Annex 1
Memorandum from the Biotechnology and
Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)
BACKGROUND
1. The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences
Research Council's (BBSRC) remit covers all aspects of the biosciences
and biotechnology. BBSRC has a three-fold role in supporting UK
biosciences by funding research and research training that provides:
(i) basic and strategic research that pushes
back the frontiers of human knowledge about how living things
work;
(ii) longer term strategic research that
informs policy, particularly in animal health, food quality and
safety, agriculture and land use; and
(iii) a broad base of enabling research from
molecular and cell biology to whole organism physiology and populations,
that underpins applied research.
COMMENTS
2. The Inter-Agency Committee on Global
Environment Change (IACGEC) supplementary report to the Chief
Scientific Adviser (May 2000) highlighted three areas of BBSRC-funded
research of particular relevance to increasing the understanding
of the impact of climate change[90]:
— Stress tolerance in individual species.
— Soil biological processes and their
effects.
— The role of soil processes in global
change (addressed through "Soil biological processes and
their effects").
3. BBSRC currently supports work in these
areas through responsive mode funding and its sponsored institutes[91].
Support in responsive mode is largely through the Plant and Microbial
Sciences (PMS) Committee. Recent and current examples of activities
include:
— BBSRC Council has recently agreed
a cross-Institute Soil Science programme. Drawing on expertise
at various BBSRC-sponsored Institutes the programme will provide
a co-ordinated approach to soil science—an aspect of which
will be the impact of climate change;
— BBSRC participates in the "Sustainable
Power Generation and Supply" (SUPERGEN) Initiative[92]
described in the introductory text, which includes research into
biomass and biofuels.
— PMS Committee theme of "Soil
and Rhizosphere Biology"[93].
Grants are supported which provide improved understanding of the
rhizosphere and bulk soil microflora and their key influences
on plant productivity with effects including cause and suppression
of soil-borne diseases, determination of nutrient supply, production
of plant growth-promoting substances and influence on plant-soil-water
relations.
— The AgriFood Committee currently
has a priority area of "Integrative Behaviour of the Soil-Plant
System"[94]
designed to build partnerships with the necessary range of expertise
to develop a truly integrative understanding of the soil-plant
system and developing innovative tools and conceptual approaches
to meet the challenges of an integrative understanding of the
soil-plant system.
— PMS committee is about to introduce
a new priority area for "Carbon Substitution: Biomass and
Biosynthesis". Full text for the priority area is currently
being finalised.
4. While BBSRC is not part of the Towards
a Sustainable Energy Economy cross-Council Programme (TSEC), we
remain involved in the development and management of the programme
through representation on the TSEC Programme Management Group
(PMG). BBSRC is also represented on the High Level Energy Group
(HLEG).
90 IACGEC "The UK National Strategy of Global
Environmental Research" (1996) ISBN 1-85531- 1658 [drawing
on BBSRC's response to the Hoskins report]. Back
91
http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/about/centres/Welcome.html Back
92
http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/science/initiatives/supergen.html Back
93
http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/science/areas/pms/themes/soil.html Back
94
http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/science/areas/af/priorities/ibss.html Back
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