Foresight : first progress report, 1996.

  • Great Britain. Office of Science and Technology.
Date:
1996
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: Foresight : first progress report, 1996. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    20/76 (page 12)
    Action in the Research Councils Dube The Director General of Research Councils published an initial assessment at the end of June 1995 and since then Research Councils have been refining their “mapping” work and determining future plans. 32. The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), through its three user-led Directorates, has carried out its own extensive consultation exercise with its user and science base. As aresult, BBSRC has identified 14 strategic research programme areas to take forward many of the recommendations of the Steering Group and the four most relevant Panels. These programmes were launched in Summer 1995 with £15m grants awarded in 1995/96. BBSRC has continued to provide support for the highest quality fundamental research and is also addressing infrastructural issues such as the provision of new equipment and facilities, for which BBSRC has awarded £2m over the past year, with matching funds from industry. Other specific activities include: the launch of a new Bioinformatics Research Initiative in which BBSRC will invest £10m over the next four years; the development of two new LINK programmes in Applied Biocatalysis and Analytical Biotechnology; and the launch of a new Technology Foresight Fellowship Scheme to support post-doctoral scientists working on Foresight-related areas. The Council: has now formed an independent panel, the membership of which comprises representatives of the Chemicals, ANRE, Food and Drink and the Health and Life Sciences Panels, and the Steering Group, to consider BBSRC’s response to date to Foresight and to recommend further actions for BBSRC to pursue. a3 The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) has carried out a unique national consultation exercise, involving both researchers and research users, to supplement and incorporate the results of Foresight. Nine new thematic priorities have been identified to which more than two thirds of its research and training budget will be devoted. New research centres in innovation, representing £5.6m invested over five years, have been commissioned and will begin operation in 1996. Other important initiatives include a new Resource Centre on Business Processes and major new research programmes on “Cities, Competitiveness and Social Cohesion” and “Socio-Economic Variations in Health”.