A Network of Integrated Technologies: Plants to Products
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Bath
Department Name: Biology and Biochemistry
Abstract
The main aim of this project is to bring together a critical mass of academic and industrial partners to address the global challenges involved in the sustainable production of chemicals and materials from plants, agricultural co-products and agri-industrial residues. This will be achieved by creating a Network of scientists, industrialists, social scientists, life cycle analysts and stakeholders from feedstock supply to production industries in order to define bottlenecks and barriers to biorefining from technical, logistical and socio-economic perspectives. Through an initial scoping meeting, members of the Network will identify the key obstacles and areas where improvement is required, and the cross-disciplinary strategies needed to address this, in order to progress the field. Through the targeted funding of small "Proof of Concept" studies, information will be generated which will enable Network members to develop targeted robust proposals to bid into larger funding programmes with preliminary data and an established inter-disciplinary base to work from.
In addition to Proof of Concept studies, the Network will operate as a central source of information (e.g. via the website), a voice for sustainable production of chemicals from plants and a promoter of Network activities. The website will provide, information about network research activities, a directory of members and their areas of research expertise and relevant funding opportunities and conferences. The Network will support training of PhD students and PDRAs to promote the development of a skill base in the IB area. Through Network showcases and defined Impact activities, we will promote the objectives and achievements of the Network, actively champion the benefits of sustainable production of chemicals and materials from plants and become the first port of call for advice to companies, policy-makers and the international scientific community. In the latter respect, we will be actively seeking to create links and engage members in UK, EU and wider international programmes. Indeed, the success of the Network may ultimately be judged by these outcomes.
Ultimately this network will have a role in delivering a sustainable UK bio-economy through integrated biorefining pipelines, maximising product streams from feedstocks and increasing production efficiency, there by stimulating economic growth and job creation.
In addition to Proof of Concept studies, the Network will operate as a central source of information (e.g. via the website), a voice for sustainable production of chemicals from plants and a promoter of Network activities. The website will provide, information about network research activities, a directory of members and their areas of research expertise and relevant funding opportunities and conferences. The Network will support training of PhD students and PDRAs to promote the development of a skill base in the IB area. Through Network showcases and defined Impact activities, we will promote the objectives and achievements of the Network, actively champion the benefits of sustainable production of chemicals and materials from plants and become the first port of call for advice to companies, policy-makers and the international scientific community. In the latter respect, we will be actively seeking to create links and engage members in UK, EU and wider international programmes. Indeed, the success of the Network may ultimately be judged by these outcomes.
Ultimately this network will have a role in delivering a sustainable UK bio-economy through integrated biorefining pipelines, maximising product streams from feedstocks and increasing production efficiency, there by stimulating economic growth and job creation.
Technical Summary
We propose to run a Network focusing on the conversion of plant material, including agricultural by-products and agro-industrial co-products to chemicals and materials. The aim is to overcome barriers to biorefining of feedstocks by optimisation of multi-stream processes through integration of disciplines and exploitation of emerging technologies. In order to do this we have assembled a scientific management group which has expertise across the biorefinery process chain, including industrialists, and a strategy management group comprised of industrialists and other stakeholders (suppliers and end-users), together with an multidisciplinary team of scientists, engineers, modellers, social scientists, environmental and life cycle analysts, which comprises the initial Network.
We believe that the route to tackling current technical and commercial bottlenecks in developing a sustainable process for producing chemicals from biomass based renewables lies in effective communication between disciplines. Therefore, the initial activities of the network will focus on a desk-based scoping study and meeting to establish the capabilities and perceptions of the Network and the focal points that we need to address. This will be followed up with a call for funding of Proof of Concept projects to address the key issues, ideally in an inter-disciplinary manner. These projects will be highly targeted and funded in 3 waves, allowing the second wave to address issues under-represented in the first wave of awards and, if necessary, the final tranche to be used for commissioning specific projects.
The purpose of this exercise is to provide the necessary information, contacts and skills to be able to be effective in applications for further funding through eg Catalyst, 20/20 Horizon and similar national and international programme. This strategic approach has the potential to make a step change in biorefinery processes, benefitting the UK economy and employment in the IB sector.
We believe that the route to tackling current technical and commercial bottlenecks in developing a sustainable process for producing chemicals from biomass based renewables lies in effective communication between disciplines. Therefore, the initial activities of the network will focus on a desk-based scoping study and meeting to establish the capabilities and perceptions of the Network and the focal points that we need to address. This will be followed up with a call for funding of Proof of Concept projects to address the key issues, ideally in an inter-disciplinary manner. These projects will be highly targeted and funded in 3 waves, allowing the second wave to address issues under-represented in the first wave of awards and, if necessary, the final tranche to be used for commissioning specific projects.
The purpose of this exercise is to provide the necessary information, contacts and skills to be able to be effective in applications for further funding through eg Catalyst, 20/20 Horizon and similar national and international programme. This strategic approach has the potential to make a step change in biorefinery processes, benefitting the UK economy and employment in the IB sector.
Planned Impact
Who will benefit from this research?
Wider Academic Community: The breadth of research areas covered by this Network means our research outputs will be of interest to biochemists, microbiologists, synthesis and systems biologists, synthetic chemists, chemical and process engineers, agronomists, social scientists and economists. To reach these audiences, the PI, CoI, project manager and PDRA involved in Proof of Concept studies will present at a range of forums in addition to subject focused conferences, in order to exemplify the application of specific disciplines (see JoR for specific targets). In addition we will require that the work will be published in high impact subject specific and project focused open-access journals.
Generic outputs from this project, such as advances in modelling, new strains, tools and enzymes for metabolic and process engineering will also benefit the wider academic community.
Commercial Private Sector: This research has the potential to benefit both commercial producer and user communities. Microbial strains, enzyme, chemical and engineering process methodologies developed here could be used to produce chemical intermediates from a range of renewable feedstocks in a manner which is integrated into pre-treatment. The home grown cereals authority (HGCA) and ABAgri represent major connection points between agricultural suppliers and potential end users and we have agreements from both of these organisations to assist with accessing feedstocks.
The Network has very strong industrial representation on the Strategic Advisory Group, Science Management Group and as members of the Network. This represents activities across the biorefinery process chain, including companies interested in process engineering (eg Dynamic extractions, Johnson Matthey), companies interested in exploiting particular fermentation/enzyme technologies (Green Biologics, Celbius) and end user companies interested in particular product applications (P&G, Riverdia, Sasol, Chemoxy). During the project, links to this community will be enhanced through the activities of SAG and engagement with the Industrial Biotechnology Leadership Forum.
