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University of Manchester gets £3 million research grant

University of Manchester scientists have been awarded £3 million to develop sustainable chemical manufacturing processes.

Professor Nigel Scrutton and his team at the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology are one of five beneficiaries of the BBSRC’s Strategic Longer and Larger Grants (sLoLaS) scheme which funds high-value long-term research projects.

In total £15.8 million is being handed to five research teams as part of the sLola scheme which aims to provide world-leading teams long-term funding and resources to address major challenges.

Professor Scrutton said: “Our vision is to harness the power of Synthetic Biology to propel chemicals and natural products production towards ‘green’ and sustainable manufacturing processes.

“More broadly, the programme will provide the general tools, technology platforms and SynBio ‘know-how’ that will impact widely in the sustainable manufacture of chemicals and natural products for development by the industrial sector.”

Minister for Universities, Science and Cities, Greg Clark, said: “This funding will support world-leading research teams in Sheffield, Kent, Manchester, Glasgow and Oxford to address research gaps in bioscience for the benefit of the UK.

“From harnessing the sun’s power for better biofuel production to investigating how to reduce costs for British sheep farmers, these research projects supported by almost £16 million from government will help to find long-term solutions to some of our biggest challenges in areas like health, energy and agriculture.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sophia Taha .