Memorandum submitted by British Society
of Animal Science
The British Society of Animal Science is a learned
society and educational charity concerned with advancing science
related to animals, and encouraging uptake of new knowledge for
the benefit of animals, producers, food processors, consumers
and the environment. Animal science has a vital role in delivering
national benefits and in meeting global challenges, including:
living with climate change; meeting rising global demand for livestock
products in an environmentally and socially responsible way; translating
scientific discovery into economic, environmental, animal welfare
or social benefit; and integrating information from the "biological
revolution" into practical applications.
We offer the following points:
— Defra's role in building and protecting
capacity in areas of science likely to be relevant to future needs.
Defra funding of animal science research has declined by ~20%
over the last decade, adjusted for inflation. The decline is even
greater in areas directly related to food production. Also, it
appears that Defra has been forced to cut research funding to
meet recent EU fines, and costs of recent climatic and animal
health crises—contingency costs that we believe should not
affect a research budget. The future of several internationally-recognised
UK animal science research groups depends on Defra funding. It
takes decades to build such groups, and just a couple of years
of underinvestment to destroy them.
— The Defra/wider UK government/industry
strategy for this sector, should meet the EU target of investment
of 3% of GDP in R&D by 2010.
— The key role of Defra R&D funding—either
directly or via co-funding through schemes like LINK—in
maintaining a vital link in the continuum from more basic R&D
to application. British science fails to make the economic
impact that it should, given its published output and international
standing. A key issue here is the underfunding of strategic/translational
animal science—exacerbated by the cuts mentioned above,
and the decline in levy board funding of animal science. The LINK
Sustainable Livestock Production Programme has been judged by
external reviewers to be very successful, producing high quality
industry-relevant science that makes a difference in practice.
Yet this scheme is under threat because of a lack of convergence
of Defra and industry priorities. As well as the impact on economic
performance, this also means the loss of important contact/leverage
with industry to help enact policy.
— How to make Defra's horizon scanning/research
priority setting more flexible, responsive and "joined up".
Recently Professor John Beddington, the UK government's chief
scientific adviser, warned of a future food crisis and called
for more agricultural research to tackle the problem. This follows
substantial cuts in Defra's food and farming R&D. We need
a joined up, balanced, longer term approach to agricultural research
that embraces sustainable food production as well as environmental
impact, and disease threats which have been overriding Defra priorities
in the past.
March 2008
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