New facilities were built to expand the already excellent existing resources. Two high-specification containment 400 m2 glasshouses (HSE containment A and B standards for recombinant plants and pathogens, and DEFRA-controlled plant pests) were built.

These are complemented by on-site, high-specification, controlled environment rooms. Such facilities are instrumental in the innovative studies of the Plant Stress and Disease Resistance Group on RNAi silencing in plants, and for molecular studies on novel forms of plant disease resistance to fungi and bacteria.