Career grant for plant ecology research in sub-Saharan Africa

The Vice-Chancellor at SLU has decided to award five researchers at SLU career grants for the period 2026–2029. The purpose of the grant is to give promising early-career researchers the opportunity to develop into leading research scientists and to strengthen research environments at the university.

One of these researchers is Chloe MacLaren, who has conducted research within plant ecology with a focus on farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa. 

Chloe MacLaren is a plant ecologist whose research investigates how plant–environment interactions can support more sustainable cropping systems, main focus has particularly been in smallholder farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa. In her current MSCA Global Postdoctoral Fellowship Project, EcoDiv, she examines how different crop diversification strategies—such as intercrops and rotations—perform across varying ecological and socioeconomic contexts.

Chloe MacLaren’s work ranges from field-based studies of plant traits affecting intercrop productivity to global syntheses of long-term agricultural experiments. Her research addresses both the ecological mechanisms behind crop performance and the wider implications for food security, livelihoods, and sustainable farming practices.

She works within SLU’s Cropping Systems group and collaborates widely, including with Stellenbosch University in South Africa. She has previously worked at Rothamsted Research in the United Kingdom on crop diversification projects in Kenya and Nigeria.