National and International Perspective:
Climate change: A primary driver for the move to producing chemicals from sustainably derived renewables, in preference to fossil fuels, is the reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Based on the complete lifecycle of a chemical product, an efficiently operated biorefinery using cellulosic substrates should be able to deliver an 80% reduction in GHG emissions compared to its fossil fuel equivalent, supporting national targets.
Green jobs: The UK chemical sector employs thousands of people and generates a trade surplus of around £6.5 billion/annum. However, it faces an enormous challenge to reduce its reliance on petrochemical feedstocks, reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, and improve sustainability. The successful delivery of this project will have an impact on delivering green jobs in both producer and user industries within the UK. For the PDRAs, the possibility of interacting with and potentially spending time working with industrialists in the field will give them an excellent perspective of both academic and industrial research environments, that should be invaluable for their future employment prospects.
Wider Academic Community: The breadth of research areas covered by this Network means our research outputs will be of interest to biochemists, microbiologists, synthesis and systems biologists, synthetic chemists, chemical and process engineers, agronomists, social scientists and economists. To reach these audiences, the PI, CoI, project manager and PDRA involved in Proof of Concept studies will present at a range of forums in addition to subject focused conferences, in order to exemplify the application of specific disciplines (see JoR for specific targets). In addition we will require that the work will be published in high impact subject specific and project focused open-access journals.
Generic outputs from this project, such as advances in modelling, new strains, tools and enzymes for metabolic and process engineering will also benefit the wider academic community.
Commercial Private Sector: This research has the potential to benefit both commercial producer and user communities. Microbial strains, enzyme, chemical and engineering process methodologies developed here could be used to produce chemical intermediates from a range of renewable feedstocks in a manner which is integrated into pre-treatment. The home grown cereals authority (HGCA) and ABAgri represent major connection points between agricultural suppliers and potential end users and we have agreements from both of these organisations to assist with accessing feedstocks.
The Network has very strong industrial representation on the Strategic Advisory Group, Science Management Group and as members of the Network. This represents activities across the biorefinery process chain, including companies interested in process engineering (eg Dynamic extractions, Johnson Matthey), companies interested in exploiting particular fermentation/enzyme technologies (Green Biologics, Celbius) and end user companies interested in particular product applications (P&G, Riverdia, Sasol, Chemoxy). During the project, links to this community will be enhanced through the activities of SAG and engagement with the Industrial Biotechnology Leadership Forum.
National and International Perspective:
Climate change: A primary driver for the move to producing chemicals from sustainably derived renewables, in preference to fossil fuels, is the reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Based on the complete lifecycle of a chemical product, an efficiently operated biorefinery using cellulosic substrates should be able to deliver an 80% reduction in GHG emissions compared to its fossil fuel equivalent, supporting national targets.
Green jobs: The UK chemical sector employs thousands of people and generates a trade surplus of around £6.5 billion/annum. However, it faces an enormous challenge to reduce its reliance on petrochemical feedstocks, reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, and improve sustainability. The successful delivery of this project will have an impact on delivering green jobs in both producer and user industries within the UK. For the PDRAs, the possibility of interacting with and potentially spending time working with industrialists in the field will give them an excellent perspective of both academic and industrial research environments, that should be invaluable for their future employment prospects.
Publications
Wright A
(2018)
Microbubble-enhanced dielectric barrier discharge pretreatment of microcrystalline cellulose.
in Biomass & bioenergy
Wright A
(2018)
Dielectric barrier discharge plasma microbubble reactor for pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass.
in AIChE journal. American Institute of Chemical Engineers
Santomauro F
(2018)
Microbial oil produced from the fermentation of microwave-depolymerised rapeseed meal
in Bioresource Technology Reports
Rajendran S
(2021)
Electrical Stimulation to Enhance Wound Healing
in Journal of Functional Biomaterials
Montazersadgh F
(2019)
Influence of the On-time on the Ozone Production in Pulsed Dielectric Barrier Discharges
in Plasma
Leone F
(2019)
In Situ Crosslinking Bionanocomposite Hydrogels with Potential for Wound Healing Applications.
in Journal of functional biomaterials
Hardy J
(2021)
Potential for Chemistry in Multidisciplinary, Interdisciplinary, and Transdisciplinary Teaching Activities in Higher Education
in Journal of Chemical Education
| Description | The P2P Network has funded a number of Proof of Concept awards and Business Interaction Vouchers that have enabled industry and academia to work together to test concepts/ideas that address industrial need and have potential to provide novel solutions. Some of these have developed into longer term relationships |
| Exploitation Route | Work funded as PoC or BIV projects can provide new industrial opportunities and novel solutions to industrial problems |
| Sectors | Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology |
| Description | 1. Achievements and highlights of 2014 1.1. Project kick-off Immediately after the formal start of P2P we held a one day meeting (13/2/14) of the SMB (+ Dr Steve Martin) in Aston, where David Leak introduced the structure of, and Research Council vision for the NIBB, together with details of funding availability. The bulk of the meeting then focused on agreements on governance, management and operation of the NIBB, including dealing with issues of confidentiality and conflicts of interest. The SMB were also updated on progress in appointing the Network Manager, plans for a desktop "gap analysis" and plans for the first whole Network Meeting. 1.2. First Network Meeting We ran our first whole Network event on the 14-15th April 2014 at Bailbrook House Hotel in Bath. We had around 38 people attend, which, given the original membership numbers was 59, seemed to be a reasonable turn-out. We introduced the upcoming funding opportunities and set the scene for our members to come together and discuss/ agree what the main themes of the Network should be, given that we have a particularly broad remit. We also highlighted that we had commissioned a gap analysis report and that the outputs of the discussion at the meeting would form part of the report. Despite the short time we had to organise the event it was a success on several levels: 1) Three main themes for the Networks activities were identified - a) Process optimisation for exemplar processes/ systems b) New options on functionality targets - primarily replacing existing products/ materials with novel ones which address the same functionality, but could also be process functionality too c) New applications within existing processes (eg. milling and malting) for current process outputs 2) We introduced new members to the original core 3) We informed members of the facilities, resources (including feedstocks) and expertise available within the network 4) The outputs of the discussion and talks were captured as part of the gap analysis report, to be used to underpin our activities 5) New relationships formed through informal networking - led to at least one proof of concept proposal in the subsequent funding call. 1.3. Second Network Meeting: Economic Modelling Tools One of the main discussion points coming out of the first meeting was the need for some simple economic modelling tools based on some example processes to help people demonstrate the economic viability and commercial impact of their ideas and concepts. The Network tried to find some alternative solutions initially but it became apparent that perhaps funding a specific modelling tool development would be the best/ quickest way of delivering this. To effectively scope out the call and to engage a number of modelling experts/ industry supporters and end-users we organised our second whole Network meeting to focus on developing modelling tools. The meeting was held on the 21st November at the Centre for Process Systems Engineering, Imperial College, London. The event was ostensibly sold out with 50 registered attendees though slightly less than this turned up. There was a good mix of modellers, industry and end-users. We started proceedings with a number of industry perspectives from different backgrounds and then introduced what modelling was all about. The presentations flowed nicely from one to another and the subsequent discussions were well facilitated by Mindset Method. The meeting was deemed a big success because: 1. From the discussion we were able to establish a clear scope for the call, which is now open. 2. As a result of the discussions Kirstin Covington had with some delegates ahead of the event we had a number of new members (six in total) join from the modelling community. 