| Abbreviation | AFRC |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1983 |
| Purpose | Funding of UK agriculture and horticulture |
Region served |  United Kingdom |
The Agricultural and Food Research Council (AFRC) was a British Research Council responsible for funding and managing scientific and technological developments in farming and horticulture. [1] [2] [3] [4]
The AFRC was formed in 1983 from its predecessor, the Agricultural Research Council (ARC). It was replaced by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) as a result of government reorganisation in 1994. [5] At that time Sir William Henderson who was secretary to the AFRC claimed that "agriculture was a success story" hence the AFRC could be closed and a new vision for research was envisaged in the creation of the BBSRC. With this shift in emphasis, there also followed the closure of several educational and research organisations as for example the internationally renowned Wye College.
Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services.
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation, is a non-departmental public body (NDPB), and is the largest UK public funder of non-medical bioscience. It predominantly funds scientific research institutes and university research departments in the UK.
Long Ashton Research Station (LARS) was an agricultural and horticultural government-funded research centre located in the village of Long Ashton near Bristol, UK. It was created in 1903 to study and improve the West Country cider industry and became part of the University of Bristol in 1912. Later, it expanded into fruit research and in the 1980s was redirected to work on arable crops and aspects of botany. It closed in 2003.
The Pirbright Institute is a research institute in Surrey, England, dedicated to the study of infectious diseases of farm animals. It forms part of the UK government's Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). The institute employs scientists, vets, PhD students and operations staff.
The Babraham Institute is a life sciences research institution and a partner organisation of the University of Cambridge. The Babraham Institute is based on the Babraham Research Campus, partly occupying a former manor house, but also laboratory and science facility buildings on the campus, surrounded by an extensive parkland estate, just south of Cambridge, England. It is an independent and charitable organization which is involved in biomedical research, including healthy aging and molecular biology. The director is Dr Simon Cook who also leads the Institute's signalling research programme.
The Nottingham Arabidopsis Stock Centre (NASC) provides seed and information resources to the International Arabidopsis Genome Project and the wider research community. It is based in the School of Biosciences at the University of Nottingham's Sutton Bonington Campus, in the English county of Nottinghamshire.
The Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS) is a department of Aberystwyth University within its Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, and is located in Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, Wales. It has a remit for teaching, research and business innovation in the area of bio-sciences, land use and the rural economy.
The University of Newcastle upon Tyne Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering (SAgE) is a faculty of Newcastle University. It was established in the city of Newcastle upon Tyne as the College of Physical Science in 1871, for the teaching of physical sciences, and was part of Durham University. It existed until 1937, when it joined the College of Medicine to form King's College, Durham.
Douglas Bruce Kell is a British biochemist and Research Professor of Systems Biology in the Institute of Systems, Molecular and Integrative Biology at the University of Liverpool, and a Co-founder of Epoch Biodesign Ltd. He was previously at the School of Chemistry at the University of Manchester, based in the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (MIB). He founded and led the Manchester Centre for Integrative Systems Biology. He served as chief executive officer (CEO) of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) from 2008 to 2013.
Norwich Research Park is a business community located to the southwest of Norwich in East Anglia close to the A11 and the A47 roads. Set in over 230 hectares of parkland, Norwich Research Park is home to over 12,000 people, including 3,000 researchers and clinicians with an annual research spend of over £130 million. The focus of the community is on creating and supporting new companies and jobs based on bioscience.
The Roslin Institute is an animal sciences research institute at Easter Bush, Midlothian, Scotland, part of the University of Edinburgh, and is funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.
Michael Webster Bevan is a professor at the John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK.
Christopher Michael Wathes was a British research scientist who specialised in agricultural and veterinary science.
Harry J. Gilbert is Professor of Agricultural Biochemistry and Nutrition in the Institute For Cell and Molecular Biosciences at Newcastle University.
Nigel Shaun Scrutton is a British biochemist and biotechnology innovator known for his work on enzyme catalysis, biophysics and synthetic biology. He is Director of the UK Future Biomanufacturing Research Hub, Director of the Fine and Speciality Chemicals Synthetic Biology Research Centre (SYNBIOCHEM), and Co-founder, Director and Chief Scientific Officer of the 'fuels-from-biology' company C3 Biotechnologies Ltd. He is Professor of Enzymology and Biophysical Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Manchester. He is former Director of the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (MIB).
Jane Louise Hurst is the William Prescott Professor of Animal Science at the University of Liverpool. She is Head of Mammalian Behaviour & Evolution. She studies scent communication between mammals, as well as animal welfare and pest control. She served as the president of the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour from 2010 to 2012.
Tina Lorraine Barsby is a plant geneticist working in the UK. She primarily works in the agriculture sector and is currently the CEO of the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB). Her most notable work has been in global food security. She was appointed an OBE in the 2018 New Year Honours List for services to agricultural science and biotechnology.
Laura Elizabeth Green is a British epidemiologist and academic who is Pro-vice-chancellor and Head of the College of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Birmingham. She serves on the council of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).
Yashpal Singh Malik is an Indian virologist. Currently he is the Dean of Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University(GADVASU).
Melanie Joanne Welham is a British biochemist who was Executive Chair of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council from April 2018 to June 2023. She was previously a professor of biochemistry at the University of Bath, where she worked on stem cell biology.
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