BBSRC’s SAPs play a key role in delivering BBSRC’s mission by providing expert input and advice that:
- helps shape and develop our strategy, policies and ideas
- provides assurance, monitoring and benchmarking on our research and innovation decisions
- ensures that our research and innovation decisions are supported by expert knowledge and insight from members of the scientific research and innovation community, including those with broad experience between and across disciplines
BBSRC’s five SAPs align with the BBSRC forward look for UK bioscience, with three addressing strategic challenge areas and two addressing cross-cutting themes. A summary of the remit of each SAP is included in this ‘Who we’re looking for’ section below.
For more details, please refer to the BBSRC forward look for UK bioscience and BBSRC’s 2022 to 2025 strategic delivery plan.
The panels are supplemented as appropriate with additional invited experts according to business need.
We welcome applications from previous panel members but in order to encourage diversity on our panels, the maximum period panel members can serve is two full terms of three years. In such cases, we would ask that applicants wait one term afterwards (three years) before re-applying.
Bioscience for Advanced Manufacturing and Clean Growth SAP
In addition to aligning with one of BBSRC’s three strategic challenge areas, the scope of the Bioscience for Advanced Manufacturing and Clean Growth (AMCG) SAP contribute to the objective of building a greener future for all. This is described in UK Research and Innovation’s corporate plan 2022 to 2025.
AMCG’s SAP focuses on the use of biological systems for the:
- development of novel, bio-based and low carbon manufacture for improved materials, chemicals, biopharmaceuticals and energy vectors
- production of more sustainable products through the utilisation of renewable resources and more sustainable feedstocks
- use of biological systems for the remediation of land, water and air
To achieve these aims, AMCG supports research and technologies covering biological, chemistry and engineering disciplines, with an emphasis on genomics, systems, and synthetic biology. This research utilises:
- biological systems including genes, enzymes, bacteria, fungi, algae, animal, and plant cells as well as multicellular organisms
- feedstocks including wastes and residues in the form of gases, liquids, and solids as well as perennial biomass
See further details regarding the AMCG’s scope and the current advisory panel membership.
The AMCG SAP are keen to encourage applicants with expertise in the following areas:
- advanced chemical manufacture in the fine and speciality chemicals area utilising bio-based materials or systems
- process engineering or scale-up of industrial biotechnology systems in a commercial setting including lifecycle and technoeconomic assessments
- knowledge of the chemicals industry and manufacturing in the UK and internationally
We welcome applications from all organisations. However, in the interests of ensuring fair community representation, and recognising existing membership, unless there is a compelling strategic case, we are unlikely to accept further appointments to the panel from applicants employed by:
- Ingenza
- Unilever
- University of Edinburgh
- University of Nottingham
- Unviersity of Reading
- University of Surrey
Bioscience for Sustainable Agriculture and Food SAP
The Bioscience for Sustainable Agriculture and Food (SAF) panel advises on how the UK’s strengths in bioscience can have an impact on global food and nutrition security. It also advises on how it drives innovation and policy to deliver a sustainable, productive, diverse, resilient, and healthy agri-food system.
The panel will provide advice to BBSRC on a broad range of topics including:
- sustainable food production as part of wider agri-ecosystems (lab-field-farm-landscape) building resilience into our agri-food systems including: food safety and reducing food waste and loss, and novel strategies to support the health of the crop or animal
- linking agriculture, food and nutrition to health benefits
- transformative technologies for agriculture and food including: precision agriculture and smart technologies, and genomics and genetic diversity development
- transition to net zero in agri-food systems and reducing environmental impacts on biodiversity and soil health
See details and most recent membership about the SAF SAP.
For Bioscience for SAF SAP we are keen to encourage applicants with expertise in the following areas:
- strategic or industry experience (including farming)
- transformative technologies in agriculture, crop science and genetics
- regenerative agriculture
- agrifood systems, for example, interactions between farms, ecosystems, services and management food systems, including modelling, resilience and policy
- systems or interdisciplinary thinking across agriculture and food
We welcome applications from all organisations. However, in the interests of ensuring fair community representation, and recognising existing membership, unless there is a compelling strategic case, we are unlikely to accept further appointments to the panel from applicants employed by:
- University of Reading
- University of Nottingham
- Lancaster University
- Newcastle University
- Mowi
- Quadram Institute
- Ceres-AgriTech
Bioscience for an Integrated Understanding of Health
The Bioscience for an Integrated Understanding of Health (BIUH) panel focuses on improving animal and human health and wellbeing across the life course. This centres upon providing a deep integrated understanding of the health system, and of the factors that maintain health and wellness under stress and biological or environmental challenges.
