It is during these winter months that colds and flu cases are at their peak – I’m sure we all notice the coughs and sneezes as we go about our daily lives. While there is no cure for the common cold and over-the-counter medications can help alleviate some of the symptoms, controlling the cough reflex is one of toughest problems to solve. Noscapine is a known cough suppressant but due to its limited availability had not found widespread utility. A BBSRC-funded collaboration, between the University of York and GlaxoSmithKline, which builds on earlier fundamental research led by Professor Ian Graham, has helped to change this. Their research has led to the breeding of a new poppy variety (PDF) that produces much higher levels of noscapine, so much so that it is now responsible for 80% of the world’s noscapine supply. Because of the higher quantity of noscapine produced by this new poppy, extraction is much simpler and cheaper, opening up the possibility of noscapine being used more widely in cough medicines – and this could bring welcome relief to many of us. Interestingly, noscapine is also undergoing phase II clinical trials as a low toxicity anti-cancer agent.

Influenza or flu can be a much more serious illness, especially for vulnerable patients. Older people are at a particular disadvantage because their immune systems respond less well to vaccines. As part of their commitment to healthy ageing research, Dr Michelle Linterman‘s group at the Babraham Institute is investigating the mechanisms behind immune system decline in older people. They are also using Cambridge Bioresource, a unique panel of 17,000 volunteers willing to take part in research and who have donated DNA, to design better vaccine studies trials that test for efficacy in older people. A detailed explanation of the problem and how Dr Linterman’s group aims to tackle it can be found on the Babaraham website.

In my first blog of the year I mentioned New Year’s resolutions. This year I was challenged by my eldest daughter to complete Veganuary. There has been a lot of coverage recently about the rising number of people choosing to eat vegan foods, although robust data is hard to source, so I decided to accept the challenge and put to the test how easy it would be to follow a vegan diet for a month. I was occasionally tested to find a suitable option when travelling and surprised to find small amounts of milk powder incorporated into foods which one might otherwise have thought would be vegan, but overall it was pretty straightforward. Throughout the month I tried lots of new recipes, found some firm new favourites, slept better, found that I prefer tea without milk and shed a couple of kilos too.  A recent commission published by the The Lancet recommends that a healthy diet from sustainable food systems should contain a diverse range of plant-based food and low amounts of animal-derived products. Veganuary has demonstrated to me that it is easier than ever to eat a wide variety of plant-derived foods and as I transition to eating a broader range of foods again I will do so mindful of this report.

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Shortly before the Christmas break a request came through at short notice inviting me to meet with the Minister for Science and senior colleagues from the Ugandan government. The first surprise was that diaries worked. I was not sure what to expect as while we support some projects with links to Uganda, especially in the areas of animal and plant disease, they have not traditionally been a partner. And here was the second surprise – the 5-strong delegation were keen to learn more about UKRI, more about BBSRC and particularly our interests in the bioeconomy, which, with a different focus, they see as a major opportunity for development in Uganda. They were also very interested to understand how we fund research and innovation, as they are in the early stages of establishing their new Ministry. I very much enjoyed the discussions and at the end of the meeting had a huge sense of fulfilment; if I had in any way helped shape their thinking it was a meeting well worth the time and a satisfying, if surprising, way to round off a busy year.

At the beginning of the year, many of us become more aware of what we eat: whether we are looking back with a mixture of pleasure and guilt on December’s excesses, or trying a different way of eating in the New Year – more on the latter in a future blog

2019 began in earnest at the Oxford Farming Conference, with much lively discussion on the future of food production in the UK. This year’s theme was “A World of Opportunity”, with many sessions highlighting the role of research and innovation, credit for which goes to the leadership and enthusiasm of the OFC Chair – Tom Allen-Stevens.

Sir Mark Walport delivered an excellent Science Lecture, providing an overview of how science has, historically, transformed farming and how it is set to change the landscape once again. His speech highlighted several programmes led by UKRI, including many excellent examples of BBSRC research, the Transforming Food Production challenge and the Centres for Agricultural Innovation.

