1 BBSRC Funding Opportunities Dr Sophia Abbasi Birkbeck College, Westminster University and London Southbank University 27.01.2010

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BBSRC Funding Opportunities

Dr Sophia Abbasi

Birkbeck College, Westminster University and London Southbank University

27.01.2010

• Introduction to BBSRC

• BBSRC’s Strategy and Priorities

• BBSRC Grant Funding and Peer Review

• BBSRC Funding at Birkbeck College

• Current Funding Opportunities

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Research Councils UK

• Strategic partnership of the UK's seven Research Councils

• Combined budget of £3.4 billion in 2010/11

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Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

Our Mission (Royal Charter) is:• to support high-class science and

research training, and to promote knowledge transfer

• in support of bio-based industries

and public engagement in bioscience.

BBSRC funding totals around £450M p.a. (09/10)

STAKEHOLDERS

ACADEMIA INDUSTRY

PUBLICGOVERNMENT






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Cross-Government Grand Challenges

• Environmental Change– Food Security– Bioenergy

• The Science of Life – Healthy Ageing– Diet and Health

• Tools and technologies, including software– Importance of new techniques– Virtualisation of science– Distributed information and

modelling

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Delivery of Multidisciplinary Cross-Council Programmes

• Food Security

• Bioenergy

• Living with Environmental Change

• Ageing

• Global Threats to Security

• Bio-nanotechnology

• (Digital Economy)

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BBSRC Strategic Planning Documents

Vision

10 years

Practical delivery

3 years5 years

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BBSRC’s new Strategic Plan 2010 - 2015

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BBSRC Priorities

• Restructured to enable Excellence with Impact

• Historically, multiple priorities covering everything

• Now fewer priorities

• BBSRC-wide priorities

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BBSRC Strategy

Strategy Advisory Boardand Strategy Panels

Membership and Agenda for Strategy Advisory Board and Strategy Panels are on the BBSRC website

Delivery

Formulation Refreshment

Committees

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BBSRC Priorities 2008-2011

Research Priorities

• Ageing Research: Lifelong Health and Wellbeing

• Animal Health • Bioenergy• Crop Science (Food Security)• Global Security• Living with Environmental Change• Nanoscience Through Engineering

to Application: Bionanotechnology• Synthetic Biology• Systems Approach to Biological

Research• Technology Development for

Bioscience

Policy Priorities

• Economic and Social Impact• Impact on Public Policy• Increased International

Collaboration• Replacement, Refinement and

Reduction (3Rs) in Research Using Animals

• Welfare of Managed Animals (including Livestock and Companion Animals)

Details of all these are

on the BBSRC website

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Food Security

• Greater agricultural yields

• with fewer inputs of nutrients and water

• in the face of competing demands for land use

• and in the face of continuing threats of diseases of both plants and animals, and with a need for microbiological and nutritional safety

“when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food

preferences for an active and healthy life”

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Examples of BBSRC Food Security Work

• Rinderpest– Close to global eradication– estimated to benefit Africa by over

$1 billion annually

• Striga (Witchweed)– BBSRC research has lead to

management and reduction of striga weed

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Bioenergy

• BBSRC Bioenergy Review 2006

• Centre for Sustainable Bioenergy Research (launched in 2009)

• Multi-disciplinary and systems approaches

• International collaboration through SysMo

New Biofuel?Clostridium

Courtesy of Nigel Minton

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Systems Biology

• Emerging research area• Predictive models of biological

systems (pathways, cells, organs, organisms, ecosystems)

• Iterative cycles of modelling (dry) and biological (wet) experiments

• 6 BBSRC Centres established (2005/06) and 6 SABR grants (2006/07)

• International collaboration– ERASysBio (11 EU partners)

– BBSRC:ANR (Fr)

• Need for improved technology from bioscience community

• Multi-disciplinary (biosciences, physics, chemistry, engineering, computer sciences)

• Engagement with industry, potential for spin-out

Technology Development for the Biosciences

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• Emerging area at intersection of biosciences and engineering

• BBSRC-led UK Research Councils initiative to form networks to address Science and Engineering, Ethical, Legal, Societal Impacts

• Need to form interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary partnerships

• European Union – Transnational Roadmap for Synthetic Biology

Synthetic Biology

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Excellence with Impact

• What do we mean?

• Excellent science• Strategic focus• Capturing outputs• Demonstrate benefit

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The Funding Cycle Partnership

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GovernmentSpending Review

Money forBioscience

BBSRC Make Casefor Continued

Funding

VariousImpacts

StakeholderInputs

Examples of high impact projects

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Bluetongue research at BBSRC’s Institutefor Animal Health saves £485M in 2008through prevention of outbreaks, andprotected 10,000 jobs

Tools and models which reduce leaching of nitrate from farmland by 38%

Food safety: improving techniques to chill foods; extended shelf life; reduced food poisoning contribute > £100M pa to the economy

Impact is very broad

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Key Messages

• Responsive Mode will be the major vehicle to deliver our priorities

• We need to deliver more inter-disciplinary and strategically focussed science with greater impact

• We must deliver excellence science with demonstrable impacts

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Responsive Mode Must Deliver:

• Higher impacts• Strategic priorities• Interdisciplinary science• Grants of all sizes e.g. LoLas

