Transcript Nottingham October 2007

BBSRC Science and
Innovation
Prof. Nigel Brown
Director of Science & Technology
Cardiff University
27 November 2007
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Introduction to BBSRC
CSR2007
Grants and funding
Knowledge Transfer and Economic
Impact
• Q&A
Biotechnology and Biological
Sciences Research Council
MISSION
• Fund first-class bioscience research
• Train bioscientists
• Support knowledge transfer
• Engage with public
STAKEHOLDERS
• INDUSTRY: agriculture, food,
chemical, health, pharmaceutical
• PUBLIC: dialogue and
consultation
Why? Quality of Life
and UK plc
• GOVERNMENT: e.g. DEFRA, FSA,
RCUK
BBSRC funding totals around £380M p.a.(07/08)
“Mixed economy” of BBSRC funding
Universities
• basic research
• curiosity-driven
• shorter-term funding
• research training
Institutes
• strategic research
• mission-oriented
• longer-term funding
• specialist facilities
Towards Predictive Biology
Biological Sciences will be
• more quantitative and
predictive and
• more integrative in that there
will be
- input from different disciplines
- data from different technologies
- move to understand function at
cellular, whole animal and
population level
Strategic Objective 1: Excellent Science
CSR2007
BBSRC Delivery Plan
to be published on
11 December 2007
Funding – commitment 07/08
KT and Innovation
[3% ]
£387M
Institute capital
and restructuring
[12% ]
Institute Core
Grant [18% ]
Training and
Fellowships [10% ]
Directed Initiatives
[8% ]
Source – BBSRC 2004 Delivery Plan. Figures include FEC
Large facilities
[1% ]
Administration
[3% ]
Responsive mode
Grants [44% ]
CSR 2007: BBSRC budget allocation
Financial year
2007-08
2008-09
2009-10
2010-11
Total Allocation
(£K)
386,854
427,000
452,563
471,057
• Second highest Research Council increase - 22%
• Equivalent to average 4% annual increase over 3
years set against 2.7% increase in total science
budget
• Good news for bioscience but much of the increase is
for Full Economic Costing / university sustainability
• Delivery Plan drafted for allocations
BBSRC: Headlines for CSR2007
•
Healthy Bioscience – keeping the UK biosciences
internationally competitive and attractive to inward investment
•
Cross-Council Multidisciplinary Programmes –
Research Councils working together across disciplines
•
Economic Impact, including Skills and Training –
step-change in the economic impact of BBSRC’s funding and boosting
the supply of skilled people to the economy and society
•
National Facilities - Securing our national research capability
and facilities in strategic areas
Healthy Bioscience
• Annual inflationary increases to responsive mode
budget. More than £500M commitment over CSR
• Systems Biology – Maintain the high level of
investment to embed systems approaches in UK
bioscience base and provide requisite tools and
resources. Approx £70M commitment over CSR
• BBSRC involvement in 5 of 6 cross-Council
multidisciplinary programmes with around £125M
total planned commitment. Some of delivery in RM
Multidisciplinary cross-Council Programmes
• Bioenergy
– New Bioenergy Centre
– Build Bioenergy research capacity in UK (plant and microbial)
• Living with Environmental Change Largely for research of relevance to
climate change, particularly in areas of Sustainable agriculture and
animal health.
• Ageing including
– Increase funding for joint Centres for Lifelong Health and Wellbeing
– Explore joint initiative with US National Institute on Aging.
• Global Threats to Security including
– Explore animal health research for international development programme joint
with DfID and Wellcome Trust
• Bio-nanotechnology including boost to science networks and partnerships
with industry.
Economic Impact
• New commitment of around £50M to deliver a stepchange in the economic and social impact
– at least £34m with the new Technology Strategy Board,
where already complementary activity with Research and
Technology Clubs (RTCs).
– 3 RTCs already established (bioprocessing, diet and health,
biorefineries)
– More RTCs planned (options being considered in
biopharmaceutical design, ageing, analysis of large data
sets etc).
• Skills and training - key element of long-term
economic impact strategy
Technology Strategy Board Budget
£1B over 3 years …
• of which at least £120M from Research
Councils
• of which £34M from BBSRC
• for complementary and collaborative activity
BBSRC Grants and Funding
BBSRC Responsive Mode Spend
Plant and
Microbial
Sciences 14%
Agri-Food 11%
Animal Sciences 16%
Genes and
Developmental
Biology 16%
Biochemistry
and Cell
Biology 17%
Engineering and
Biological Systems
10%
Biomolecular
Sciences 16%
Where does HEI funding go?
