The Waite Research Institute (WRI) was established in 2009 to facilitate further development of the world-class capability and technologies at the Waite precinct. It has since evolved to incorporate agriculture, food and wine research activities across all three campuses of The University of Adelaide.

The WRI is internationally recognised for its world-class fundamental and applied research, which underpins innovation and drives change in Australian agricultural science and practices. The WRI aims to secure a sustainable future for agriculture by stimulating and supporting internationally competitive research that enables profitable and sustainable production in its target sectors.

Supported by state-of-the-art infrastructure and the unique collective strength of the co-located partners, our research is transdisciplinary and collaborative in nature, with national and international connections to major industry partners, government and other high-quality research organisations. The WRI covers disciplines as diverse as soil science, wine & viticulture, food & nutrition science, weed science, plant breeding and genetics, food waste, agricultural economics and trade, plant pathology, entomology, consumer behaviour research, sensory science, phenomics, animal science and increasingly, intersections with engineering, computer science and machine learning technologies.