• Needed to refresh old system to deliver this

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To Clarify

• If there is no hypothesis it can be fundable • Applied research can be excellent research• We fund technology, resources and databases

This has not changed

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Fundamental Research

Responsive Mode Research

Blue Skies Research= =

Research Committees

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bioenergy

environmental biotechnology

evolutionary biology

population biology

genome analysis

applied plant science

soil sciencebasic plant science

agricultural systems

basic microbiology

environmental change

applied microbiology

crop science

ageing

immunology

drug delivery

tissue engineering

synthetic biology

3Rs

bioinformatics

animal welfare

animal physiology

animal disease

behaviour

diet & health

food borne pathogens

developmental biology

neuroscience

molecular biology

biochemistry

metabolic engineering

enzymology/biocatalysis

structural biology

chemical biology

cell cycle

recombination

gene action & regulation

cell biology

mathematical tools for biology

bioprocessing

biotechnologyfood technology

bionanotechnologybiomaterials

bioinformatic toolsbioimaging

methods development

technologydevelopment

biophysics

biological chemistry

genetics/genomics

systemsbiology

Stem Cells

CD

A B

A: Animal Systems, Health & Wellbeing

B: Plants, Microbes, Food & Sustainability

D: Molecules, Cells & Industrial Biotechnology

C: Technological & Methodological Development

New Flexible Membership

• To serve on BBSRC Committees– Check BBSRC website– subscribe to our monthly alert for opportunities to apply

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POOL

CORE

CHAIRDeputyCHAIR

Criteria for Peer Review

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Scientific Excellence

Economic and Social Impact

Cost Effectiveness

Investment in People & Skills

Timeliness and Promise

Industrial/Stakeholder Relevance

Relevance to BBSRC Strategy

Animal Usage

Ethical & Social Concerns

Data Sharing

Impact

The Peer Review Principles

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Recommendation

Application via JeS

Assessment by Referees

Response to Referees

Assessment by Committee

Committee Input into Strategy

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Responsive Mode Proposals

&Reported Outputs

Assessment

CouncilStrategy Advisory Board

Strategy Panels

Strategy Development

Evidenced Based Input

Responsive Mode Schemes

• New Investigator Award– early-career researchers [email protected]

• Industrial Partnership Award– must have at least 10% of the full economic cost of the project

(cash only) [email protected]

• Applications in these schemes receive an uplift in the rankings - significant increase in likelihood of funding

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Strategic LoLas

• Run on an annual call• Applications must be over £2M and up to 5 years in duration

• Support research projects requiring "big" science approaches: longer timescales, intensive resources or multidisciplinary approach

• 2 stage application process via Je-S– Outline (CLOSING DATE 10 MARCH)

– Full proposal

• All applications must address BBSRC's strategic priority areas – Ensure scientific excellence – Focus on the impact and quality of the research team

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Simple pre-submission checks

• Is your Institution eligible?• Is the research within BBSRC’s remit?• Which research committee?• Is it a resubmission?• Are the PI/ Co-Is eligible?• Has all the paperwork been done and submitted

correctly?• Are the fEC costs correctly inputted to the form?

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Make the case properly

• A worthwhile and reasoned aim: what, why, how• Appropriate, measurable, achievable objectives with realistic

timelines• Well-written, concise & well-presented• Supported: evidence of skills, knowledge, preliminary data etc• Risks and contingencies• Context: awareness/appreciation of current activity• Justify costs, related to case. Get the costs checked – appropriate

admin help needed• Think about impacts: say what will be done to address them - links

and contacts

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Help is at Hand

• Talk to us:– Prior to submission - submit 1-2 page research summary– After submission - read the feedback

• Help the Office by:– Explaining your science (to intelligent non-experts)– Peer reviewing (refereeing) when asked– Reading the Je-S guidance notes and BBSRC grants guide– Treating the Office staff with respect

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General Trends in Funding

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BBSRC funding at Birkbeck College

• Total number of live BBSRC grants = 10• Value of BBSRC grants = £2.7M

• Overall HEI success rate =21%

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Year Applications Successful % success rate

2005-2006 6 4 67

2006-2007 5 1 20

2007-2008 10 4 40

2008-2009 5 1 20






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Application Closing dates

• Responsive Mode– 14 April 2010– 14 July 2010

• Strategic LoLas Outlines– 10 MARCH 2010

• Fellowships– Next call announced soon– [email protected]

• Studentships– Next call announced soon– [email protected]

• International Schemes– Next call September 2010– [email protected]

• Business and Innovation Schemes– See Donald’s talk

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Highlight Notices

• Will Deliver Timely Strategic Focus

• Relate to BBSRC Strategic Aims

• Time-limited

• Focused

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Systematics & Taxonomy (SynTax) Scheme

• BBSRC & NERC committing £250k per year for research with a substantial systematics/ taxonomy component

• Additional £20k Defra funding available for applications focusing on UK Biodiversity Action Plan Priority Species

• Further Information/to apply: Systematics Association website [Awards] – http://www.systass.org/awards/syntax.shtml

• Closing Date: 31 January 2010

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Useful email contacts

• BBSRC remit queries [email protected]

• Specific queries about grant applications:– Research Committee A [email protected]– Research Committee B [email protected]– Research Committee C [email protected]– Research Committee D [email protected]

• Help with JeS [email protected]

• Details on Science Outreach Visits [email protected]

• Sophia Abbasi [email protected]

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