Following the Science Lecture, I had the pleasure of showing Mark and HRH The Princess Royal around BBSRC’s Innovation Hub, which showcased projects from BBSRC and the Global Food Security programme, including the potential role of farm waste in a circular economy. Having brushed up on their royal etiquette, the researchers at the Hub had some excellent discussions with Her Royal Highness and did a brilliant job of showcasing the importance of agricultural research. It was also a real pleasure to meet Julie Borlaug, grand-daughter of Norman Borlaug, the pioneer of the Green revolution, and to hear more about Julie’s work supporting the 4^th revolution in agriculture.

An observation in the Science Lecture that struck a chord with many in the audience was that farmers are natural innovators, constantly trying new approaches on farm. These comments were echoed in Friday’s “A World of Innovation” session, where practitioners and researchers (including the John Innes Centre’s Cristobal Uauy and Queen’s University Belfast’s Brendan Gilmore) discussed technological advances in farming and the political, practical and social barriers to their uptake on farms. I was interested to read Daniel Kindred of ADAS’ commentary on the conference, which identified some of the limitations of the more traditional models for disseminating the outcomes of agricultural research and its translation into practice. Many initiatives, example. AHDB Monitor farms and Innovative Farmers, seek to promote on-farm trials, peer-to-peer learning and interactions between researchers and farmers. BBSRC’s strategically-funded institutes have a long history of working directly with producers, a recent example being Rothamsted’s FarmINN programme. Given the plethora of initiatives, but also the fragmented nature of the sector, I think there is a real opportunity to connect and coordinate programmes of this type to maximise the chances for interaction between researchers and practioners, the co-design of research and to facilitate the sharing of best practice. I really hope we see progress made towards this in the year ahead.

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BBSRC has been building relationships with our Indian counterparts, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) in particular, for the past two decades. BBSRC first signed an MoU with DBT in 1996 and then in 2006 we launched our India Partnering Award scheme, enabling BBSRC-supported researchers to forge long-term relationships with Indian counterparts (this year’s competition is open until 15 Nov 2018). With DBT we have funded joint research in bioenergy, livestock disease and crop production and with the availability of additional resources, via GCRF and the Newton Fund, have explored novel ways of partnering through sandpits (in aquaculture), joint centres (nitrogen in agriculture) and with other UKRI partners in reducing waste and enhancing use of agricultural data.

There is clear evidence of impact emerging from these partnerships. A project funded as part of the joint BBSRC-DBT ‘Farmed Animal Disease and Health’ programme has developed a smart ‘DIVA’ vaccine effective against ‘goat plague’ (caused by the Peste des petits ruminants virus) – a disease which kills 90% of animals, with devastating consequences on farmer’s livelihoods and food supply. This vaccine is the first to allow vaccinated animals to be distinguished from infected animals, allowing livestock farmers to keep trading while protecting their animals from the disease – more detail is available from The Pirbright Institute.

I was delighted that all UKRI partners had the opportunity participate in a number of bi and multi-lateral meetings with Indian funders. In the case of BBSRC, I was very struck by our partner DBT’s enthusiasm, flexible approach and our strategic alignment around many of the global challenges that are important to both countries.

It was a real pleasure to reconnect with Prof Vijay Raghaven, now Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, having previously met as members of the Board of Trustees of the Human Frontiers Science Programme Organisation. Vijay had previously been Secretary of DBT, so BBSRC has worked with him for a number of years. He spent a significant amount of time in a multilateral meeting with all UKRI colleagues, demonstrating the value India places on partnership with the UK, and actively discussed a range of areas of future collaboration.

As part of the trip we visited the National Institute of Plant Genome Research, where we enjoyed a tour of the facilities, lunch with key researchers and I then participated in a ‘Women in Leadership’ event. It was very interesting to learn more about the experiences of women in STEM in India and the challenges they face. The discussion panel concluded that support, sponsorship, flexibility and resilience are common enabling factors. Dr Renu Swarup, Secretary of DBT (and an alumni of the John Innes Centre), outlined the measures they have taken, as funders, to help support women in research and I was very impressed by the tenacity of the female researchers I met during my visit.

The concept of ‘frugal innovation’ was mentioned several times during the visit to India, which made me wonder whether we have examples of BBSRC researchers pursuing such approaches. The ideal opportunity to showcase this would be BBSRC’s Innovator of the Year competition – which is now open for recommendations and applications. The categories are International Impact, Social Impact, Commercial Impact and Early Career Impact – more details on how to apply or recommend a colleague are available on the BBSRC website. We had a really strong and very diverse field of applications last year and I am hoping for a repeat in 2019!

