1.  EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

  The BBSRC sponsors seven Institutes that carry out mission-driven research across land use, animal health, biomedical and food sciences. They represent a well-tried and tested method of developing and sustaining a critical mass of expertise in key areas. The Institutes carry out excellent, internationally-recognised science, support the UK knowledge economy, and provide a supply of scientists well-trained in both science and transferable skills, together with crucial national scientific capability and facilities. They sustain UK scientific expertise in some nationally important scientific disciplines that have been eroded in the UK academic sector under the influence of universities' need to satisfy a student-led market economy. The Institutes provide independent advice and research to government and foci for the UK to demonstrate international leadership. We believe that Institutes add to the strength of the UK science base and help to maintain diversity of provision by emphasising the successful and long-term integration and focus of research against a specific mission.

2.  THE ROLE OF RESEARCH COUNCIL INSTITUTES (RCIS) IN MAINTAINING THE UK RESEARCH AND SKILLS BASE

  The BBSRC sponsors seven Institutes that carry out mission-driven research across the land use, animal health, biomedical and food sciences. These Institutes carry out basic, strategic and applied programme-based research for BBSRC and for other funders. They employ some 2,700 people, have an annual turnover of around £150 million per year, and assets and facilities worth £500 million. As Directors of these Institutes, we wish to make the following generic points to the Committee concerning their role, and their relationships with sponsors and funders. Individual Institutes may make more specific points to the committee in separate submissions.

3.  THE INSTITUTES CARRY OUT EXCELLENT, INTERNATIONALLY-RECOGNISED SCIENCE

  Between 1997 and 2004, we published over 200 papers in the Nature family of journals and over 50 in Science and some Institutes top the published Research Council league tables of grant application success.

—  The Institutes support the UK knowledge economy: Between 2000 and 2004, we won research income from Industry of £70 million and from research charities of £14 million, with 15 spin-out companies based on our science employing some 80 staff.

—  The Institutes provide a supply of scientists well-trained in both science and transferable skills through comprehensive Graduate Programmes.

—  The Institutes provide crucial and distinctive national scientific capability and facilities such as long-term experiments, landscape-scale research facilities, culture and germplasm collections and containment facilities.

—  The Institutes sustain UK scientific expertise in some nationally important scientific disciplines that have been eroded in the UK academic sector under the influence of universities' need to satisfy a student-led market economy: This includes plant breeding and applied crop genetics, soil science, crop pathology and nematology.

—  The Institutes provide independent advice and research to government: Between 2000 and 2004, we won competitive research income of £180 million from the public sector, provided expert science members to committees across government and helped the government response to issues such as the Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak.

—  The Institutes provide foci for the UK to demonstrate international leadership: This includes a major presence in international sustainable development, and leading roles in trans-national research activities such as genome sequencing projects and development of a predictive computer model of all the biochemical cellular processes.

  4.  Throughout their lives, the Institutes have developed and adapted to changing circumstances, embracing novel approaches to their science and developing new strategic targets. They have had the flexibility, continuity and resilience to be able to invest in new opportunities and are at the forefront of research relating to:

—  climate change adaptation and mitigation,

—  developing alternative sources of energy and chemical feedstocks,

—  the relationships between human diet and health,

—  the cellular mechanisms regulating epigenetic processes,

—  the genetic improvement of animals, plants and micro-organisms As charities, they are guided by their Governing Bodies and subject to regular and comprehensive review by BBSRC. They also earn a large proportion of their funds competitively, bidding against universities and other research providers. They represent a well-tried and tested method of developing and sustaining a critical mass of expertise in key areas, and the Institute concept has been taken up by many universities who are seeking to promote integrated research in key areas. We, like BBSRC, believe that Institutes add to the strength of the UK science base and help to maintain diversity of provision by emphasising the successful and long-term integration and focus of research against a specific mission. The Institutes all offer Graduate Training Programmes in their areas of expertise. The BBSRC's assessment of some of these Programmes lauds them as exemplars which the University sector could emulate in terms of their emphasis on excellence in both science and managerial skills. 12% of graduates from the Babraham Institute in the last five years, for example, have moved on to positions in industry, and none are without science-related employment.