3. The community of people attending were enthused by the opportunity and we are expecting some good applications to the call 4. There was good networking between the various groups and industry representatives which also bodes well for some strong applications with good industry involvement. 1.4. Joint NIBB/ IBTI Meeting with LBNet and FoodWasteNet BBSRC requested that P2P, LBNet and FoodWasteNet ran a joint event following on from a BBSRC organised IBTI dissemination event on the 20-21st October in Cardiff. Despite our initial concerns that the time allocated would be too much, we feel we got value out of the event. The Networks jointly agreed that the event should focus on early career scientists, as there would be a significant proportion of this demographic in the IBTI audience. Following an introduction to the networks and what they have been up to, we ran a couple of discussion sessions - the first giving early career scientists a chance to ask more experienced scientist what skills in addition to the technical expertise they would look for in potential candidates. This was followed by a second discussion session where we looked to establish what activities etc the individual Networks (either singly or jointly) could run/ deliver to help the early career scientists particularly (but not exclusively) build up their skills in the areas identified in the first session. The Networks got some good feedback on the types of activities, not just events, which would be appropriate and useful to early career scientists as well as some others that would be useful for all our members. These outputs are now incorporated into the Network plan/ strategy for next year. No new members arose from this event as IBTI members are already heavily engaged with a number of Networks. 1.5. Gap Analysis Report This report was completed in July 2014 and is a good summary of the both the outputs of the kick-off meeting in April and gauge of the concerns and challenges facing biorefining and industrial biotechnology. It concludes that the challenges, while not insurmountable, are many, complex and interlinked so that when delivering technical solutions the other factors impacting and influencing the commercial sector cannot be ignored. Therefore within the wider vision to deliver a sustainable UK bioeconomy, the Network should focus on product manufacture and interface with other Networks that focus on feedstock availability and processing. We will establish a platform for interdisciplinary dialogue and promote close interaction between academic and commercial sectors to drive development of integrated programmes that will identify and address critical bottlenecks that at present restrict the development of an integrated bioeconomy. Through focus on a number of example processes that require different scales of operation, the Network will both deliver commercially-relevant solutions and enhance the skillset of the workforce in the academic and industrial sectors. One immediate example was the need for some (techno)economic modelling tools to help people demonstrate the economic viability and commercial impact of their ideas and concepts. 1.6. Opening Funding Calls 1.6.1. Proof of Concept Funds The network opened the first P2P Proof of Concept call in June 2014. It was an open call based on the three main themes for the Network: 1. Process optimisation for exemplar processes/ systems 2. New options on functionality targets 3. New applications within existing processes for current process outputs The call closed on the 11th July with ten applications submitted, five of which were funded and we felt that this was a good result for our first call. As a result of our first call and assessment process we revised our scoring and assessment of applications to be more in line with the TSB scoring and less like the BBSRC scoring as it seemed more appropriate for the types of projects we are expecting to fund. The second PoC call is due to open mid-December, following the meeting on the 21st November which helped us establish the scope. 1.6.2. Business Interaction Vouchers This call opened, after some delay, in October 2014, with the aim that it will remain open for the duration of the Network. To date we have yet to receive any applications, though we are aware that a number of groups are interested in applying. There is therefore little more to report. 1.7. Community Engagement Members of the executive committee have attended a number of events representing the P2P Network during 2014: Event Date Audience Outcomes Consumer Products through Industrial Biotechnology Across the Value Chain; IBLF 5th June Industrial, Government & Academic interested in IB • At least one new member of P2P • Met other NIBB network managers • Circulated information sheet to a number of attendees GW4 SynBio Showcase 20th August Industry, Academics from the GW4 university group • Introduced the network to the SynBio community at the GW4 universities • Three new network members RCUK Energy Programme Scientific Advisory Committee Meeting; EPSRC 14th October The Scientific Advisory Committee • Put the case for continued RCUK support for IB and Bioenergy as part of the Energy Programme • Identified a couple of other potential members Knowledge Transfer Network Biosciences and Biotechnology Sector Group Meeting; KTN 16th October The IB and Food sector committees • Informally introduced the NIBBs to the food sector group who were unaware of FoodWasteNet etc • Influenced input to the waste to the bioeconomy roadmap 1st Annual BioProNET Scientific Symposium 23-24th October Industrial & Academic members of BioProNet Introduced activities to date in P2P (positives and negatives) to BioProNET meeting after BRIC. Focus on Frontiers in Industrial Biotechnology 17th November Industrial & Academic interested in IB Introduced P2P to a small gathering of European Researchers. Some useful discussion of involvement of European partners. IBBE Grantholders workshop; EFB 27-28th November Industrial, Government & Academic interested in IB The network was briefly introduced and examples were given to inform the IB community of the scientific space in which this network wishes to operate. Update on current activities was also presented In addition, P2P's twitter account has 135 followers, from a broad range of sectors. Twitter has primarily been used to share Network news on meetings and funding calls as well as sharing relevant news flow from RCUK and InnovateUK in addition to news from the biorefining, renewables, biochemical, bioenergy, industrial biotechnology, synthetic biology and engineering sectors. As such we have shared over 1,600 tweets to date. To better understand our social media impact via Twitter going forward we will be monitoring retweets, mentions and new followers each week. Our LinkedIn group has had less impact thus far. We currently have 37 members - most are P2P Network members, but not all. We will need to do more to make this an effective social media tool for our members. In October we launched our revamped website which seems to have gone down well with our members as we have had a number of comments regarding the ease of navigation. Finally, we have the "members only" P2P database. This is a secure web-based site which our members register to access. The database provides our registered members a range of useful tools, e.g. a searchable contacts database of all registered users, facilities/equipment available with Gantt charts for booking, a document repository as well as confidential areas for building projects or storing PoC and other reports. The database was one of the first available across all NIBB networks. Thus far we believe we have delivered reasonable, varied and targeted engagement with the relevant IB community, but we believe we can do a lot more and this will form a large part of our strategy and plans for next year. 1. Activities and highlights of 2015 1.1. Awarding second round PoC funds: Technoeconomic modelling project The SMB and co-opted assessor, Charles Gordon from Britest, met in March to assess the five applications received for this funding call. It was particularly challenging to decide which project to award funds to as they all had their merits, but in the end it was decided that a group led by Tony Bridgwater at Aston University should receive the funds as their proposal seemed to be particularly strong on engaging with the rest of the P2P community and developing the tools based on their requirements. Funds of £50, 781 have been awarded and the project began in July 2015. 