Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (UK)

The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) is one of seven Research Councils that work together under the name of Research Councils UK (RCUK), and is funded by the Government's Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), a nondepartmental public body.

In 2010, the BBSRC had a budget of £450 million, and supported around 1,600 scientists and 2,000 research students in universities and institutes in the UK. The organization focuses on high-quality basic, strategic, and applied research, and related postgraduate training relating to the understanding and exploitation of biological systems. The BBSRC also serves as a link between research and industry by disseminating the results of BBSRC-funded research, ensuring that they are applied to business and policy decisions, and by helping trained scientists and engineers build careers in the agriculture, bioprocessing, chemical, food, healthcare, pharmaceutical, and other biotechnological-related industries.

Thus, in the extremely competitive world of emerging technology, the BBSRC tries to sharpen the economic competitiveness of the UK. Among the councils other activities are generating public awareness, communicating research outcomes to the wider public, and encouraging public engagement and dialogue with emerging technologies, including nanotechnology. The council has a four pillared structure, and is the top level decision-making body. Acountable to parliament, the boards report to and advise the council, the strategy panels oversee strategy development, and the research committees oversee peer review processes and award grants. The BBSRC was established by Royal Charter in 1994 by combining the former Agricultural and Food Research Council (AFRC) with the biotechnology and biological sciences programs of the former Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC).

Research Councils were reorganized following the 1993 Government White Paper “Realising Our Potential,” which argued that research funding should be allocated on the basis of the best science, the best people, and the most imaginative proposals. The BBSRC focuses its attention on key challenges and opportunities in biosciences aimed at creating a sustainable and world-class research base, and making the UK the number one destination for investment in bioscience research and development. It encourages the development of new approaches and technologies to address dynamic changes in bioscience, global security, and environmental change. With regard to nanotechnology, it is particularly interested in nanoscience through engineering to application or bionanotechnology. Among their other interests are a systems approach to biological research, synthetic biology, technology development for bioscience, animal health, and crop science. Policy priorities include crop science (food security), the economic and social impact of emerging technologies, public policy, international collaborations, the replacement, refinement, and reduction (called the three “Rs”) in research using animals, an area in which nanotechnology has great potential.