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Biology Week offers a fantastic opportunity to recognise the breadth of biology and its impacts, and the reception in Parliament was a great way to ensure that our Politicians have an understanding and awareness of this too.

This year the Royal Society of Biology teamed up with the Royal Horticultural Society to ask the nation to vote for their favourite flower. This led me to reflect on how the study of flowers and flowering has contributed to our understanding of some of the most fundamental of biological processes. Often cited as the first description of RNA interference were studies led by Richard Jorgensen at The University of Arizona. He and his team wanted to create deep purple forms of Petunia hybrida and the approach they took was to express extra copies of Chalcone Synthase, the gene controlling pigment expression in these Petunia. However, their results were quite unexpected – instead of generating deep purple flowers many were pure white, while others were a mixture of white and purple! Molecular analyses showed that in white flowers both the introduced transgene, as well as the endogenous gene, were switched off ¹. It was not until a number of years later that the underpinning mechanism was dissected – with UK researcher David Baulcombe making a series of key discoveries. We now understand that the introduced Chalcone Synthase gene had generated RNAs that interfered with protein translation, in turn meaning no pigment was produced – somewhat turning the central dogma of ‘DNA makes RNA makes protein’ that I learnt as an undergraduate on its head.

Of course flowers are important for many reasons including attracting and supporting the pollinators that play such a vital role in world-wide food production. I have found the interdisciplinary research that Beverly Glover and her team carry out into the traits of flowers that are important for attracting pollinators a fascinating example of frontier bioscience with real world importance. So too are the studies carried out by Caroline Dean’s team at JIC. Their research has focussed on understanding the Flowering Locus C in Arabidopsis and revealed new insights into the mechanisms that underpin the need for plants to be exposed to cold temperatures before they are able to flower (interfering RNAs are a key component in this regulation too). This understanding has been translated into sprouting broccoli, where removing the requirement for a period of cold opens the way for year-round cropping. Meanwhile, I can take a good guess at what the favourite flower of Philip Gilmartin’s team would be, given their work on understanding the mechanisms regulating floral heteromorphy in Primula vulgaris, the common primrose.

Such examples showcase the richness and wonder of flower biology!

¹ Napoli C, Lemieux C, Jorgensen R (1990) Introduction of a chimeric chalcone synthase gene into petunia results in reversible co-suppression of homologous genes in trans. Plant Cell 2: 279–289.

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Development of the Forward Look for UK Bioscience has been led by BBSRC, in consultation with a wide range of key stakeholders and partners, including BBSRC’s legacy and new Councils and advisory panels. I am personally very grateful to all of those who have contributed and excited that we have a new framing upon which BBSRC, within UK Research and Innovation, will build its strategic delivery plan. The latter, under development now, will set out in more detail the actions we will take to support and deliver elements of the Forward Look and contribute to UK Research and Innovation’s strategic prospectus.

So, what is different? First, there is a real focus on advancing the frontiers of bioscience discovery, underpinned by two themes; understanding the rules of life and transformative technologies. I had heard there was a perception in the wider bioscience community that BBSRC no longer supported what we might term ‘discovery’ or ‘curiosity-driven’ research. This has never been the case, in fact, quite the opposite, supporting research addressing fundamental questions in biology is part of BBSRC’s ‘DNA’. It is vital for the vibrancy of bioscience as a discipline, is often where the ground-breaking interdisciplinary research evolves, and provides much of the understanding and ideas that underpin research which has a more strategic focus.

The challenges facing society, where bioscience has a key role to play in delivering new solutions, are long-term and so continue to feature in the Forward Look, yet they are ‘refreshed’. Bioscience will play a vital role in advances to support sustainable agriculture and food, as it will in moving towards a more integrated understanding of health. And there is so much potential for bioscience to contribute to the development of renewable resources, linked to clean growth and the bioeconomy more broadly.

Of course, whether addressing a fundamental biological question, such as how organ size is regulated, or tackling a particular aspect of a societal challenge, such as combatting antimicrobial resistance, strong foundations are required. The Forward Look sets out key priorities for supporting the broad range of people and talent and infrastructures needed to create and sustain a vibrant ecosystem, along with approaches to foster collaboration, partnerships and knowledge exchange. As always, we welcome feedback from the community, so please, share your thoughts.

