That’s according to a report published today, titled ‘Evaluation of the effectiveness and impact of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council’s (BBSRC) investments in industrial biotechnology (IB)’.
The report is written by an independent panel of experts appointed by BBSRC to evaluate the IB portfolio.
Spin-out companies
Economic impacts include numerous spin-out companies, such as:
- Colorifix, which uses the products of microbes to dye textiles
- Deep Branch, which uses carbon dioxide to create ingredients for a more sustainable animal feed system
- Holiferm, which makes biobased surfactants used in household and personal care products
Cross-disciplinary approaches
IB is a set of cross-disciplinary approaches that use biological resources for the production and processing of materials and chemicals.
Its principal aim is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by replacing fossil chemical feedstocks or fossil chemical powered processes.
The applications of IB are vast and span a wide range of industry sectors, including:
- materials
- chemicals
- energy carriers
- pharmaceuticals and biopharmaceuticals
- waste processing
- remediation
- recycling
It also extends to agriculture, food and construction sectors.
Bio-based solutions have the potential to transform everyday life by reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and their derivatives, as well as making a significant contribution to growing the UK economy.
The report reveals that BBSRC’s investment in IB has contributed to the establishment of at least 44 spin-out companies.
Several of these companies employ a considerable number of staff in well-paid, technologically oriented jobs and have been responsible for bringing multiple products to market.
Major successes
BBSRC’s Networks in Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy (BBSRC NIBB) and the IB Catalyst have been major successes.
BBSRC NIBB Phase I (2014 to 2019) leveraged nearly £98 million of additional funding from an initial BBSRC investment of £18 million.
A total of 277 different businesses contributed funding to collaborative projects supported through the networks during this time.
The membership of the networks within the BBSRC NIBB reflect the reach of this initiative.
The membership encompasses a wide range of scientific areas, across all career stages, with strong involvement from academia and the private sector, nationally and internationally.
Sustained investment
However, the report also reveals that, although good progress is being made in delivering impact from these investments, the potential of the work to deliver greater economic and societal impact is not being fully realised.
The panel identified a need for sustained investment to realise the full potential impact of IB alongside supportive long-term government polices to enable the full potential of IB to be achieved.
Professor Anne Ferguson-Smith, BBSRC Executive Chair, said:
I welcome this important and timely report, which shows the positive contribution BBSRC’s investments in industrial biotechnology makes to the UK’s economy, particularly in the generation of high-quality jobs through innovative activities.
It’s also very encouraging to see how successful BBSRC’s Networks in Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy scheme has been, both in enabling interactions between the academic and business community and building communities in other areas.
I look forward to seeing how the strong and enduring collaborations generated between the academic and business community resulting from BBSRC investments in IB activities continue to provide benefit.
Expert panel
BBSRC appointed an expert panel to conduct an independent evaluation of its investments in IB research and innovation.
BBSRC identified IB as a strategic priority in 2010.
Between 2010 and 2022, the council’s total spend on IB research and innovation was £413 million, including £42.4 million co-funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Innovate UK.
Current annual BBSRC expenditure on the IB portfolio is roughly £29 million.
The panel reviewed data from various sources including:
- BBSRC’s grants database
- BBSRC research outcomes data
- bibliographic and bibliometric databases
- business information databases
- stakeholder surveys and interviews
Outcomes data was obtained for 568 grants funded by BBSRC which had active spend between 2010 and 2021.
The evaluation encompasses four major themes:
- new knowledge and understanding
- knowledge exchange and supporting collaboration
- economic and societal impact
- BBSRC’s support for IB
Further findings
The report also found that:
- BBSRC’s investments supported high quality research that is internationally competitive
- BBSRC’s investments have built capability and capacity, producing future IB leaders within the UK and beyond
- targeted investments in the IB portfolio aimed at strengthening links between industry and academia are delivering significant impact and benefit
- the BBSRC NIBB initiative was an innovative and effective approach, helping to grow a vibrant IB community across multiple sectors and leveraging significant industry co-investment
- the IB portfolio provided a translational pathway that has significant potential for economic impact, with notable contributions to policy development
- international partnerships within the IB portfolio are helping the UK address global challenges such as net zero
- barriers to accessing specialist infrastructure such as scale-up facilities are limiting the delivery of further impact in BBSRC’s IB portfolio
Further information
Case studies
Extraction of sugar from waste
Fiberight was founded in 2009.