Distribution by HEI and value (£M)
75% of the total value of grants 'live' on 1 April 2007 is directed to 18 HEIs
80
60
25%
50
50 %
40
30
75 %
20
10
Higher Education Institution
Liverpool
East Anglia
York
Warwick
KCL
Bristol
Birmingham
Leeds
Sheffield
Newcastle
Edinburgh
UCL
Glasgow
Nottingham
Imperial
Oxford
Cambridge
0
Manchester
Total value of grants 'live' on 1 April 2007 (£M)
70
CARDIFF UNIVERSITY
Total value of live grants, 1st April 2007 = £11.8M
Overall 2 yr success rate for Cardiff = 17%
Overall HEI success rate = 26%
Grants ‘live’ 1st April 2007 = £11.8M
No of
Grants
Value (£k)
at 1 April
2007
School of Biosciences
22
6.1
School of Psychology
11
2.8
School of Medicine
4
1.0
School of Optometry and Vision
Sciences
5
0.8
Cardiff School of Chemistry
2
0.7
Welsh School of Pharmacy
2
0.4
TOTAL
46
11.8
Lead Department
Recent changes to grants system
• Full Economic Costing introduced
– Resource is assessed NOT COST
• Harmonisation of applications through Je-S
– MRC will join in future
• Now 4 grant rounds a year
– Number of applications decreased
• Longer Larger (LoLa) grant scheme
– Outline stage for grants >£2M
• New assessment criteria from July 2006 closing date
– Quality of science; timeliness; economic impact
– Appropriateness of training for staff – NEW
• Data Sharing Policy
– From July closing date. Extra page for DSP.
Grant funding
• Responsive mode (investigator-led)
– includes New Investigator and Industrial
Partnership Awards
• Initiatives (managed mode)
– usually one or two calls (e.g. Systems Approaches
to Biological Research (SABR), Bioenergy)
• Other funding streams
– Tools & Resources Development Fund
(continuous)
– Biological and Bioinformatic Resources
What makes a successful grant
application?
• Is it high quality science?
• Is it really high quality science?
• Are you absolutely sure it is high quality science?
• Is the case for support clearly written and not overloaded
with extraneous detail?
• Have you had someone read it who is reasonably expert
in the science?
• Can a non-specialist understand why the work is
important?
• Have you had someone read it who doesn’t know the area
in detail?
What makes a successful grant
application (2)?
• Have you properly justified the resources?
• Have you indicated where it matches BBSRC priorities?
• Have you indicated the career development potential of
the research?
• Have you got industrial partnership (IPA)?
• Have you answered the referees’ comments robustly and
sensibly?
• Have you received feedback on failed applications?
Closing Dates to note
• Responsive mode
– 22 January 2008; 23 April 2008; 22 July 2008
• Longer Larger applications (>£2M)
– 5 Dec 2007; 12 March 2008; 22 July 2008
• Tools and Resources Development Fund
– 10 January 2008
• Follow on Fund
– 7 February 2008; 26 June 2008
NOTE:
closing time now 4.00 p.m.
Knowledge Transfer &
Economic Impact
BBSRC activities to maximise
economic impact
Collaborative
research
Industrial
involvement
in training
People &
knowledge
flow
Commercialisation
of
Research
&
Development
Collaborative research
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•
•
LINK
TSB
IPA
Clubs
Collaborative
research
Industrial
involvement
in training
People &
knowledge
flow
Commercialisation
of
Research
&
Development
BBSRC technology strategy
Identifying areas of the bioscience research base
where an enhancement of activity may underpin the
needs of industry over the next 10 years
Four prime criteria:
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capacity for high-quality research
ability of the UK science base to deliver that research
size of commercial opportunity
ability of companies based in the UK to derive benefit
Industrial involvement in training
People & knowledge flow
• KTP
• RS-IF
• IIP
Collaborative
research
Industrial
involvement
in training
People &
knowledge
flow
Commercialisation
of
Research
&
Development
• CASE
• Ind
CASE
• MTI
People & knowledge flow
Industry interchange
Interchanges between industry and academia
(in either direction) help foster long-term
collaborations, and offer access to knowledge,
skills, expertise, equipment and facilities.
Next Closing Date: 13 March 2008
Commercialisation of R&D
Collaborative
research
People &
knowledge
flow
Industrial
involvement
in training
Commercialisation
of
Research
&
Development
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YES
FoF
EFs
BPC
Follow-on Fund
• to enable scientists to advance ideas with commercial
potential to a stage where commercial opportunities can
be secured e.g. further technical or scientific development,
broaden patent claims, market analysis, identify licensees,
etc.
• grants of up to £110k fEC
• open to existing grantholders
• BBSRC has funded 41 projects
worth £3M over first five calls
Next Closing Date: 7 February 2008
The future …
• more cross-RC working
• increasing funds for collaborative research
• focus on skills
• increasing support for activities such as FoF and
YES
• need to demonstrate economic impact
• role of new Technology Strategy Board?
Closing Dates to note
• Responsive mode
– 22 January 2008; 23 April 2008; 22 July 2008
• Longer Larger applications (>£2M)
– 5 Dec 2007; 12 March 2008; 22 July 2008
• Tools and Resources Development Fund
– 10 January 2008
• Follow on Fund
– 7 February 2008; 26 June 2008
NOTE:
closing time now 4.00 p.m.