1.2. Funding Workshop March 2015 Approximately thirty people attended this meeting in Birmingham on the 17th March 2015. The official focus for the workshop was the Network's third theme - "new applications within existing processes for current process outputs" - and the aim of the meeting was to provide our members with an opportunity to build those initial projects that build relationships between industry and academia, to coincide with our "first" Business Interaction Voucher (BIV) call. We had some great speakers who set the scene nicely: Graham Ruecroft from Celbius, Philippa Frunival from Croda, Dhivya Puri from Fiberight, Grant Campbell and Joe Gallagher. Between them the speakers laid out the importance of an integrated approach to providing solutions, particularly in an industrial setting, and giving some pointers as to what things are of interest and examples of skills and facilities available to the network. This was followed by a networking session where delegates started sharing what they were interested in working on and what they had to offer. This seemed to go well and we soon had groups of people in deep discussion, formulating a number of collaborative projects. Overall, there was a good buzz of creativity in the room and we received six BIV proposals as a result of this meeting - ie more than half of the applications in the first call. From these discussions, a number of projects were also developed that were subsequently submitted to the IB catalyst call. 1.3. Biobased surfactants meeting 6th July 2015 This was organised as a "satellite" workshop to the University of Bath Centre for Sustainable Chemical Technology Summer Showcase - to make the most of a captive audience and encourage attendees to participate in both events. The focus also fitted well with our second theme - New options on functionality targets. Although shorter than our previous funding workshop held in March, we took a similar approach and brought together experts from industry and academia, working/ interested in the field of bio- and biobased surfactants to again help build links and collaborations. We had four excellent presentations from Sarah Hosking (Unilever), Amanda Shufflebottom (Croda), Peter Williams (Glyndwr) and Pattanathu Rahman (Teesside) who all helped to set the scene nicely for some general discussion before people broke into smaller groups and networked over lunch. This meeting was approximately two weeks before the close of our second BIV call and there were potentially two applications submitted as a result of applicants/ partners attending this meeting. We also know of at least one interaction that has resulted in additional PhD studentships being discussed and set-up. 1.4. P2P Showcase meeting November This was our biggest event this year. Just over 75 attendees registered for this two day event in Manchester on the 10-11th November. We started by showcasing the first five Proof of Concept projects - more information about the outputs of these projects can be found in section 3. Our sessions around "engineering the process" were kicked off by Jo Kockelkoren from Reverdia, who shared Reverdia's experiences of developing their products and markets and how they have had to consider the whole value chain in order to deliver business success. We then got to hear about the work that IFR are undertaking to unlock the potential of the National Yeast Culture Collection from Ian Roberts. Next, Dana Heldt at CHAIN Biotech introduced their approach to developing Clostridia as a platform organism before Ian Tebble at Rebio extolled the virtues of Geobacillus. The next session was introduced by Richard van Kranenburg from Corbion who highlighted the challenges of introducing lignocellulosic based processes within existing infrastructure and how considering the process as a whole can allow you to save costs, reduce by-products and simplify the process. This philosophy was echoed by Gustavo Valente Perez at Zuvasyntha who highlighted the importance of engineering led process design in optimising processes. Finally, Gavin Thomas introduced the sorts of solutions that they and others at CBMNet are exploring in terms of delivering process organisms that address some of the challenges of getting things in and out of cells which in turn impacts the success of a fermentative process. Our speakers set the scene nicely for our discussion around process optimisation and Steve Martin at Zuvasyntha brought together some thoughts and challenges for us to get our teeth into which in turn prompted some interesting ideas and discussions - and importantly, got people talking to each other. The following day was all about providing companies and academics with the information and tools to help their activities - with one session focussed on IP management and the importance of this to investors - thanks to John and Sarah from Gill, Jennings and Every and Andrew Muir at Midven for running this session. The parallel session discussed opportunities for funding, collaboration building, finding expertise and building those project and business plans - thanks goes to Charlotte Bell, Michael Burnett, Marc Van de Craen, Derek Lincoln and Colin Bird for the information and expertise they shared. Attendees then had the opportunity to book one-to-one sessions with a range of different experts, to continue networking and to start working up project and collaboration ideas which seemed to be a great way of closing out the event. It is too early yet to say how much impact this meeting has had on members' collaborations etc but I am aware of a number of PoC applications that are being formulated by attendees of this meeting and we had a lot of very positive feedback on how useful people found this event. Introducing some key players in Europe seemed to go down particularly well and supports our move to support members' EU funding activities. 1.5. New facilities database within P2P database One of our objectives for this year was to set-up a series of databases or information packages, including a facilities database. There are a number of equipment and other databases as well as a report into the scale-up facilities available to groups in the UK, however feedback to Kirstin suggested that people often found these unsatisfactory - either they couldn't search effectively for facilities because they were not familiar with what pieces of equipment specifically they needed; or they needed expert help as well as the equipment and this information was often unavailable; or the details on how facilities could be accessed - eg conditions of "hire", information on costs, availability and contact details - where not always available. With this in mind, and in conjunction with other discussions and suggestions made to us, we decided in the first instance to set-up the P2P facilities database within the P2P members database using a series of broad headings such as "Biomass Production", "Biomass Processing and Extraction", "Chemical Transformation", "Biological Transformation" etc. to help people navigate to the facilities they need and the details about those facilities. This "prototype" database has now been set-up and "populated" by some key facilities, and corresponding expertise, available within the P2P network - Aberystwyth, BDC, IFR, Croda etc - with a view that more will be added. The database was launched at the P2P Showcase event in November 2015 as it was felt that this could be a useful tool for people as they look to build their projects and collaborations. 