Students - our lifeblood

The future of the WPSA UK Branch depends very much on the future of poultry science, particularly in the fields of research, development and education; and these, of course, depend on the future of the poultry industry. The UK industry can only survive if it is backed by strong science, while UK science can only survive if it has a continuing supply of new young scientists and if there is a strong industry for it to service. Ironically enough, this is a classic chicken and egg situation. While government detaches itself more and more from any willingness to provide either the facilities or the money for research, responsibility for doing so is falling fairly and squarely on the shoulders of those in the industry sufficiently profitable or far-sighted to invest in the future. But scientific opportunities still do exist and, if we try hard enough, I believe we can attract the right quality of students into education, as well as retaining them as our future scientists, but only if they can be encouraged to see a future in it for them. Our future is their future and so we need to encourage them at an early stage to consider our industry as a career, to join the Branch and to stick with both.

The UK Branch has always had a strong interest in its student members and supported many through a variety of grants and awards, hoping to encourage them to look more closely at the poultry industry for their future careers. In this issue you will find details of  our Student Travel Award to help student members to attend events which may otherwise be beyond their means, the WPSA/Genesis Faraday Summer Vacation Scholarship Award for research, the President’s Prizes for papers presented at our Annual Meeting and the WPSA UK Branch Summer Vacation Scholarships, all of which are still open for applications.
If you are involved in any way with students please tell them about these opportunities and about the Branch because it is they who are our future.