MEDIA RELEASE
ARC Training Centre Innovation Fellow Secures Prestigious GRDC Fellowship to Boost Canola Disease Resistance
Canberra, Australia – 2 February 2026
The ARC Training Centre for Accelerated Future Crops Development is proud to announce that Dr Julian Greenwood, an Innovation Fellow with the Centre, has been awarded a highly competitive Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) Mid-Career Research Fellowship. The Centre is a research industry partnership established in 2022 to train the next generation of researchers and industry leaders to build new capabilities for agriculture. This fellowship is a significant success for the Centre toward realising its vision for the future of Australia’s agricultural industry. This fellowship will enable Dr Greenwood to establish cutting‑edge methods for rapidly assessing disease resistance in canola—advancing Australia’s efforts to combat the devastating crop disease blackleg.
Blackleg disease is one of the most significant threats to Australian canola production, typically causing 10–15% yield losses nationally each year. While resistance genes offer an important management tool, the industry currently lacks fast and reliable methods for testing how canola plants respond to infection—slowing the deployment of improved resistant varieties.
Dr Greenwood’s project, “Establishing transient assays to rapidly assess resistance responses in canola and test engineered resistance receptors for improved blackleg resistance,” aims to fill this critical gap.
The project will develop transient gene expression systems that allow researchers to quickly and accurately measure canola resistance responses without requiring lengthy plant growth cycles. The new platform will support high‑throughput testing of large numbers of resistance receptor variants, including those generated using AI‑enabled protein design and classical molecular biology approaches. Once validated, newly identified resistance receptor variants can be incorporated into elite commercial canola cultivars, enhancing resistance to blackleg in the field and supporting more resilient crop production for Australian growers.
Associate Professor Tony Millar, Director at the ARC Training Centre, congratulated Dr Greenwood on this outstanding achievement. “Julian’s success reflects both his scientific excellence and the Centre’s commitment to developing the next generation of crop research leaders,” Associate Professor Millar said. “This fellowship will accelerate innovation in canola disease resistance and deliver real value for Australian agriculture.”
Dr Greenwood has been a valued member of the Training Centre’s cohort, contributing to its research culture, mentoring activities, and collaborative industry engagement. His transition to independent funding represents a key milestone in the Centre’s mission to train, support and elevate early‑career researchers into influential roles across the crop sciences sector. The Centre congratulates Dr Greenwood and looks forward to the impact his work will deliver for growers, breeders, and the Australia’s grains industry.
This research is supported by the Grains Research and Development Corporation (ANU2601-001RTX).
Media contact:
Dr Lauren DuFall
📧 office@futurecropscentre.edu.au
📞 02 6125 0102