BBSRC Strategic Plan 2010-2015
The Age of Bioscience
Professor Douglas Kell
Chief Executive, BBSRC
www.bbsrc.ac.uk/strategy
Image 1 – Tomato seedling iStockphoto/Thinkstock, Image 2 – Fermenter iStockphoto/Thinkstock 2011, Image 3 – Wheat Hermerara/Getty Images, Image 4 –DNAConfig Ryan McVay/Photodisc/Thinkstock,
Image 5 – Jersey Cow iStockphoto/Thinkstock, Image 6 – Scientist Comstock / Thinkstock
BBSRC Strategic Plan 2010 - 2015:
The Age of Bioscience
Driven by new tools and
technologies
….never before have
researchers been able to
address such a breadth and
depth of biological
questions….
World-class bioscience
Three major strategic science priorities
Three crucial enabling themes
Three major strategic science priorities
© www.micrographia.com 2011
Hemera © Thinkstock 2011
Food Security
(Grand Challenges)
Bioenergy and Industrial
Biotechnology
iStockphoto © Thinkstock 2011
Basic bioscience
underpinning health
Three crucial enabling themes
Ryan McVay/Photodisc © Thinkstock 2011
KE, innovation and skills
Exploiting new ways of
working
© Jupiter Images Corporation 2010
Partnerships
Food security
How do we feed 9 billion
sustainably by 2050?
The perfect storm of
energy, food and water
shortages 2030
Research is essential to
meet the huge challenge
Food & Drink: £80Bn
UK industry, 3.6M jobs
Farming: 55,000 rural
businesses; 0.5M jobs
Global poultry industry:
£75Bn, underpinned by
UK science
Food Security
Some BBSRC priorities
• GFS programme: Joining up research through BBSRC leadership
• Position UK as a Global leader in wheat:
 Wheat genome 5x coverage
 £7M for public wheat pre-breeding programme (sLoLa)
• Reducing GHG emissions from Agriculture: Living with Env. Change (LwEC)
• Transformational research: enhancing photosynthesis
• Underpinning the livestock sector: productivity, sustainability, health
and welfare
Hemera © Thinkstock 2011
Hemera © Thinkstock 2011
Hemera © Thinkstock 2011
Michael Blann/Digital Vision, © Thinkstock 2011
Hemera Technologies © Getty Images 2011
© Jupiter Images Corporation2009
iStockphoto © Thinkstock 2011
Global Food Security
• Brings together the major public funders
of food-related research to tackle the
challenge of feeding 9bn people
sustainably by 2050
• Collective spend ~£426M per year
• Fosters a multidisciplinary approach to
this very complex challenge
• Ensures added value by minimising
duplication and maximising synergies
across funders
• Long-term though there will be quick
wins
Industrial Biotechnology including bioenergy
Just some of the uses of IB:
• Petrochemical replacement
• De novo source plastics & polymers
• ‘Advanced Pharmaceutical
Ingredients’
• New biologics
• Food & drink
• Paper & pulp production
• Textile production & finishing
• Detergents
• Starch industry (underpinning
fermentation, binders, solvents,
lubricants etc…)
• Energy (bioethanol; biodiesel)
• Agriculture (biomass, feedstocks)
Image courtesy S.Martin, TMO Renewables LTD
Building a low carbon
economy requires new ways
to produce energy, transport
fuels, chemicals and
industrial feedstocks.
Energy and industrial
materials from bio-based
sources
Global biotech sales
projected at 10x growth to
£360Bn in next 15 years
UK biotech clusters: most
innovative outside USA; 800
medical SMEs; £4.2Bn
turnover (1/3 of total EU)
Industrial Biotechnology
Some BBSRC priorities
• Build UK research capacity and industrial collaboration
• Industrial Biotechnology: whole cell and enzymatic systems; new
biocatalysts and pathways; high-value chemicals from plants
• Bioenergy: emphasis on liquid transport fuels beyond ethanol, with coproducts

Building on BBSRC Sustainable Bioenergy Centre (BSBEC)

BBSRC leading on bioenergy within RCUK Energy programme
• Synthetic biology for industrial biotechnology
• Metagenomics: discovery of new gene products, enzymes and pathways
Hemera Technologies/Ablestock.com ©Getty Images 2011
© Rothamsted Research Ltd
© Paul Dupree
© Paul Dupree
Image courtesy S.Martin, TMO Renewables LTD
Ryan McVay/Photodisc ©Thinkstock 2011
Knowledge-Based BioEconomy (KBBE)
European Commission & Council see Biotechnology as
one of 4 or 5 key enabling technologies for the future –
principally the use of plants and microbes to replace
the host of high-value chemicals and liquid fuels that
are currently derived from fossil carbon.
14th Sept. 2010: injection of €1.7 Billion into KBBE as
part of FP7 – good signs for Horizon 2020.
Basic bioscience underpinning health
Lifespan is increasing faster
than healthspan
The ageing society is a
major challenge for 21st
century
Basic bioscience underpins
pharmaceutical
development and biotech
industries
Older people absorb ~43% of NHS
budget - £35-40Bn p.a.
