Making plant science purposeful and relevant to all

Every scientist wants their research to have impact at some level, even if only realized far in the future. But a sense of vision and clear planning are needed today, to inspire everyone from potential investors to schoolchil-dren contemplating higher education options. Here, the case is made for roadmapping as a critically important way forward for plant science, and a practice that all scientists should take seriously. The contributions that plants make to the world and societies are well understood in principle. But future contributions require new understandings, investment in research and, in the end, reduction to practice and production. What could these contributions be? Most of the specific improvements and breakthroughs that might come from research over the next 5, 10, 20 or 50 years and requiring investment are not very visible because they lie embedded in the heads and laboratories of research scientists. Furthermore, scientific progress is unpredictable, diffuse and long-term. Would-be investors in plant science – whether governments, charities, foundations or companies – therefore need to learn from research communities: what are attractive directions and what benefits and breakthroughs can occur in order to consider, justify and prioritize their investments? This is challenging because the output contributions are diverse, and range from new fundamental understanding and concepts to new products and efficiencies in agriculture and environmental management. Investors in the public and private sectors want to make beneficial impacts on societies whether through game-changing knowledge, products or services. These options usually come at the end of complex, multidisciplinary research chains. Solving each step in the chain brings great satisfaction and pride to the researchers involved but such steps may have little value to society or investor. Only when the chain has been demonstrated and reduced to practice is real value realized. Investors are often willing to invest long term towards big achievements – whether in fundamental science or new products , depending on their mission – but rarely in a single next step without understanding its context or place en route to a valuable goal. For example, investors might be willing to invest large sums over a long period aimed at achieving, via a myriad of small consecutive steps, the efficient, cost-effective fixation of gaseous nitrogen in elite cereal varieties, but not in a part of the whole system that has almost no chance of success in being taken forward because it is unconnected. Investors therefore, unlike …