After a couple of pivots in company direction, their focus now is on the recovery of high value products from everyday household waste.
Advanced Microwave Technologies (AMT) was founded in 2008 and specialises in continuous flow microwave technology for various sector applications, including fermentation pre-treatment, microwave assisted reactions and microwave enhanced extraction.
Both Fiberight and AMT have been involved in various BBSRC funded projects with academics to support their development work.
Fiberight received funding in 2016 and 2017 from the IB Catalyst scheme, to work with academics on improving the production of sugars from waste.
Between 2014 and 2018 they participated in several NIBB, namely FoodWasteNet, LB Net and P2P.
AMT were also active members of both FoodWasteNet and HCVfP NIBB projects.
It was at NIBB networking events that the foundations of future working between Fiberight and AMT were formed.
Both companies then worked together as part of a consortium led by the University of Leeds, on a BBSRC Newton-Bhabha project aiming to translate existing IB technology on extraction of sugar from waste in India.
As well as supporting translation of research in a developing country, a patent application on the methodology supporting this work at a full-scale extraction plant level was approved.
Following on from their participation in BBSRC funded projects, Fiberight has since gained EU Horizon 2020 funding to showcase their work at industrial demonstration scale.
AMT has entered a commercial equipment rental agreement with Fiberight to aid them in the scale-up of their waste recovery technology on this project and others in the future.
Both companies continue to work with academic partners and ECRs, providing them with valuable exposure to industry and aiding in upskilling of the IB community.
Invasive weed provides solution to clean energy
Across many developing countries, there is a lack of suitable fuel for energy needs, particularly in rural areas.
An international team of UK, Indian, and Ugandan scientists and industry partners, through a BBSRC funded Global Challenges Research Fund project, have developed biodigesters that break down waste biomass through anaerobic digestion to generate biogas.
Led by the University of Leeds, the project is delivering demonstration units in rural areas of India and Uganda that are now being used by local communities for cooking.
Water hyacinth was used because it invades waterways, damaging the ecosystem and preventing communities from using the water for fishing or other activities.
The removal and clean-up of rivers is associated with high operational costs, environmental concerns and spread of diseases.
The project focuses on the utilisation of invasive aquatic macrophytes such as water hyacinth in combination with nutrient rich waste and immobilised microbial systems. It maximises the production of biogas, clean water and recovery of these nutrients in low-income communities, by developing innovative biotechnology solutions that promote resource efficiency and long-term sustainable services.
Defiant Renewables is an industry partner to the project and playing a key role in developing the technology in terms of designing bioreactors and highly active bacterial consortium to effectively produce large quantities of biogas from water hyacinth.
Supplied with different mixes of biomass, four demonstration digesters have been built for the use of local communities.
Locals have been engaged in the process, educated, and trained in this work, helping to build their knowledge of anaerobic digestion for producing biogas.
The team are now developing the technology further and exploring its potential for use in other countries.
Holiferm
Formed in 2018, Holiferm is a spin-out company focused on the production of surfactants, a key ingredient in household and personal care products.
Holiferm is facilitating the transition of the $42 billion surfactant market away from harmful, fossil fuel-based chemicals to biobased alternatives, resulting in biodegradable products that are also low in ecotoxicity.
These products have applications in personal care, home care, industrial cleaning and agricultural settings.
The technology was first demonstrated in the lab of a Reader in Chemical Engineering at The University of Manchester, with research being driven by then PhD student, who is now CEO of the organisation.
A number of small grants from various BBSRC NIBB provided targeted support at critical time points in the development of Holiferm’s technology, supporting work with industry partners and allowing the company to grow.
In September 2021, a £5.8 million investment from the US based company, Rhapsody Venture Partners, was the latest capital investment secured by Holiferm.
Holiferm won the Innovation Award at the Chemicals Northwest Awards 2022 for their patented gravity separation fermentation technology.
Holiferm is set to launch its second and third fermentation derived biosurfactants to market in 2024 and now employs 52 people.
These are rhamnolipid and Mannosylerythritol lipids.
They are currently being readied for pilot scale production before they go into a full manufacturing process at their Liverpool plant.
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