AsianScientist (Oct. 22, 2013) – The UK and China will jointly provide nearly US$400,000 to fund synthetic biology projects involving scientists from both countries.
Five grants will be awarded through a Synthetic Biology China Partnering Award. The awards, co-funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Research Council (BBSRC), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), will provide funding to BBSRC and EPSRC supported researchers to partner and develop long-term relationships with Chinese scientists.
The BBSRC, along with EPSRC, will provide a total of US$197,000 to fund UK-based scientists involved in the projects. CAS will match that funding level to support Chinese investigators.
Synthetic biology is an emerging field where engineering principles are applied in biology to design, engineer and build new biological systems. In one such project, investigators at the University of Warwick and the CAS Institute of Microbiology will identify novel antibiotics. In another project, Warwick and CAS researchers will use synthetic biology approaches to produce high-value fine chemicals.
“Co-funded initiatives such as this scheme will see British and Chinese scientists learning from each other’s expertise and benefiting from the globalization of excellent science,” said BBSRC’s CEO Douglas Kell.
“The idea of this program is to put the best minds together. Together our scientists and these from the UK can advance this field more efficiently,” said Cao Jinghua, deputy director-general of the CAS Bureau of International Cooperation.
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Source: CAS.
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