our graduates are employed within 12 months of graduation!

Partner Organisations

The School is a partner in the following organisations;

Cooperative Research Centres for:

• Pork
• Beef Genetic Technologies
• Environmental Biotechnology
• Future Farm Industries
• Plant-Based Management of Dryland Salinity
• Poultry
• Invasive Animals
• Molecular Plant Breeding
• National Plant Biosecurity
• Australian Weed Management

It is also a partner of the:

• Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics
• Wine Innovation Cluster
• Pig and Poultry Production Institute
• Australian Grain Technologies Pty Ltd - arguably the largest wheat breeding company in the world.

Co-located partners include:

• South Australian Research Development Institute
• three divisions of CSIRO
• the Australian Wine Research Institute
• the Department of Water
• a node of the Australian Genome Research Facility
• TAFE SA