Integrated Biorefining Research and Technology Club (IBTI Club)

The Integrated Biorefining Research and Technology Club (IBTI) supported the development of biological, chemical and engineering processes for the production of chemicals, materials and polymers to replace petro-chemical derived sources as this was identified as an area where increased investment in research was required to underpin the needs of industry.

To meet this need the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) launched a research and technology club in partnership with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), industry and the Bioscience for Business Knowledge Transfer Network (now Biosciences KTN). We invested around £6 million in industrially relevant, innovative, basic biological, chemical and engineering research in biorefining technologies:

  • 12 research grants were awarded, from three calls for research proposals
  • 15 PhD training grants have been awarded.

A report reviewing the outputs of the club has been conducted by NNFCC.

IBTI is managed by BBSRC with support from the IBTI coordinator and the IBTI Steering Group.

Research challenges

Three overarching challenges are central to IBTI:

  • optimisation of feedstock composition
  • integrative bio-processing
  • enhancing product value.

Club members

IBTI was comprised of nine company members who contributed to funding research and took part in directing the activities of the club. The total investment of IBTI was approximately £6 million:

  • £660,000 – industry contribution
  • £1.2 million – EPSRC contribution
  • £4 million – BBSRC contribution.

Industry members:

  • AHDB
  • BP
  • British Sugar
  • Croda International
  • Green Biologics
  • InCrops
  • KWS
  • ReBio
  • Syngenta.

Contact

IBTI Club

Email: ibti.club@bbsrc.ukri.org.

Last updated: 31 March 2022

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