Often when we look forward, we have much to learn from the past. In relation to this, I spent an interesting and thought-provoking Friday evening recently celebrating the opening of the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath (where I am a visiting Professor). The Centre seeks to answer fundamental questions about evolution, as well as being a hub for evolution education and public communication. Understanding evolution is arguably key to ‘understanding the rules of life’ and I could see many opportunities for this type of knowledge to inform breeding strategies for agriculturally important crops and animals. Alice Roberts brought this to life very eloquently in her Public Lecture, which followed the opening of the Milner Centre. From case studies on the domestication of dogs, cattle and horses, it is clear that the convergence of palaeontology, archaeology and genomics is delivering new understanding of how past human : natural world interactions have shaped our world today and the potential this understanding has to help with future challenges. Alice will be delivering the Royal Institution Christmas lectures this year (supported in part by BBSRC), so I think we will all be in for a real treat!

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This week sees UKRI announce the appointment of their External Advisory Group for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI).It consists of 12 members spanning academia, the public and private sectors and demonstrates UKRI’s commitment to the EDI agenda. Professor Jennifer Rubin, ESRC Executive Chair and UKRI Executive Champion for EDI will chair the group, which will inform the creation of a long-term EDI strategy for UKRI that is ambitious, whilst being feasible and evidence-based. It will help UKRI to embed equality, diversity and inclusion at all levels and in everything that we do.

In relation to this EDI had a huge boost last week when Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell announced that she was donating her Breakthrough prizemonies (of £2.3M) to support diversity in physics, specifically to enable more women, underrepresented minorities and refugees to become physics researchers. This was reported widely in scientific and broader news channels (for example, The Guardian, BBCandThe Globe and Mail) around the globe. Professor Bell Burnell was awarded the Breakthough prize ‘for fundamental contributions to the discovery of pulsars, and a lifetime of inspiring leadership in the scientific community’. I was fortunate enough to work with Jocelyn when she was Dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of Bath and personally benefitted from her leadership, support and encouragement when I myself was seeking to progress. I have huge admiration for Jocelyn, warmly congratulate her on this prize and on her choice to so visibly support diversity and inclusion in physics – a great role model.

Staying with the theme of Space – in its broadest sense – one of the more unusual projects in BBSRC’s portfolio has caught the imagination of the media this month. The Molecular Muscle Experiment,a collaboration between scientists at the Universities of Exeter, Nottingham and Lancaster, is due to reach a new milestone later this year with the launch of thousands of C. elegans worms into space. The research will see the worms living and reproducing on the International Space Station, in an effort to understand the molecular changes that occur during muscle wastage. The similarity between worms’ muscles and our own makes them a common model species for neuromuscular research and the loss of muscle during spaceflight is a major barrier for long-term missions, but is also a problem for those on earth afflicted with muscular dystrophies, diabetes, injuries and age-related declines in strength. This project is supported by The European Space Agency, UK Space Agency, BBSRC, MRC, and Arthritis Research UK and is a great example of national and international collaboration.

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In the context of our unusually warm and dry summer, is very timely then that the first calls for the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund ‘Transforming Food Production’ challenge have been launched this month – see details of the initial Collaborative Research and Development call at GOV.UK: Productive and sustainable crop and ruminant agricultural systems

Through this first call, UK Research and Innovation are seeking industry-led collaborative proposals that aim to boost productivity and sustainability of crop and ruminant production systems, drawing on a range of disciplines – bioscience, environmental science, engineering, digital technologies – and encouraging multidisciplinary approaches. A particular area of interest is exploiting the power of data and digital technologies to enhance the precision of decision making on-farm – and across supply chains – with the aim to increase resilience, resource-use efficiency and productivity. The call is also seeking proposals for the development of novel production systems – and here there is a real opportunity to reimagine how food might be produced, in urban environments, above or underground, in closed systems and beyond. I’m particularly looking forward to seeing these proposals.

