The Bioscience and Biotechnology Research Council (BBSRC) and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) are uniting to fund two early-career fellowships in food safety. The fellowships are being made available in addition to BBSRC’s annual David Phillips awards and aim to enable leading excellent early-career scientists to pursue research to help provide safe food for all:
The fellowships will support scientists for five years to pursue research on food safety. This might, for example, involve research to combat foodborne diseases such as Listeria and Campylobacter, or involve research on emerging issues that affect food safety.
The fellows will also work closely with FSA to apply their research expertise to helping to ensure food safety through improved policy.
Scientists can apply for BBSRC-FSA fellowships and for David Phillips Fellowships from today. Visit www.bbsrc.ac.uk/funding/fellowships/david-phillips.aspx for more information.
David Phillips Fellowships support promising researchers working in any area of BBSRC-supported science, but BBSRC is also encouraging applications from researchers working in areas of science that will underpin the knowledge based bioeconomy. This includes scientists working on bioenergy, industrial biotechnology and synthetic biology for white biotechnology.
An evaluation of the David Phillips fellowship scheme published in September 2011 found that fellows produced excellent research that often delivers economic and societal impacts.
Dr Celia Caulcott, BBSRC Director, Innovation and Skills, said “Supporting the development of the most promising early-career researchers is a key pillar of our strategy for delivering world-class bioscience that brings real benefits to society and the economy. It is vital that we nurture talent in areas like food safety and we are delighted to be working with FSA to offer this additional support for excellent early-career researchers in this area. We are also very keen to support those researchers who can build on the strength of UK knowledge based bioeconomy helping to deliver growth through sustainable solutions to the energy and materials challenges that we face.”
Andrew Wadge, Chief Scientist at the Food Standards Agency, said “I am delighted that the FSA is working with the BBSRC to offer these fellowships. This is an important initiative that will not only provide exciting opportunities for the early-career researchers involved but also promises to deliver important developments in food safety science. The FSA is a science-based organisation that relies on the best research to identify its future priorities, so I am looking forward to seeing the results of their work.”
BBSRC and FSA are both members of the Global Food Security Partnership
For further information on the FSA-BBSRC Fellowships please visit the call page on the BBSRC website.