Enhanced Partnerships

Developing multi-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary partnerships in the UK and across the world.

Four people stood far away in a mountainous area in Switzerland

Head of department: Professor Monique Simmonds

Structured partnerships, focusing on impactful goals, such as the identification of plants and fungi with economic, environmental and social importance, are essential to the continued success of Kew's collecting, research and conservation activities. 

We will build relationships with our UK biodiversity partners, as well as develop business partnerships to demonstrate the economic importance of biodiversity. 

Our partnerships enable us to have a better understanding of the complex issues that impact biodiversity loss.

They also enable us to extend our reach to the indigenous peoples and local communities that are the key custodians of biodiversity and are often the groups whose livelihoods are negatively impacted by biodiversity loss. 

Department initiatives

  • Interdisciplinary Research: extending our reach and impact in science and public engagement through interdisciplinary research 
  • Millennium Seed Bank Partnership: strengthening the global plant conservation network delivering solutions to biodiversity loss
  • Education and Training: delivering world-class postgraduate education and training through partnerships 
  • Enhancing Commercial Partnerships: supporting the sustainable use of biodiversity entering the trade

Our activities

  • Hand holding eucalyptus leaves next to pestle and mortar

    Commercial Innovation Unit

    Working with worldwide research institutes, industries and regulators to scientifically authenticate and identify the quality of plant and fungal material entering the trade.

  • Stored seeds at the seed bank in the freezer

    Millennium Seed Bank Partnership

    Safeguarding wild plant diversity and enabling sustainable utilisation through global partnership.

  • Student holding tube in lab

    Science education and training

    Delivering postgraduate education to train the next generation of plant and fungal scientists.

  • Indigenous visitors from the upper Rio Negro examine 19th-century artefacts from Amazonia at a transnational and interdisciplinary workshop at Kew in 2019

    Interdisciplinary Research

    Developing partnerships in the arts, humanities and social sciences.