Bioscience for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Strategy Advisory Panel (SAF SAP)
Bioscience for sustainable agriculture and food is one of three challenge-led strategic priorities outlined in BBSRC’s ‘Forward look for UK bioscience’ and BBSRC’s strategic delivery plan 2022 to 2025.
The panel advises on how the UK’s strengths in bioscience can have an impact on global food and nutrition security, and drive 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 (including interdisciplinary, multi-scale (lab-field-farm-landscape) and systems modelling approaches)
- building resilience into our agri-food systems, including:
- food safety and reducing food waste and loss
- novel strategies to predict, detect and manage threats to plant and animal health including aquaculture
- linking agriculture, food and nutrition to health benefits
- transformative technologies for agriculture and food, including:
- precision agriculture and smart technologies
- genomics and genetic diversity needed to develop the next generation of improved crops and farmed animals
- transition to net zero in agri-food systems and reducing environmental impacts, including:
- biodiversity
- ecosystem and soil health
- soil carbon dynamics
See details on SAF SAP and most recent membership.
Bioscience for an Integrated Understanding of Health Strategy Advisory Panel (BIUH SAP)
Bioscience for an integrated understanding of health is one of three challenge-led strategic priorities as part of BBSRC’s ‘Forward look for UK bioscience’.
The panel focuses on improving animal and human health and wellbeing across the life course. This centres on 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 ‘Bioscience for an integrated understanding of health 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 life span
- combating 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 BIUH SAP and most recent membership.
People and Talent Strategy Advisory Panel (PAT SAP)
PAT SAP 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 PAT SAP and most recent membership.
Transformative Technologies Strategy Advisory Panel (TT SAP)
TT SAP focuses on the tools, technologies and approaches that enable researchers to push the boundaries of bioscience discovery and increase the impact of their research.
You can find more information on transformative technologies in BBSRC’s strategic delivery plan 2022 to 2025. It also contributes to the ‘Advancing the frontiers of bioscience discovery’ theme within ‘Forward look for UK bioscience’.
The panel will provide advice to BBSRC on a broad range of topics, including:
- disruptive experimental methods and technologies to advance bioscience research and innovation
- research employing quantitative approaches to harness large-scale data in the biosciences
- development, dissemination and stewardship of computational methods, software, data resources and cyber infrastructure
- emerging interdisciplinary fields within the biosciences
See details on TT SAP and most recent membership.