1.6. Opening Funding Calls 1.6.1. Proof of Concept Funds: Process Optimisation Our third Proof of Concept call was launched at the beginning of December and will close on the 5th February. Contact with members suggest that there is significant interest in this call. 1.6.2. Business Interaction Vouchers With no uptake in our open call, it was decided that we should have a rolling programme of BIV calls with set closing dates. Thus far we have not had specific focus calls for these BIV and have run two calls this year. The first closed on the 31st March 2015 and we had 11 applications in total, from which we selected 10 projects to award. The second call closed 30th July 2015 and this time we had five applications, from which we selected two. 1.6.3. Summer Studentship Bursary The decision to run this call came quite late so in order to give members sufficient time to capture students or write their bids we ran two back to back calls in May and June. We received seven applications in the first call and four in the second. We awarded three projects in the first and three in the second call. 1.7. Community Engagement Members of the executive committee have attended a number of events representing the P2P Network during 2015: Event Date Audience Outcomes Industrial Biotechnology and Synthetic Biology Accelerator workshop 21st Jan Leading experts in IB from Europe Networks were introduced IBLF IB Showcase 9-10th February Industrial, Government & Academic interested in IB • Introduced the P2P Network to a broader IB community • Met other NIBB network managers • Other stuff? Brazilian Workshop 21st July Brazilian academics working in the area of IB Introduced the P2P network and potential opportunities CSCT Summer Showcase 6-8th July Industrial & Academic interested in sustainable chemical-based technology • Welsh Government Innovation Team Visit 15th Oct Representatives from Welsh Government • Introduction to P2P and how to engage. Visit to Taiwan 2-5th Nov Academic and Business organisations • Introduction to the P2P network and potential opportunities In addition, followers to P2P's twitter account has risen this year from 135 to 307 followers, from a broad range of sectors. We continue to share Network news on meetings and funding calls as well as sharing other news which is likely to be relevant to our IB community. As such we have shared over 4,300 tweets to date. We are using MailChimp to circulate our monthly newsletter and this seems to be quite successful. Despite the increase in members over the year, we have managed to maintain a fairly consistent open rate of 28-30% (the average open rate for our category is 18%), and while we have a core set of members that consistently open the newsletter each month, there are others that are not part of this core set that seem to open newsletters which are more relevant to their needs/ interests. We can also monitor what links get followed and unsurprisingly most of these are for events and specific funding calls (as opposed to the more general IPA, LOLA, Innovation Voucher and SMART awards). Our click rate is a bit more varied than our open rate - ranging from 5-11% (category average 2.1%) - but this is probably down to the range of events and funding calls available each month. It seems that people use the newsletter effectively as a database resource for funding calls and events as we see multiple opens (sometimes 20+) from individuals and multiple clicks on links that are of particular interest. We therefore decided to use the newsletter rather than the members database as the repository for event and funding information - to deliver to the objective of providing such information to our members. 1. Activities and highlights of 2016 1.1. Awarding third round PoC funds: Process OPtimisation The SMB met in March to assess the six applications received for this funding call. There were five good applications covering a broad range of topics which were awarded funds totalling £206,785. Most of these project kicked-off by the end of May and are coming close to completion. 1.2. IB Skills Workshop May 2016 This was an Early Career Researcher training event, organised by Cogent Skills and IBLF and supported by nine of the NIBB, including Plants to Products. It was a skills workshop designed to introduce ECR to day to day life/ expectations in a range of research organisations - commercial and academic - as well as providing delegates with an opportunity to have one-to-one sessions with industry representatives and hone their grant writing skills. From the feedback we and the IBLF received it was a great success and valued by those who attended so we would be supportive of getting involved in similar future opportunities. 1.3. Joint IBTI-NIBB event June/July 2016 This was organised as a final dissemination event for the IBTI club (Integrated Biorefining Research and Technology Club) joined with a Network event - involving P2P, ADNet, FoodWasteNet and LBNet. The focus was the "waste value chain" with three sessions covering the value chain from different perspectives - the feedstock end, the product end and the policy/ regulation that influences the waste value chain. There was a good attendance and the feedback we got was that delegates found the event and the networking useful. There was a significant amount of interest in the BAM technoeconimic modelling tools that the Aston team develop in their P2P funded PoC project which was presented by Katie Chong. 1.4. P2P Showcase at EFIB 2016 This was our biggest event this year and our main European engagement drive this year. Although not as big a success as we had hoped there were some positives to take away and for those who attended the event it did seem genuinely useful. We think the impact of the event had perhaps been hampered by the Brexit vote - meaning other groups attending the EFIB event where focussed on dealing with new government departments and a unified "UK IB is open for business" voice was not present, unlike some of our European counterparts. Numbers were down on last year's event, though we did get some EFIB delegates also signing up to attend. Our main learning I think from trying this is that - a) our members are more likely to attend if there is not registration fee and overnight accommodation is included if it is necessary; b) having an event associated with another, bigger event, is probably a good idea, but it should not be held in parallel to part of the main event, rather it should be at a time either before or after; c) the organisations involved in supporting industrial biotechnology in the UK need to have a more united presence - this is slowly changing with the set-up of BioPilot UK Alliance, but this was a distinct effort, separate from the presence of IBLF and BBSRC (and the few NIBB that were there). We did have some very good presenters and really nice pieces of work being described by them. Lucy Nattrass from AkzoNobel was our keynote speaker, followed by David Randall, Tim Davies and Jonathan Hughes. We had a series of elevator pitch presentations and then we asked Katie Chong (talking about the BAM modelling tools), Adam Charlton (representing the BioPilot UK Alliance) and Davide Di Maio from NNFCC (talking about the BioBase4SME Project) just to give a quick overview on their tools and services. 1.5. Update on facilities database within P2P database Despite the ongoing requests for people to be able to access a facilities database that would allow them to identify scale-up facilities and expertise within the UK, the prototype we set-up in the P2P database has not been well utilised. However, with the launch of BioPilot UK Alliance, this database has an opportunity to have more of an impact here and this will be pursued next year. 1.6. Opening Funding Calls 1.6.1. Business Interaction Vouchers We opened two BIV calls this year - one which closed in May, where we made three awards - and one which closed in December for which we have had four applications. BIV awards are now made up to £10,000 and we tend to have a steady but small take-up, meaning pretty much each application in each round gets awarded. If we make all four awards from the round 4 BIV call in December, we will have a little over £57,000 BIV funding remaining to award - which I believe matches the trajectory of spend we intended, namely give out the majority of the funds in the first three years and keep a small amount for the last two. 1.6.2. Summer Studentship Bursary The 2015 summer studentship bursary scheme was popular so we decided to running again, but this time using BIV funds - so splitting 1 x £10,000 BIV into 5 x £2,000 awards. We ran the call a little earlier this year, closing it in April 2016. We received four applications, all of which were funded and covered a broad spectrum of projects. 