Related to the resilience and productivity in our food supply chains, recent outputs from research that BBSRC has supported at Rothamsted Research, North Wyke and the John Innes Centre have made important contributions to our knowledge in this area. Researchers at North Wyke have utilised individual field-level data, captured from their instrumented farm platform, to demonstrate a key link between soil health, soil carbon levels and the productivity of grazing cattle. The results suggest that changing patterns of rotational grazing could be a simple way to boost livestock production. At JIC, recent research has demonstrated that mutation of a gene that controls meristem to inflorescence transition in wheat results in formation of double spikelets in the ear of the wheat – essentially increasing yield. This genetic mechanism is also believed to be relevant in other crops too – including maize and barley – see paper: Plant cell: TEOSINTE BRANCHED1 Regulates Inflorescence Architecture and Development in Bread Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.).

These examples demonstrate that advances in our knowledge of crop and livestock systems have real potential to contribute to enhancing the resilience, productivity and sustainability of UK food supplies – and the ISCF Transforming Food Production challenge programme will be seeking to accelerate the translation of such knowledge into real-world impact.

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On this note, UK Research and Innovation funded experts recently provided a briefing on bioplastics to the nation’s major media outlets, which led to a number of thought-provoking articles**. Our thanks go to Professor Simon McQueen Mason from University of York, Paul Mines CEO of Biome Bioplastics, Professor Tim Bugg of The University of Warwick and Professor Janet Scott of University of Bath, who had a lively conversation with journalists. Watch out in the news for more on how bioscience is providing answers to some of the big questions we have.

At ESOF the Interactive UK Research and Innovation stand played host to speakers and visitors alike with some fantastic, hands-on demonstrations of UK science and innovation that crosses both borders and even beyond. Visitors were able to interact with a working model of the ExoMars Rover and learn about its progression to an agricultural robot ‘sister’ that is currently being tested in northern England – checking nitrogen levels in soil. Its latest iteration is currently being tested in Cambodia where it is assisting in clearing minefields. Proof, if ever needed, that excellent frontier research can have many and varied applications. A public competition to name the rover has just been launched with the plea “Don’t call me Spacey McSpace Face”.

Friends from STFC’s Hartree facility demonstrated parallel computing using a super computer built from the low cost, easily accessible, UK-designed Raspberry Pi. A team of early career UK researchers, funded by EPSRC, brought along a version of a Sonopill which will revolutionise how we do endoscopy.  We also provided visitors from all backgrounds, scientific and policy alike, with an introduction to Epigenetics designed by Babraham Institute.  Here visitors used ribbons and bobbins to replicate DNA and histones – learning a little about bioinformatics and the chIP- seq process along the way. Many were astounded that the 2m ribbons are the actual length of the DNA that sits inside of each of our almost 50,000 trillion cells.

Interestingly one of the cross cutting themes of the week in Toulouse was equality, diversity and inclusiveness, a topic that we are greatly interested in at BBSRC and across the wider UK Research and Innovation family. Professor Michael Wakelam joined European peers within the LIBRA group to deliver a fascinating talk on how a group of European institutes, including his own, Babraham Institute, are working together to make the case for cultural change in Life Sciences, with some fantastic results.

* Full list of UK speakers at ESOF can be found here: UK Research and Innovation: UK speakers at ESOF (PDF)

** Bioplastics in the news:

The Telegraph: Biodegradable plastic made from ‘tree glue’ could be on shelves within five years

The Guardian: Researchers race to make bioplastics from straw and food waste

Mail Online: Environmentally friendly plastic made from straw could soon be used in disposable bottles and packaging

GM camelina:

BBC News: Omega-3 oils in farmed salmon ‘halve in five years’

Follow on Twitter: 

Melanie Welham (@MelanieWelham)

Tim Benton (@timgbenton)

Paul Mines (@PaulMines1)

Hartree (@HartreeCentre)

EPSRC (@EPSRC)

Sonopill (@SonopillUK)

Michael Wakelam (@Wakelamm)

Anne Glover (@AnneGlover_EU)

Johnathan Napier (@johnathannapie1)

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The full report and recommendations from the survey and associated research can be found on our website (see: Corporate Stakeholder Research report 2018), alongside BBSRC’s response. I would like to take this opportunity to reflect on some of the key messages and to look forward to how we can continue to improve relationships across our diverse stakeholder network.

The results show that 90% of respondents know about BBSRC and what we do, with academics and non-government organisations being the most knowledgeable about our work. I am delighted that stakeholders acknowledge the vital role BBSRC plays in funding research and collaboration, and that nearly two-thirds (64%) would speak highly of our organisation to others. It is also reassuring to hear that BBSRC is strongly associated with research funding, knowledge exchange and innovation.

