Printer friendly version Share

News Release

Scientific links with Japan boosted by new awards

12 March 2010 Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)

Scientific links between the UK and Japan have been boosted by the announcement of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council's (BBSRC) latest Japan Partnering Awards. The awards, made to four research groups, provide funding for BBSRC-supported researchers to build and foster long-term relationships with Japanese partners.

For the second year running, the awards scheme has been run jointly with Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) to support scientists in both countries in the field of systems biology.

The Japan Partnering Awards provides support from BBSRC to UK researchers and JST to Japanese researchers to fund travel between the two countries, networking opportunities and collaborative activities, such as workshops or early career research exchanges. The awards provide support for up to four years and will assist the groups to jointly produce high impact publications, new grant applications and reciprocal access to facilities.

Professor Douglas Kell, BBSRC Chief Executive, said: "Modern bioscience demands international collaboration. By working together across international borders we can generate faster progress and higher quality science than we can alone. This scheme, and the close relationship between BBSRC and the JST, allows us to foster and build links between UK and Japanese researchers."

The awards have been made to four UK research groups and their Japanese counterparts.

.. Prof Austin Smith, University of Cambridge and Hitoshi Niwa, RIKEN CDB, Kobe - Systems Biology of Pluripotent Stem Cells
.. Prof Judith Armitage, University of Oxford and Hisao Moriya, Okayama University - Biological Networks
.. Prof Ken Haynes, Imperial College London and Prof Masaru Tomita, Keio University - Redox regulation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Candida glabrata
.. Dr Dov Stekel, University of Nottingham and Naotake Ogasawara, Nara Institute of Science and Technology - Diversification of transcriptional regulatory networks underlying the genetic variation of E. coli species.