Supporting Your Research

Our living collections, printed collections and archives, herbarium, growth facilities and horticultural expertise are provided for any member of the University, whatever their department, to use in their scholarship.

We welcome the opportunity to collaborate with botanic gardens worldwide and other partner organisations in conservation, as well as with researchers from other universities, horticultural colleges, further education colleges and other research institutions.

Once devoted to the fields of systematics, taxonomy and economic botany, the expertise and reach of botanic gardens now extends to numerous branches of research both within plant sciences and more broadly. Our collections are utilised to provide essential material for molecular phylogenetics, genomics, and transcriptomics, and are used to screen for high-value chemicals, metabolites, and pharmaceutical compounds.

Botanic gardens serve as valuable sources of ecological data including phenological indicators of climate change, plant physiology and plant-animal interactions. Horticultural expertise is employed to develop propagation protocols, to grow unusual research organisms, to manage the bulk cultivation of model organisms, and for the cultivation and breeding of novel and experimental crop species.

Our living collections also serve as natural laboratories and have provided classic experimental models in the study of the genetics underpinning hybridisation and plant domestication. In the face of the current extinction crisis, our gardens are increasingly involved in conservation research, including conservation genetics, and the practice of ecological and species restoration.

Finally, our landscapes support a great range of native flora and fauna, facilitating the study of wildlife, and of the impact of urban environments on native biota.

To request use of our collections, facilities, or horticultural expertise please contact curation@botanic.cam.ac.uk