Food-related illness costs NHS £6Bn
annually (Cabinet Food Matters 2008)
UK pharma industry generated £21Bn
of exports in 2008-9 & invested
£4.5Bn in UK R&D.
iStockphoto © Thinkstock 2011
Bioscience underpinning health
Some BBSRC priorities
• Ageing: mechanisms of healthy ageing (gut, brain, immune system)
• Focus and co-ordinate ageing research: with MRC and others
• Combating zoonotic disease: ‘one medicine’
• Biopharmaceuticals: new leads, improved yield and purity, cheaper
Hemera © Thinkstock 2011
Comstock © Thinkstock 2011
iStockphoto © Thinkstock 2011
Photodisc © Thinkstock 2011
• Develop strategic engagement with industry: enable open innovation,
collaborative research
iStockphoto © Thinkstock 2011
Hemera © Thinkstock 2011
In confidence
Research grants analysis 2009/10: £290M
Bioenergy and industrial biotechnology (£33M)
Food security (£101M)
Institute:
£8.5M
Basic bioscience underpinning
health (£29M)
HEI: £39.0M
HEI: £24.7M
Institute: £62.3M
Institute:
£5.3M
HEI: £23.4M
Addressing a strategic
priority: £146M
Addressing a strategic
priority: £146M
Not addressing a strategic
priority (other world-class
bioscience):
£144M
World-class
underpinning
bioscience: £144M
Three major strategic science priorities
© www.micrographia.com 2011
Hemera © Thinkstock 2011
Food Security
(Grand Challenges)
Bioenergy and Industrial
Biotechnology
iStockphoto © Thinkstock 2011
Basic bioscience
underpinning health
Three crucial enabling themes
Ryan McVay/Photodisc © Thinkstock 2011
KE, innovation and skills
Exploiting new ways of
working
© Jupiter Images Corporation 2010
Partnerships
Knowledge exchange, innovation and skills
Ensuring that our worldclass science and skilled
people have widest
possible impact
Boosting the UK economy,
connecting to policy and
improving quality of life.
• Skills and capabilities
• KE and translation
• Promoting innovation
• Culture change
Some BBSRC priorities
• Emerging businesses of tomorrow: including growth through SMEs
• Strengthen academic-industry links: and links with other users
• Working with TSB: £50M complementary and collaborative funding.
Agri-food, regenerative medicine, IB, emerging technologies
• Understanding and supporting translation pathways: e.g. expansion
of Follow-on Fund to gain from existing research
iStockphoto © Thinkstock 2011
Hemera © Thinkstock 2011
Hemera © Thinkstock 2011
© Zyoxel Ltd
Some BBSRC Priorities:
• Focus on excellence in PhD training: new DTP scheme, combining
scientific and professional development. Fewer but better funded PhDs
• Deliver skills for economic growth: strengthening user relevant training,
CASE
• Refocus our fellowship schemes: developing the research leaders of
tomorrow
• Increase training mobility and capabilities: more movement between
academia and user sectors, public-private training partnerships e.g. ATPs
Exploiting new ways of working
Innovative ways of working
in an era of rapid
technology change
Next generation internet
In silico research
Quantitative and
computational bioscience
Bioscience IS big data
science
Ryan McVay/Photodisc © Thinkstock 2011
Some BBSRC priorities
• New tools and technologies: dedicated funding for tools and resources
• Data rich bioscience: sharing, standards and interoperability
• Bioinformatics: infrastructure and resources (ELIXIR, TGAC)
• Integrative and systems biology: embedded and applied
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Ryan McVay/Photodisc © Thinkstock 2011
Hemera © Thinkstock 2011
Ryan McVay/Photodisc © Thinkstock 2011
Comstock © Thinkstock 2011
iStockphoto © Thinkstock 2011
Partnerships
Working with others to
deliver our exciting vision
for UK bioscience
• Researchers
• HEIs
• Other funders
• Policy-makers
• Industry
• Public
• International
organisations
• and many more....
Working with HEIs
Through increased dialogue with leading HEIs
enable a more strategic, joined-up and efficient approach
to investing in UK Bioscience for impact
Outcomes: (examples)
• Synergy and added value in delivery of bioscience and impact
• Networking main HEIs/Institutes; sharing of ideas and spark collaborations
• Efficiency opportunities for sharing of big equipment and facilities
• Leverage and confidence to allocate HEI resource and make appointments
• Performance management e.g. success rates, feedback
• Critical friends for BBSRC
Funding Opportunities:
www.bbsrc.ac.uk/funding/opportunities
Responsive mode:
• responsive mode research priorities
• highlight notices
sLoLa:
• 2012 sLoLa call to be launched on 31st January.
Deadline for outlines: 15 March 2011
Hemera Technologies/Ablestock.com ©Getty Images 2011
© Rothamsted Research Ltd
© Paul Dupree
© Paul Dupree
Image courtesy S.Martin, TMO Renewables LTD
Ryan McVay/Photodisc ©Thinkstock 2011
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