News published: 17 November 2025

The IPSN Small Grants programme has announced three new awards for 2025–26, supporting UK botanic gardens and arboreta in projects that boost plant health monitoring, strengthen biosecurity, and deliver practical tools for the wider plant-collections community. 

Funded by DEFRA UK, the programme has provided three annual £5,000 grants since 2022 to IPSN-member organisations. These grants continue to highlight the essential role that plant collections play in tackling emerging plant health and biosecurity challenges, as well as advancing in research and innovation and developing best practices among botanic gardens and arboreta. 

This year’s call highlighted collaboration across institutions, resulting in the following projects being selected: 

• “Strengthening Plant Health: Biosecurity Policy Development Framework Using Birmingham Botanical Gardens as a Case Study”
  Led by Birmingham Botanic Gardens
  Building on their own experience and drawing on expertise across the IPSN-UK network, this project will develop a practical Biosecurity Policy Development Framework Blueprint to support plant-collection organisations in creating clear and robust guidance for the development of biosecurity best practices/policy documentation for plant collection management.

• “Assessment and development of monitoring resources to support the assessment of Cupressus dieback”
  A collaboration between Westonbirt Arboretum, Bedgebury Pinetum, and Forest Research
  This project will evaluate surveyance guidelines for Cupressaceae collection health and produce a photographic guide and standardised monitoring protocol to support consistent monitoring work across multiple sites and institutions. 

• “Establishing a protocol for determining the presence of Phytophthora pathogens in garden soil”
  Led by the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
  Combining literature review and laboratory testing, this project will establish a cost-effective, widely applicable soil-testing method to help gardens and plant collection institutions detect Phytophthora on soils  and make reliable informed decisions about collection and site management. 

All projects will be running from now until March 2026. Awardees will share early updates during the IPSN UK Members online meeting next year—keep an eye out for details. 

We encourage UK-based organisations interested in applying for future IPSN Small Grants to join the network by reviewing the Membership Agreement, and contacting Lara Salido or Itxaso Quintana  to confirm their interest and provide a contact person(s) for their organisation.