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International Institutional Awards Tranche 1 York

Lead Research Organisation: University of York
Department Name: Economics

Abstract

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
 
Description This BBSRC International Institutional Award funded 17 projects with collaborative work in these countries; The Netherlands, Germany, France, Thailand, Czech Republic, Finland, Australia, USA, Canada, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brazil, Slovenia. The key activities that were most successful were visits to international labs (postdocs / PIs), visits from researchers outside the UK, generating data across institutions, skills and knowledge sharing, seeding collaborative projects, involvement of policy experts and increasing potential for industry partnerships and engagement. The award has added value to our institutional bioscience strategy because it has involved researchers from some of our key strength areas, including the Centre for Novel Agricultural Products, BioYorkshire, the Centre for Blood Research, the York Biomedical Research Institute. This has given an international profile to our areas of expertise. We funded projects in the areas of health and disease, sustainable food and fuel and environmental change. This has been in alignment with our faculty strategy of Better Health, Green futures and Trusted technologies. Our university strategy is to undertake collaboration for the public good locally and with international reach responding to society's biggest challenges resting on the principles of environmental sustainability and internationalism.

We will continue to build international partnerships in the future in the areas that we supported with these funds. The specific areas included crop science (genetics / pathogen resistance), plant pharmaceuticals and agrichemicals, plant genomics, lifelong health / healthy ageing, immunomodulation and parasites and inflammation, novel gene therapy, RNA biology (effect of biological sex on gene regulation in immune cells), antibiotic resistance and biofilms, immunotherapy / receptor library, food security and climate change, phytomining (recovering metals from plants), adding value to plant-based waste (soldier fly), preventing viral infection in aquaculture and the gut microbiome.This has boosted engagement with european countries which will allow some targeted EU funding proposals through setting up european consortiums, and has helped to maintain our strong partnerships in South East Asia and Brazil. Overall in the 17 projects that were funded, a total of 61 individuals from the UK were involved and 64 individuals from outside the UK. Regarding mobility of researchers, 16 individuals from the UK visited other countries and 4 individuals from outside the UK visited the UK for secondments and placements. 22 ECRs were involved in projects and 10 Research Technical Professionals were involved.
Exploitation Route The projects that were funded resulted in collection of critical data that are proof-of-concept to support future grant proposals, strengthened interdisciplinary collaborations, developed screening pipelines, publications, exploration of policy frameworks, access to international facilities, development of bioinformatic pipelines and international seminars and presentations. It has also led to a funded Royal Society Fellowship for one awardee and an iCASE studentship. The publications will be used by others in the various fields and will inform the communities of the results of the collaborative partnerships that were initiated and / or strengthened. Lab visits occurred from researchers outside the UK into the University of York and York researchers visited various labs in other countries; as such the knowledge and skills sharing that occurred will benefit additional members of all of the labs involved. Due to the international nature of the work, there is the potential for policy change in the area of industrial biotechnology. Some work will be used by researchers developing therapeutics for diseases and other work will be used by researchers developing plants for disease resistance and development of genetic resources for the wider community. The impact of this award is far ranging and there is potential for global benefit.
Sectors Agriculture

Food and Drink

Environment

Healthcare

Manufacturing

including Industrial Biotechology