APPENDIX 30
Memorandum submitted by the Biotechnology
and Biological Sciences Research Council
INTRODUCTION
1. The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences
Research Council is the UK's lead funding agency for academic
research in the non-medical life sciences. It was established
by Royal Charter in 1994 and is funded principally through the
science budget of the Office of Science and Technology.
ROLE OF
BBSRC
2. The BBSRC mission is to promote and support
high quality basic, strategic and applied research and postgraduate
training relating to the understanding and exploitation of biological
systems, and to advanced knowledge and technology for a wide base
of users and beneficiaries—including the healthcare and
pharmaceutical industries—for economic competitiveness and
improved quality of life.
3. The BBSRC does not directly fund research
into cancer to any great extent. Within the research council system,
that is the responsibility for the Medical Research Council. It
is not always easy to determine where basic biology, or work applicable
to other sectors ends, and cancer or medical research begins.
For example much BBSRC research on the behaviour of food in the
gut is of direct relevance to understanding colon cancer and preventative
dietary strategies. The boundary between the two Councils is interpreted
in a pragmatic manner, consistent with two Councils' remits and
a desire to progress the science in an effective way.
4. A large proportion of BBSRC's budget
of £200 million per annum—at least 30 per cent—is
devoted to basic and applicable research and training which underpins
aspects of medical or healthcare research, much of which will
be relevant to research into the causes and treatments of cancer
in the shorter or longer term.
5. In addition to research results and trained
people, contributing to the knowledge base and human resources
underpinning research by MRC, the cancer charities and industry,
BBSRC funding also contributes to the infrastructure which sustains
the biological research base in UK universities and in its own
institutes, through investment into equipment, the maintenance
of technician pools, etc. Because many charities do not allocate
the full direct costs of projects which they support, this underpinning
investment by the research councils (together with that from the
Higher Education Funding Councils directly to universities), is
of considerable importance in areas with high levels of charitable
investment, such as cancer research.
CO-ORDINATION
WITH OTHER
ORGANISATIONS
6. The principal linkages are with MRC on
the one hand and with the pharmaceutical industry on the other.
There is frequent and close liaison between BBSRC and MRC at policy
level, and it is quite normal in biomedical research for university
research teams to have a research portfolio which includes grants
from both BBSRC and MRC, and major charities, thereby achieving
excellent knowledge transfer. The pharmaceutical industry is strongly
represented on the relevant BBSRC committees, contributing both
to the development of strategy and the prioritisation of individual
research programmes.
March 2000
| 