The majority of our respondents say we do a good job of keeping them well-informed, using a range of channels. Whilst 74% think BBSRC communicates well and 71% think the frequency of communications is about right, there is always more we can do to meet our stakeholder organisations’ needs and priorities. Our task, therefore, is to further understand our audiences and respond to their differing needs through targeted and tailored communications. For example, we know that face-to-face communications are rated highly by our community and that you would like us to hold more Town Hall meetings to help shape funding priorities. This is something that the BBSRC leadership team will definitely be taking onboard.

The research also shows that many stakeholders would like to develop closer and more strategic engagement with BBSRC. Just over half (55%) of respondents find BBSRC easy to work with and 60% of our stakeholders say they would like to work more closely with us.

The majority (83%) of respondents agree that the UK has a world-leading position in bioscience and three-quarters (76%) think this is due to BBSRC. The creation of UK Research and Innovation will open up more opportunities to lead and strengthen the international position of UK bioscience and to enable and promote more cross-disciplinary research. I am pleased that our stakeholders see the establishment of UK Research and Innovation as a positive opportunity for more joined-up cross-Council working and, as we move into this new funding landscape, I will ensure that BBSRC stays close to its community and continues to listen and respond to stakeholders’ perspectives.

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As part of the formal launch of UK Research and Innovation, we were delighted that on Monday the Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation, Sam Gymiah, visited the soon to be completed Quadram Institute on the Norwich Research Park. The Minister was accompanied by UK Research and Innovation CEO Sir Mark Walport and I, along with other partners including Quadram’s Director, Ian Charles, University of East Anglia Vice-Chancellor David Richardson and Mark Davis, CE of the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals. Minister Gymiah met early career researchers and heard about their work on understanding antimicrobial resistance, food-bourne pathogens and the importance the gut microbiome plays in shaping our health. Both the Minister and Sir Mark talked about the important place that multidisciplinary institutes have in the UK’s research and innovation ecosystem and recognised the unique aspects of the Quadram Institute, bringing together fundamental bioscience research on food and health with clinical endoscopy services. A personal moment for me during the visit was being interviewed for BBC Look East – a programme I grew up with and one that I had never imagined I would appear on!

The British Library was the location for the formal launch of UK Research and Innovation later the same day, coinciding with the publication of UK Research and Innovation’s strategic prospectus. Secretary of State, Greg Clark, and Minister Gymiah both emphasised the important role that research and innovation have to play in the UK’s future prosperity and reiterated the government’s commitment to increase spend on R&D to 2.4% of GDP by 2027.

The 10th BBSRC Innovator of the Year competition came to its climax at an awards ceremony on Wednesday. I was delighted to host the event and Sir Mark Walport, Malcolm Skingle (Director of Academic Liaison, Glaxo Smith Kline Ltd and a member of BBSRC Council) and I really enjoyed meeting all 12 finalists and discussing their work. This year, more than any other, saw an incredibly diverse range of innovations and innovators reach the final stages. I was thrilled that we had our first female winner of the Overall Innovator of the Year – Sabrina Cohen-Hatton, along with colleague Professor Rob Honey, from Cardiff University. Their work, rooted in behavioural neuroscience, has had real impact in the way that fire and rescue service incident control commanders make decisions and is now incorporated into national guidelines. The relevance of this was not lost on the audience as Sabrina reminded us so eloquently in her ‘acceptance speech’ that the public inquiry into the Grenfell disaster was about to get underway.

On Thursday morning, Radio 4’s Today programme was broadcast live from Aberystwyth University, with bioscience featuring heavily and BBSRC being name-checked by Dr Fiona Corke for our support of the National Plant Phenomics Centre, part of the Institute for Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences. Oh, and I should also mention Caroline Dean’s appearance on Radio 4’s ‘The Life Scientific’ on Tuesday – fascinating!

As always, it was a real pleasure, and a privilege, to both celebrate and promote bioscience-led discoveries and impacts, while learning a little more about the details behind the headlines. And it was fantastic to be able to share a few of the achievements enabled by BBSRC investment with so many others – right across the UK – in the space of one short week.

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