5.  BALANCE BETWEEN RC EXPENDITURE ON RCIS AND ON GRANT FUNDING

  The relationship with our sponsoring Research Council takes into account the differences in funding stream and mission between different Institutes. The Babraham Institute and the John Innes Centre receive more than 50% of their funding from BBSRC and emphasise internationally-leading basic and fundamental science with generic impact. The other Institutes have a more mixed funding stream and seek to generate added value and sustain UK capacity by the effective management of these different streams. Each Institute provides a nationally (and sometimes internationally) unique set of skills and facilities contributing substantially to strategic priorities. For example, the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research is one of the few UK Institutions to undertake plant breeding, using funding from BBSRC, Defra, Levy Bodies and Industry to pursue basic, strategic and applied genetic research and put this into practice through the production of economically-successful new varieties. The "classical" long-term experiments at Rothamsted Research provide a focus for studies on the interaction between agricultural land-use and the environment including impacts on biodiversity and prediction, mitigation and adaptation to climate change.

  6.  The BBSRC is currently reviewing the governance structure of Institutes prompted by the concerns raised in the Costigan Report on Governance1. The current model (of all Institutes as charities and companies limited by guarantee) has worked successfully at some Institutes and less well at others. For the latter group, an evolved model may be more appropriate. Collectively, we recognise that there are important issues that need to be addressed in these areas to ensure that the essential contribution of Institutes to the UK science base continues in the future to be as effective as it has been in the past, and indeed embraces new opportunities to deliver yet more efficiently and effectively. We support and are contributing to the deliberations that are addressing these issues.

  7.  We believe that two important points need to be borne in mind during these deliberations. Firstly, the distinctiveness and excellence of Institute science needs to be protected in the interests of promoting resilience in the UK research base. This distinctiveness is clearly enunciated in the recent BBSRC document "Science and Innovation in BBSRC-Sponsored Institutes: The Next Ten Years"2. We strongly support the retention of a separate assessment system for BBSRC-sponsored Institutes that is both rigorous and takes into account the holistic nature of institutes and the user communities whose interests they serve.

  8.  Secondly, BBSRC provides a Core Strategic Grant to each of its Institutes and also encourages grant applications from Institutes in open competition under a capped access arrangement. BBSRC Council has stated that it wishes to move all Institutes to a position of 50-60% stable funding, a model which provides for strategic scientific planning and under which the Babraham Institute and the John Innes Centre have operated very successfully on the international stage. Historically, other BBSRC Institutes with rather different missions achieved a similar level of stable funding with dual BBSRC/Defra support. In the last two years, this arrangement has almost completely disintegrated despite efforts by BBSRC under RIPSS; the interaction with customers from other Government Departments also urgently needs to be put on a more sustainable footing. The need for greater integration between funders is widely recognised and was strongly supported in, for example, the external consultations carried out by the Research Priorities Group for Sustainable Farming and Food. BBSRC's expenditure on Institutes currently totals £107 million (05-06 figures).

  9.  The DTI-sponsored Research Council Institute and Public Sector Research Establishment Sustainability Study (RIPSS) 3 made a number of suggestions for improving the relationship between Institutes and their major government funders, and we believe that meeting these recommendations is important for the continued health of those Institutes who do not obtain the majority of their funding from BBSRC. In parallel the Institutes welcome the recent agreement between the Medical Research Council and BBSRC which opens the door to a capped level of cross-funding appropriate to the respective missions of these sister Research Councils, and the recent decision by the Wellcome Trust to accept appropriate grant applications from Institute scientists.

10.  HARMONISATION OF PRACTICE BY RESEACH COUNCILS IN SUPPORTING RCIS

  The differing missions and funding streams across BBSRC Institutes is mirrored nationally across the Research Councils. Whilst common ground can be found across the Councils, there are also clearly distinctive features. These mission and delivery-led factors, rather than harmonisation per se, should be the starting point for ensuring success through the most suitable administrative and service support mechanisms. For example, many BBRSC Institutes house unique national assets such as the pathogen containment facilities at the Institute for Animal Health or the Biotech Incubator on the Babraham Research Campus. The case for harmonisation of administrative functions across RCs to yield more money for front line activities has been made by RCUK and is currently being addressed. We accept that there may be a good business case for a greater level of integration to sustain critical mass and to permit appropriate delivery of administrative functions.

  11.  Institute Directors will be pleased to host visits from Committee members at Institutes and to provide oral evidence to the Committee during the course of their deliberations.

  12.  1  http://www.ecdti.co.uk/cgibin/perlcon.pl (URN 06/1139)

2  http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/about/pub/policy/institutes.html

3  www.ost.gov.uk/research/RIPSS—Full—Report.pdf

June 2006