John Innes Centre

The John Innes Centre is an independent, international centre of excellence in plant science, genetics, and microbiology. Founded as the ‘John Innes Horticultural Institution’ in 1910, we are custodians of over a century of records on genetics, plant breeding, horticulture, and plant and microbial science. Notable collections include the William Bateson (1861-1926) archive, documenting the life and work of Britain’s founding father of genetics. 

 Our archive also holds the records of the Genetics Society (from 1919), and of research organizations which have been incorporated within the John Innes Centre: the Virus Research Unit (1952-1979), the Plant Breeding Institute (c. 1928-1993) and the Unit of Nitrogen Fixation (1966-1987). The collections include letters, lecture notes, notebooks, photographs, book manuscripts, press cuttings, cartoons, and oral history.  

 The Archive is complemented by two related special collections: the History of Genetics Library and the Rare Books Collection. Together our holdings represent an important resource covering natural science, gardening, horticulture, and botanical art across five centuries. 

 Further information and contact details: 

 Sarah Wilmot, PhD| Outreach Curator and Science historian| John Innes Centre| Norwich Research Park| Norwich NR4 7UH| Direct Line: 44 (0)1603 450670|  

Email: sarah.wilmot@jic.ac.uk Follow me on Twitter @JIChistory 

 http://collections.jic.ac.uk/ For news, catalogues, and information on the John Innes Historical Collections. 

 https://www.jic.ac.uk/about-us/history-of-plant-microbial-science-at-john-innes-centre/ For an overview of our history.  

 To find out more about the John Innes Centre https://www.jic.ac.uk/about-us/  

 Related collections at the John Innes Centre:  

 The Germplasm Resources Unit (GRU) is an internationally recognised repository for the long-term curation and provision of UK strategic crop and crop-wild-relative germplasm resources. 

The facility is a National Capability supported directly by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. 

The seed collections are housed within a purpose-built highly accessible facility maintained at 4°C and 8% relative humidity with 600 cubic meters of storage capacity. These storage conditions ensure high seed viability for 20-50 years. The GRU host some of the most comprehensive wheat, barley, oat and pea collections in the world, which form part of the International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.The collections are managed by SeedStor, an in-house developed state-of-the-art public database. https://www.jic.ac.uk/research-impact/germplasm-resource-unit/