Dale Sanders received his PhD in plant sciences from Cambridge University.  He was, until he retired in 2022, Director of the John Innes Centre, an internationally leading institute for research in plant sciences and microbiology.  Before joining the John Innes Centre in 2010, Dale was for six years the Head of the Biology Department at the University of York.  His research explores the transport of ions across plant membranes and the roles of ions in signalling and nutrient status.  He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2001 and, among many other awards, received the International Science and Technology Cooperation Award from the PR China in 2021 and the Koerber Foundation European Science Prize in 2001. Dale is President-Elect of the UK Association of Applied Biologists.  As well as running a world class research centre and working with scientists across the world, Dale has been committed to agenda-setting in science policy, including sitting on the Royal Society’s Science Policy Committee which determines and directs the programme of work by the Society in science policy.  He is particularly committed to developing policy in the area of global sustainable food and agriculture.