The research — led by Dr Stacia Stetkiewicz at the University of Nottingham and Dr Jonathan Menary at Lancaster University — brought together farmers, agri-businesses, consumers, and plant scientists to identify shared priorities for future-proofing European food systems through plant breeding.

The study combined survey data, rapid evidence synthesis, and stakeholder focus groups, finding broad consensus around environmental sustainability goals: improving water use efficiency, heat stress tolerance, and nitrogen and phosphorus uptake.

The commission comprised five publication-ready vector illustrations, designed to communicate complex multi-stakeholder research findings clearly across both print and digital formats. Figures included a methodology flow diagram, a stakeholder priority matrix, and a thematic focus group visualisation — translating quantitative survey data and qualitative research themes into accessible, journal-standard graphics.

All artwork was produced in Adobe Illustrator to meet the technical specifications of Nature Portfolio publications, with final deliverables supplied as JPEG, transparent PNG, and PDF files.

The published paper is open access and can be read at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-32207-1.pdf

"Thank you to Mair Perkins for the illustrations and charts used to visualise our project plan and results."