1.7. Community Engagement Followers to P2P's twitter account has risen this year from 307 to 433 followers, still from a broad range of sectors. We continue to share Network news on meetings and funding calls as well as sharing other news which is likely to be relevant to our IB community. As such we have shared over 5,500 tweets to date. 1. Activities and highlights of 2017 1.1. Awarding fourth round PoC funds: Building the Value Chain II The SMB met in July 2017 to assess the eight applications received for this funding call. There were five good applications covering a broad range of topics which were awarded funds totalling £206,785, these successful applications are summarised in section 3.1. Most of these projects have now kicked-off and we will report the outcomes in next year's report. 1.2. Global challenges survey report This was completed by the end of February 2017. We decided to run a webinar to introduce and discuss the report involving report contributors and P2P members. We were very pleased with the outputs of this work, as even though we did not run the survey quite as we had originally anticipated, the information and contacts we made through completing the work give us much scope for future, more strategic, engagement and project/ programme development. We ran the webinar on the 26th April 2017, in anticipation that the BBSRC would soon launch an IB specific Global Challenges Research Fund call. Unfortunately this call has been delayed, as we understand, until April 2018. On the back of this we also explored working with other NIBB-based groups to build proposals to go into the GCRF Hub call back in September 2017. Unfortunately, the final proposal involving P2P, C1Net, LBNet and ADNet "leaders" moved away from an African to an Indian focussed programme, equally as useful and with the advantage of expanding our connections, should the hub proposal be successful, but not playing on the strength of what we had delivered in undertaking this report and some of our key contacts. Despite this disappointment we are still keen to build Global Challenge projects that deliver to at least some of the recommendations made in the report - particularly with sub-Saharan African countries and we will continue to work on this in 2018: 1. Continue to build collaborative R&D projects - Support research development and innovation through Horizon 2020, Newton fund, the global challenges research fund. 2. Bring networks together - Work with NEPAD and national STI governing bodies to develop international research clusters and public private partnerships to concentrate efforts and co-fund research and development on priority topics for industrial biotechnology and bioenergy. 3. Support education and training - Support introduction of biotechnology and bioenergy into secondary and tertiary education programmes including academic/vocational exchange programmes; Promotion of women in science is a common priority for both UK and African nations. 4. Support wider knowledge transfer - for example between farming extension workers, NGOs, institutes such as International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and government ministries, departments and agencies charged with biotechnology or science and technology development. 5. Develop new bilateral and regional funding instruments - Support capacity building, knowledge exchange and technology transfer across a greater proportion of the African continent; developing programmes with regional economic communities, NEPAD and other pan-African networks to support wider development and avoid bias toward only the more developed nations. 1.3. Joint IB Landscape report This was supported by ourselves, BIOCATNET, C1Net and CBMNet, who coordinated the effort. The IB landscape report project was put out to tender and the process was run by Sheffield University and CBMNet. Three applications were received and we agreed to award the project to a team at RSM - their proposal came in on budget and the proposal covered the broadest number of aspects in the landscape. We commissioned RSM in March 2017 and the total project cost £55,000, with P2P paying a contribution of £9,737.85. We were pleased with the outputs - which were presented at a meeting in Sheffield on the 31st October 2017 and we hope that it will play it's part in influence those strategy and policy drivers attending the meeting and the support that is delivered to industrial biotechnology here in the UK, though we will also be looking to more proactively use the report ourselves to influence strategy and policy. The full report can be found at: http://cbmnetnibb.group.shef.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/RSM-Industrial-Biotechnology-Landscape-Report-27102017-FINAL-1.pdf but the key take home messages were: 1. BEIS identifies a long-term plan for Industrial Biotechnology that provides clarity regarding future policy direction and government investment, particularly in light of the decision to leave the EU. 2. The core membership of the Industrial Biotechnology Leadership Forum be expanded to include at least one strong advocate from the academic community. 3. The IB Catalyst be reinstated as a priority, providing at least £20m spend on new research projects, with a call for applications initiated in Q2 2018. 4. Provision is also made for funding a small number of larger scale projects (c.£10 - £50m) via Catapult Centres, by joint government / industry initiatives, or directly by BEIS. 5. BEIS and UKRI explore the potential of modular manufacturing as a method of 'scaling out' industrial biotechnology processes and products on a regional basis. 6. UK Research and Innovation find ways that allow SMEs to be better financially supported to access existing UK scale-up facilities (e.g. at the Centre for Process Innovation). 7. The existing policy and regulatory frameworks are reviewed and simplified where appropriate, without compromising safety and security, and the UK communicates internationally that its approach to regulation and standards is focused on informed risk management. 8. Financial and advisory support be put in place to help businesses, especially start-ups and SMEs, to navigate efficiently regulatory requirements to facilitate innovation. 1.4. P2P Spent Grain Workshop and IB Catalyst Seed Funding With the hold on a number of funding opportunities due to the general election etc, the spent grain workshop and the GCRF webinar were our only events this year. In July BBSRC contacted the NIBB to offer them an opportunity to bid for IB Catalyst Seed funds. P2P bid for £200,000 to support a value chain project looking to build a consortium around Spent Grain as a feedstock, making the most of some of the work/ projects that we have already supported as a network. We were successful in our bid and at the end of August 2017 we were awarded £170,000. The Spent Grain Workshop was held on the 3rd of October 2017 at Imperial College and did exactly what we hoped to achieve - namely the bringing together of partners interested in spent grain and the formulation of a project or projects that would help to build the spent grain value chain, which we could support through the IB Catalyst Seed Funding award. It took a bit more time than we had hoped but a consortium of participants - Jeremy Bartosiak-Jentys (Croda), Agi Brandt-Talbot (Imperial), Grant Campbell (Huddersfield), Katie Chong (Aston), Joe Gallagher (Aberystwyth), Jason Hallett (Imperial), John Heap (Imperial), Roger Ibbett (Nottingham), David Leak (Bath), Ray Marriott (Suprex/ Bangor), Jose Luis Molto Marin (Exergy), Darren Philips/ Mark Gronnow (BDC), Mark Randle (The Austin Company), Simon Smith (Molson Coors) and Richard Stark/ Michael Marsden (AB Connect) - all came together and devised a short programme of work involving four interlinking workpackages around the extraction and investigation of spent grain components - lipids, protein and carbohydrate - with an underpinning technoeconomic model. This project is now underway. 1.5. Other Funding Calls 1.5.1. Business Interaction Vouchers We opened just one BIV call this year in July and closing on the 2nd August 2017, where we made three awards, summarised in section 3.2. We will have approximately £37,000 BIV funding remaining to award - which I believe broadly matches the trajectory of spend we intended, namely give out the majority of the funds in the first three years and keep a small amount for the last two. We will run just one more BIV call in the first couple of months of our final year. 1.5.2. Summer Studentship Bursary We ran the call a little earlier this year, closing it on the 16th March 2017. We received four applications, all of which were funded and covered a broad spectrum of projects. These projects are summarised in section 3.3. 