The panel will provide advice to BBSRC on a broad range of topics spanning the four challenge areas identified in the BIUH strategic framework document:
- ageing and health across the life course: understanding the biological mechanisms of ageing, with the long-term objective of maintaining and enhancing the quality of mental and physical health throughout the life course
- food and nutrition for health: understanding the biological mechanisms by which nutrients, food components, foods and whole diets and their interactions promote a healthy lifespan
- combatting infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance: coordinated transdisciplinary approach to understand, forecast, avoid and mitigate animal infectious diseases, infections of zoonotic origin and antimicrobial resistance
- transformative technologies for health: development, validation, implementation and application of tools, technologies and data that enable innovative approaches to understand and improve human and animal health and wellbeing throughout the life course
See details on the BIUH SAP and most recent membership.
For BIUH SAP we are keen to encourage applicants with expertise in the following areas:
- one health (including zoonosis)
- combatting infectious diseases (including antimicrobial resistance)
- social sciences within the context of bioscience
We welcome applications from all organisations. However, in the interests of ensuring fair community representation, and recognising existing membership, unless there is a compelling strategic case, we are unlikely to accept further appointments to the panel from applicants employed by:
- Newcastle University
- University of Cambridge
- Alan Turing Institute
- University of Oxford
- The Babraham Institute
- Collider Health
- University of Surrey
- The Roslin Institute
- University of Glasgow
- Queen Mary University of London
- University of Birmingham
People and Talent SAP
People and Talent (PAT) is responsible for developing and maintaining BBSRC policies to support the delivery and training of diverse people across the bioscience sector for fulfilling careers in research and innovation.
It also aims to support a scientifically articulate workforce for the wider economy.
The panel provides advice on a range of topics, in particular:
- the talent ecosystem, ensuring an appropriate flow of talented people into bioscience training and professional development for the benefit of research communities and the wider economy
- postgraduate training and development
- research teams, including postdoctoral researchers, research technicians and technology and skills specialists and research leaders in support of healthy and productive working environments
- research culture, including equality, diversity, and inclusion within the biosciences
- porosity of researchers and their ideas, knowledge, and expertise between sectors of research and the economy
See details on the PAT SAP and most recent membership.
For PAT SAP we are keen to encourage applicants with expertise in at least one of the following areas:
- driving policy change in research culture at departmental, institutional, or national levels (for example, Technician Commitment, Researcher Development Concordat, Athena Swan Charter, Race Equality Charter)
- developing evidence-based strategies, interpreting complex data on research funding, identifying key messages from funding or survey data (for example, grant success rates, student destinations)
- understanding challenges in non-academic or atypical research careers, including sector mobility, vocational routes (for example, apprenticeships), and transitioning to research independence
- knowledge of culture or career challenges and solutions in non-academic settings, including barriers to innovation
- industry or third sector experience
We welcome applications from all organisations. However, in the interests of ensuring fair community representation, and recognising existing membership, unless there is a compelling strategic case, we are unlikely to accept further appointments to the panel from applicants employed by:
- University of Plymouth
- University of Portsmouth
- AstraZeneca
- University of Nottingham
- Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre
- Northumbria University
- The University of Edinburgh
- John Innes Centre
- University of Bristol
Transformative Technologies SAP
Membership of the Transformative Technologies (TT) SAP is an opportunity to help advise BBSRC on disruptive technologies that are vital in advancing bioscience research and innovation. Accelerating the pace of discovery, providing new opportunities for business and innovative ways to tackle health, environmental and productivity challenges.
The TT theme drives the emergence, development and adoption of transformative bioscience technologies, including but not limited to data intensive bioscience, artificial intelligence (AI), engineering biology, and bioimaging.
TT SAP also covers aspects of the Rules of Life and Research Infrastructure themes, as well as relevant industrial and societal aspects across all three themes.
The Rules of Life theme promotes creative, curiosity-driven frontier bioscience to address fundamental questions in biology.
The Research Infrastructure theme aims to ensure UK bioscience, including academic researchers, innovators and industrialists, can access cutting-edge, sustainable research and innovation infrastructure.
Find out more about the TT SAP current panel membership.
For TT SAP we are keen to encourage applicants with expertise in the following areas:
- data intensive bioscience: FAIR data, bioinformatics software, computational methods, and the required infrastructure including high-performance compute that are essential for advancing modern biosciences
- AI: development and application of a breadth of AI approaches in the biosciences, in recognition of the role of AI as a key emerging technology
- engineering biology: expertise in the development and application of synthetic and engineering biology approaches, in both fundamental and applied research challenge settings
- technology development: development and application of technologies (including but not limited to the above technologies) in the biosciences. We are keen to have applications from research technology professionals
All four highlighted areas have clear aspects of commonality, connection and convergence, and applicants with relevant cross-cutting expertise are strongly encouraged to apply.
We welcome applications from all organisations. However, in the interests of ensuring fair community representation, and recognising existing membership, unless there is a compelling strategic case, we are unlikely to accept further appointments to the panel from applicants employed by:
- Francis Crick Institute
- Nottingham Trent University
- University of Dundee
- University of Nottingham
- University of Southampton
- University of York
