Kew's Science Strategy

A simple but often overlooked truth is all our lives depend on plants and fungi.

Kew is a global resource for plant and fungal knowledge, so we have a published five-year Science Strategy. The full publication is available to download, or you can see a summary of our priorities, outputs and a list of our departments below.

Download Kew Science Strategy 2015-2020 (PDF)

Strategic priorities

We have three strategic priorities, to:

• document and conduct research into global plant and fungal diversity and its uses for humanity
• curate and provide data-rich evidence from our unrivalled collections
• disseminate our scientific knowledge of plants and fungi, maximising its impact in science, education, conservation policy and management 

These priorities enable us to curate, use, enhance, explore and share Kew’s global resource, providing robust data and a strong evidence base for our UK and global stakeholders.

Strategic outputs

In addressing these priorities, we will achieve the following strategic outputs:

• Plants of the World Online portal
• State of the World’s Plants
• Tropical Important Plant Areas
• The Plant and Fungal Trees of Life
• Banking the World’s Seeds
• Useful Plants and Fungi Portal
• Digitising the Collections
• Training the Next Generation of Plant and Fungal Scientists
• Science in the Gardens

Our departments

The strategic outputs are led by multidisciplinary teams drawn from our six research departments supported by the Office of the Science Directorate, and the Library, Art & Archives. The six research departments are: 

• Biodiversity Informatics and Spatial Analysis
• Collections
• Comparative Plant and Fungal Biology
• Conservation Science
• Identification and Naming
• Natural Capital and Plant Health

With this vision and strategy, we will make our scientific resources a global asset, bringing benefits to science, conservation policy and education worldwide.