Event: 10 and 11 October 2011, New Delhi
The UK’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Government
of India’s Department of Biotechnology (DBT) have recently
announced a plan to publish
a joint funding call worth up to £10 million, for UK-India proposals in bioenergy
research.
This announcement follows very successful UK-India workshop, held in New Delhi
in October.
RCUK India, working closely with BBSRC, DBT and the UK’s Science Innovation Network
co-organised a joint BBSRC-DBT workshop where senior members of the UK and Indian
bioenergy research communities met to discuss possible areas of collaboration.
British High Commissioner to India, Sir Richard Stagg welcomed the UK and Indian
bioenergy delegation over a networking dinner hosed at his residence in New Delhi,
on Sunday 9 October . Speaking at the event, Sir Richard and chief guest Dr M K
Bhan, Secretary to DBT, outlined the importance and relevance of bioenergy research
for both countries, and highlighted how the workshop aimed at developing UK-India
synergy in this field research.
The joint UK- India workshop was held on 10 and 11 October 2011, at the
International
Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), New Delhi. Dr V S Chauhan,
Director ICGEB addressed the participants with an introductory speech providing
an overview of ICGEB and its activities. The presentation is available
here 
.
Dr Colin Miles, Head of Strategy Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy at BBSRC
and Dr Renu Swarup, Advisor at DBT outlined the bioenergy research programmes in
the UK and India highlighting current and future research priorities.
Presentations are available here:
BBSRC: Dr Colin Miles
DBT: Dr Renu Swarup
Prior to commencing scoping discussions to extract potential joint research areas,
representatives from each delegation provided an overview of the bioenergy research
landscapes in both UK and India across the following five themes:
Biomass, Biomass Composition and Biomass Deconstruction technologies
Landscape in India
Landscape in the UK
Biorefining, scale-up technologies, fermentation technologies
Landscape in India
Landscape in the UK
Biogas / energy production from waste (agricultural, food, municipal)
Landscape in India
Landscape in the UK
Algae and Algal Biotechnology for Bioenergy
Landscape in India
Landscape in the UK
Cross cutting themes: synthetic biology, bioengineering, systems biology including
bioinformatics mathematical / computational modelling, sustainability including
lifecycle analyses
Landscape in India-1
Landscape in India-2
Landscape in the UK
All delegates reconvened on the second day to discuss current gaps in bioenergy
research and to highlight where the UK and India had the shared strengths to fill
these gaps. Working in groups focussing on each theme of bioenergy research outlined
above, the researchers identified three areas where, by working together, scientists
from both countries would be able to achieve significantly more than they could
do alone. These areas were:
- The identification, characterisation and improvement of new enzymes for
processing plants, including algae, for bioenergy
- The use of systems and synthetic biology approaches to develop microbes
that are capable of producing advanced biofuels from sugars locked within indigestible
regions of woody plants and algae
- The use of genomics to improve the suitability of algae for biofuel production
In order to provide the visiting UK delegation a clearer understanding of India’s
bioenergy research, DBT organised site-visits to India’s key bioenergy facilities.
The UK delegation visited:
International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), New Delhi
Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), New Delhi
Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT), Mumbai
A detailed programme for the workshop is available here .
Biographies for participants are available here:
UK delegates
Indian delegates