 There's been the exciting gains in understanding photosynthesis over the last 30 years, many of which have been made at ANU, and out of those discovery processes we've identified a number of potential areas in which we can improve the photosynthetic process. And this centre brings together the opportunity to take those discoveries and translate them into improved photosynthetic processes that can be incorporated into modern crop species. The main aim of the centre is actually to build on 30 years of knowledge, couple it with new tools which we've developed and were still developing, and use partners at other institutions such as CSIRO and IRI in the Philippines to actually build on photosynthesis, find ways in which nature has been able to improve the process and transplant these solutions into crops. Photosynthesis is actually a two-component process. One is you take light from the sun and harvest it and convert it into chemical energy, much like a solar cell. And that energy is then used by other carbon dioxide-fixing reactions to fix that carbon dioxide into sugars. So our research in the centre spans that photosynthetic process so that we have got research projects that are looking at the way light is converted into energy and the efficiency of those reactions. And then we're looking at the way in which CO2 is used efficiently. I think it's important to understand that the photosynthetic process is a fairly inefficient one. So if we look at sunlight falling on a leaf as being 100% of what's available to be converted into useful biomass and sugars, then only about 4-6% of that incident light energy is actually converted through to those final sugars. So small improvements made in improving the inefficiencies of various aspects of photosynthesis can make big differences. This centre actually provides us with a really unique opportunity in the Australian context where we can pull the expertise and resources both in the fundamental research and the applied or the translational pathways to get that research into crops, to actually make substantial improvements in photosynthetic capacity and therefore yield and resource use of crops. The Australian Research Council has funded a long history of photosynthesis research both here at ANU and other places in Australia and has produced a body of discoveries which has been recognised worldwide. What this centre provides is an opportunity to take those research discoveries and apply them to real-world situations of improving photosynthesis in crop species and delivering outcomes both for Australian and international agriculture, for world food security and for collaboration with appropriate industry partners.