1.6. Community Engagement Members of the executive committee have attended a number of events representing the P2P Network during 2015: Event Date Audience Outcomes GCRF Workshop - Kenya 25th Jan African academics working in the area of AD and IB Introduced the P2P network and potential opportunities; info fed back into GCRF report GCRF Workshop - South Africa 13th Feb African academics working in the area of AD and IB Introduced the P2P network and potential opportunities; info fed back into GCRF report IBLF IB Chemistry Showcase 20-21st Sept Industrial & Academic interested in sustainable chemical-based technology Introduced the P2P network and potential opportunities to a broader industry community; identified new partners interested in getting involved in the Spent Grain project. IB Landscape Report Meeting 31st Oct Industry and Academics either involved or interested in the outputs of the landscape report Represented the P2P network, made the most of an opportunity to engage with SuperGen leadership. In addition, followers to P2P's twitter account has risen this year to 540 followers, still from a broad range of sectors. We continue to share Network news on meetings and funding calls as well as sharing other news which is likely to be relevant to our IB community. As such we have shared over 6,000 tweets to date. Highlights for 2018: 2.1. Awarding final round PoC funds: We had a final PoC call which closed the 7th March 2018. There were four good applications but we only had sufficient funds for two small projects at a total cost of £39,752.44. These successful projects are summarised in section 4.1, along with all the other PoC projects we have funded over the years. We are expecting to spend £765,351.60 of our £765,867.20 by the end of the network. 2.2. Awarding final round BIV funds: We ran two BIV calls in our final year. The first, closing on the 28th February 2018, attracted four applications none of which, to our surprise, were suitable for funding. We therefore ran a second call closing 18th April 2018 which had six applications, four of which we agreed to fund. This came to a total of £36,981 and means that we expect to spend £197,576.73 of our £200,000 BIV allocation. All BIVs are summarised in section 4.2. 2.3. Outputs of Spent Grain Project This was completed by the 28th February 2018. A summary of the projects outputs are below: "A significant quantity of spent grain derived from brewing, distilleries and fuel ethanol production is produced in the UK making it a valuable feedstock for the production of a range of marketable products. Currently, the greatest value of spent grain is as an animal feed, but there is the opportunity to further improve the nutritional delivery from spent grain and/ or add further product streams alongside the production of animal feed. The aim of this project was to explore a number of avenues to do this and establish their economic feasibility and impact on other interlinked processes. With the limit on time and funds this first investigation will inform and form the basis a more substantial undertaking. Initial results from this project are promising, though further exploration will be necessary. The supercritical CO2 extraction of lipids gave a Brewers Spent Grain product that was much easier to handle and process. The various methods tested for surfactant production from the lipid extracts and arabinoxylan generated from the spent grain - lipase mediated, xylanase mediated and whole cell fermentations - all proved to be successful. The protein extraction using ionic liquids certainly requires a more lengthy study, but shows promise in separating and maintaining the nutritional content of the material, whilst allowing the cellulose and hemi-cellulose portions of the material to be accessed for other process steps. Oligo-arabinoxylan and xylitol production proved technically successful too and the technoeconomic model looks to be sufficiently well set-up to be useful in robustly exploring the economic viability of the extraction and further processing of Brewers Spent Grain and Wheat Distillery Grain." The Spent Grain project partners met in May 2018 to discuss the project outputs and decide where/ what to focus on next. The collaborators are currently working up plans to submit project bids to InnovateUK etc to explore the oligoarabinxylan extraction and processing further to provide products into three potential markets, thereby maximising the value delivered by this stream. The focus may be on oligoarabinoxylans, but the separation of the other streams, particularly the lipids, will form part of these project bids as these additional separation steps have been shown to benefit the oligoarabinoxylan production and gives rise to other products (eg lipids) which can be co-utilised in some of the market opportunities. In addition, the surfactant work has already been expanded upon in a BIV project. 2.4. Final P2P Showcase Event The final P2P event was held in Birmingham on the 7th-8th November 2018 and the Birmingham Science Museum. Just under 60 people registered to attend the event and the aim was to showcase the cross section of P2P supported projects that have been funded over the course of the network, across the main network themes and to highlight where these projects are heading/ why the funding was of value to the applicants. We also wanted to use the showcase to highlight the potential opportunities in plastics - both in terms of using plastic as a feedstock itself and also for more sustainable production from sustainable sources and how these can approaches could/ should be combined. The feedback from those attending was very positive - they found it to be an excellent event at a great venue so we believe we finished on a high note. It was also a great way to showcase some key "case studies" in how the P2P funds have really helped move projects and concepts forward, especially as BBSRC was represented in the audience. We ran four sessions over two days. The first three sessions were focussed on the three main themes of the network: • New applications within existing processes for current process outputs (feedstocks) • Process optimisation for exemplar processes/ systems • New options on functionality targets In each of these sessions we had a keynote speaker who spoke more generally about the theme, picking up on particular points and topics of interest relevant to the theme before three P2P funded presenters talked about their work and how the P2P funding has helped them move their work or business on. More detail on these case studies can be found in section 1.3. The final session was focussed on plastics as a topic for discussion and we were fortunate to have Prof. John McGeehan (IBBS, University of Portsmouth) set the scene with the challenges and opportunities around dealing with plastics and its recovery/ production. We had a panel led discussion - the panel being Prof. McGeehan, Dan Noakes (CPI), Prof. Richard van Kranenburg (Corbion), Prof. Andrew Dove (Birmingham) - which was wide ranging and provided much food for thought. Overview of whole project: In December 2013, Prof. David Leak at the University of Bath and Dr Joe Gallagher at Aberystwyth University were awarded funds to run the Plants to Products (P2P) NIBB network. P2P initiated on the 9th February 2014 and over the last five years has coordinated a number of funding calls, events and engagement activities in order to support the community of scientists and engineers working in the industrial biotechnology and biorefining sector. We have grown the network from a core group of 61 to over 280 members representing a significant cross section of universities, organisations and companies working in this field, many of which are key individuals that bring with them additional communities and connections. Over the course of the network we have funded 56 projects, from small summer studentship bursaries, through to Proof of Concept and a more significant multi-collaborator IB Catalyst Seed Funding project. To facilitate this we have organised 10 different meetings and workshops to help bring our members together and find suitable partners with shared interests. We have worked with others to coordinate additional cross NIBB events and activities - from joint events with IBTI, LBNet and FoodWasteNet, to supporting the Cogent/ IBLF organised IB skills workshops in 2016 and 2018. We have also got involved in policy engagement and driving activities, both on an