was established at Drayton, near Stratford upon Avon, Warwickshire, England. In 1949 it moved to a new site at Hurley, Berkshire and was renamed the Grassland Research Institute (GRI). GRI acquired the North Wyke site in Devon in 1981. Welsh Agricultural College (WAC) In 1970, the Welsh Agricultural College (WAC) was founded in Llanbadarn Fawr, near Aberystwyth. WAC merged with the Agriculture department of UCW in 1995 to form its Institute of Rural Sciences. Animal and Grassland Research Institute (AGRI) In 1985, GRI and the National Institute for Research in Dairying were merged to form the Animal and Grassland Research Institute (AGRI). Institute of Grassland and Animal Production (IGAP) WPBS ceased to be part of UCW in 1987 as part of restructuring of the Agricultural and Food Research Council funded research. The WPBS facilities at Gogerddan and Bronydd Mawr and the AGRI sites at Hurley and North Wyke were combined with parts of the Poultry Research Centre at Roslin to form the Institute of Grassland and Animal Production (IGAP). Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research (IGER) Further restructuring took place three years later with cessation of pig research and the transfer of the poultry department to the Institute for Animal Physiology and Genetics Research at Roslin. The remaining part was Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research (IGER) retained the facilities at Gogerddan, North Wyke and Bronydd Mawr as well as the Hurley site which closed in 1992. At the same time farm facilities at Trawsgoed were acquired. Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS) In April 2008, IGER merged with Aberystwyth University's Institute of Biological Sciences and its Institute of Rural Sciences to form the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences, one of the largest departments for the life-sciences in the UK. Directors of the institute Welsh Plant Breeding Station Sir George Stapledon 1919–1942 T.J. Jenkin 1942–1950 E.T. Jones 1950–1958 P.T. Thomas 1958–1974 J.P. Cooper 1975–1983 R.Q. Cannell 1984–1987 J.L. Stoddart 1987 Institute for Grassland and Animal Production J. Prescott 1987–1988 J.L. Stoddart 1988–1990 Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research J.L. Stoddart 1990–1993 Chris Pollock 1993–2007 Mervyn Humphries 2007–2008 Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences Wayne Powell 2008–2014 Mike Gooding 2014–2019 Iain Donnison 2019- References External links IBERS home page Bronydd Mawr BBSRC institutes and centres Aberystwyth University Agricultural organisations based in Wales Organisations based in Aberystwyth Plant breeding Agricultural research institutes in the United Kingdom