The African Academy of Sciences and Royal Society announce the recipients
of the FLAIR scheme that is awarding £25M, (£300,000 each) to 30 early
career African
research scientists.

We are proud to
announce that Dr Oluwaseyi Shorinola is one of the scientists that
have
been awarded £300,000 (Approx. US$400,000)
over 2 years.
Oluwaseyi’s FLAIR research
fellowship will be carried out at the BecA-ILRI Hub.

FLAIR (Future Leaders – African Independent Research) is a programme of
The African Academy of Science and Royal Society, with support from
the UK’s Global
Challenges Research Fund (GCRF). The fellowship is designed to help
talented early-career researchers, whose science is focused on the needs of the
continent, establish independent careers in African institutions and
ultimately, their own research groups. Up to 30 FLAIR fellowships will be
awarded in 2019 to researchers from Cameroon, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and
Zimbabwe.

Dr Shorinola has a pre-existing relationship with the BecA-ILRI Hub, where
he was on secondment as a post-doctoral scientist from the John Innes Centre
(JIC), UK. His post-doctoral
work focused on understanding the genetic control of important
economic traits in wheat including grain quality and root development. He is
using a combination of
mutational genomics approaches, high-throughput phenotyping, next-generation
sequencing and classical genetics to identify genes involved in grain
quality traits and root development and will deploy these to develop improved
wheat varieties.

He is additionally involved in the ACACIA (acaciaafrica.org) partnership – a strategic partnership
between JIC and the BecA-ILRIHub. Under this partnership,
Oluwaseyi is coordinating an extensive 2-year bioinformatics training programme
to building a support network for agricultural research in Africa.

His research as a FLAIR fellow at BecA-ILRI Hub will focus on using genetics to improve the yield and quality of
wheat production in East Africa.  Olywayesi
will particularly focus on using “speed” breeding to introduce five beneficial
genes for grain size, protein content and disease resistance into East Africa
wheat.