individual level, through members of the executive and management board, and as a network as a whole. We were particularly pleased to have been able to help scope the IB specific Global Challenges Research Fund call run by BBSRC in 2018, through our commissioned report "Building UK-Africa Partnerships in Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy"; and to be part of the group of NIBB responsible for the IB landscape report, now influencing IB and Bioeconomy strategy. We were pleased that the IB Catalyst Seed Funding project on Spent Grain completed in February 2018 and that the collaborators are now actively pursuing the work further, both in smaller, more specific projects, and also in a larger collaborative effort. This project was a major integrated effort on the part of the collaborators, which required significant co-ordination, given the restricted time available, and gives us real hope that something of real value could be delivered from these initial investigations. We rounded off the year, and the project, with a great final showcase meeting at the Birmingham Think Tank science museum on the 7th-8th November 2018. It was great to hear about the progress that has been made - in both relatively recently funded P2P projects and ones funded some years ago - and to hear about the subsequent progress the older projects have achieved since they completed and the impact that they have had for some of the industry partners. It also gave us an opportunity to discuss and reflect upon the challenges going forward, specifically in and around plastics and their sustainable production. As P2P comes to an end we reflect on what we have done over the last few years and what we have achieved. We believe that we have delivered on what we set out to do, though not always as we had originally anticipated, as the policy, market drivers and funding in the IB sector has changed in light of the changes in the political landscape, and we have necessarily had to respond. While P2P completes on the 9th February 2019, we do look forward to NIBB phase 2 and our continued involvement through BBNet, which brings together the Phase 1 networks FoodWasteNet, LBNet and P2P. We hope that BBNet will continue to: • Listen and respond to network member needs. • Have a strong industry lead in activities and funding - P2P has found that insisting on industry partners on all funded projects really encourages work that adds value to industry. • Work hard to ensure the "right" people are at events - so researching and inviting experts to events who have relevant expertise to the event focus - even if that expertise is currently applied to a different sector. This will also help to grow the network. • Engage regularly with other networking groups such as the KTN so all networking and policy driving effort is maximised and not duplicated, unless there is real value in the duplication. • Support individual members on a one-to-one basis in their needs to identify and link up with collaborators and other sources of advice. This can be time consuming, but often leads to unexpected fruitful outcomes that industry members particularly value. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2018 |
| Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Chemicals,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology |
| Impact Types | Economic |
| Description | Influencing Industry Strategy around the Bioeconomy |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| Description | RCUK Energy Programme Scientific Advisory Committee Meeting; EPSRC |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Description | With CBMNet, C1Net and BIOCATNET commissioned a report on the UK IB landscape: Developing a Strategy for Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy in the UK |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Description | Equipment -bioreactors |
| Amount | £389,401 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/R000700/1 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 08/2017 |
| End | 07/2018 |
| Description | European regional development fund |
| Amount | € 2,884,534 (EUR) |
| Organisation | Welsh Assembly |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2018 |
| End | 03/2023 |
| Description | IB Catalyst Seed Funding |
| Amount | £170,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/SCA/P2P/17 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2017 |
| End | 02/2018 |
| Description | Joint FAPESP-BBSRC Call for Collaborative Proposals in Integrated Biorefinery Approaches for the Manufacture of Advanced Biofuels |
| Amount | £1,826,166 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB/P017460/1 |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2017 |
| End | 12/2020 |
| Description | Separation and purification of organic condensate output streams from superheated steam torrefaction of forestry and agricultural residues |
| Amount | £19,902 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | BB1150A-BIV-T |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2018 |
| End | 09/2018 |
| Description | THE BBSRC GCRF WORKSHOP GRANT |
| Amount | £20,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 08/2016 |
| End | 02/2017 |
| Title | BAM Technoeconomic modelling tools |
| Description | As part of our Proof of Concept funding scheme we awarded some funds to a group led by Tony Bridgwater at Aston University to develop some technoeconomic modelling tools that could be used/ were accessible to other Plants to Products members. The objective was to provide a web-based, user driven, flexible and robust biorefinery modelling system for the NIBB network. The system will support non-expert users to assess future R&D, facilitate process design and compare the viability of multiple bio |
| Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The Aston team have had a lot of interest, particularly industry - mainly SMEs - who would like to further develop the tools to cover their feedstock of interest/ process |
| Description | Azerbaijan Ambassador visit |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Presentation on biorefining research and potential opportunities for international collaboration. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Beer and cider special interest group |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Presentation on capability and research projects |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Ben Lake MP visit |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Presentation on our biorefining research |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | EIT-Health InnoStars Innovation Co-ordinator |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation on research and Discussions on possible integration between biorefining and health |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | First Friday Research Highlights: webinar organised by the KTN's Sustainable Aviation Fuel Special Interest Group (SAF SIG) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | webinar presentation generated some interesting discussion and a follow-up request for assistance from a company called Sampson Ltd. This led to us connecting them with Matt Davidson at the CSCT who was able to provide them with research expertise and the company were accepted in the Sustainable Technologies Business Acceleration Hub |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Regional Stakeholder Partnership for Land-based Goods |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Presentation of production of platform chemicals/fuels/fine chemicals and potential health care products as well as integrated biorefining from a range of land-based feedstock. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Taiwan Ambassador visit |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Presentation on current research activities and opportunity to collaboration and/or student exchanges |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Welsh Gov. innovation team |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Presentation and discussion with Welsh Government Innovation Team, current projects, research strategy and future directions in the area of Industrial Biotechnology. This included our strategy for interacting with the business community, both in Wales and beyond. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Workshop in Brazil (Unicamp) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Use the opportunity to present the philosophy of NiBBs, with a focus on P2P to Brazilian delegates at a workshop hosted by Unicamp (Campinas) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |