This 1 year project, funded by BBSRC and led by Professor Orkun Soyer at the University of Warwick, focuses on furthering our understanding of anaerobic digestion, particularly on how the complex microbial communities affect and are affected by operational conditions. Altogether, 16 UK full scale AD reactors are taking part in the project, where both genetic and meta-data are collected weekly. The large amounts of genetic data will allow us to characterise which species of microbes inhabit the digesters, what their functions are and, importantly, how they change over time. The meta-data will allow us to monitor changes in response to their environment. The datasets will be made available through the project website at http://anaerodynamics.com, funded by the AD Network. These will provide an unbiased and transparent source of information on the performance of industrial AD reactors in real time, which we hope will help to enhance and expand this technology in the UK. Enquiries can be directed to: Prof. Orkun Soyer at Warwick University.
Category: NIBB News
Careers Fair for Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy Scientists
Our careers fair will provide you with the chance to meet employers face-to-face, to learn about current vacancies and opportunities available, and to market yourself to prospective employers. There are several talks you can attend about the sector and the opportunities within it, along with opportunity to get advice on your CV from professionals.
- Explore careers in IBBE from laboratory based jobs to working as a patent lawyer
- Meet employers with graduate schemes, current and future job opportunities
- Hear from different employers about what it’s like to work for them
- Get feedback on your CV in our one-to-one clinics
- Speak with industrialists in our one-to-one clinics
- Speak with academics in our one-to-one clinics
- Speak to the BBSRC about your future career in academia in our one-to-one clinics
SPACES ARE LIMITED SO BOOK NOW TO AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT HERE.
Social and political challenges for the bioeconomy, 8-9 Dec 16, Sheffield
CBM Network is holding this two day event at Sheffield. The event will address the challenges facing the bioeconomy related to rapid scientific, technological and social change. It will bring together UK industrial biotechnology leaders and academics to discuss grand challenges and then hopes to forge new collaborations between delegates, who will go on to apply for funding to begin to solve these problems.
The agenda is here.
Registration for the event is here.
C1 Network Metabolic Modelling Workshop 3 – Nottingham 23-27 Jan 17
Redirecting an organism’s metabolism towards novel products raises a number of design issues. What is the impact of the new pathway on the cell’s energy and redox metabolism? Can the precursor and coenzyme requirements be satisfied? Should some parts of the metabolic network be blocked off to ensure the most efficient routes to the product are favoured? Answering these questions needs tools that can compute and compare feasible routes through the cell’s metabolic network, as well as methods for defining and representing the metabolic network in a way the tools can use. This is the domain of structural analysis of metabolism, and techniques such as elementary modes analysis and flux balance analysis. This combined theoretical and practical course will explain the theory behind these techniques and give hands-on experience of building metabolic network models and calculating feasible and optimal routes through them. It will be presented by David Fell and his colleagues in the Cell Systems Modelling Group of Oxford Brookes University. It covers the same area as the previous C1net Modelling Workshop 1, but is complementary to Workshop 2 on kinetic models.
Details
Free participation, accommodation (for non-local delegates) and meals for members of C1NET or another NIBB network. Participants are required to bring their own laptop (not netbook or tablet). Software will be provided.
When: Monday 23 January 2017, 13.30 – Friday 27 January 2017 13:30
Where: St James Hotel, 1 Rutland Street, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, NG1 6FL
http://www.stjames-hotel.com/
For a registration form, visit http://www.c1net.co.uk/Events-workshop-3.html
CBM Network Event: Social and Political Challenges for the Bioeconomy, 8-9 Dec 16, Sheffield
The above event explores the challenges facing the bioeconomy related to rapid scientific, technological and social change. It brings together UK industrial biotechnology leaders and academics to discuss grand challenges and then hopes to forge new collaborations between delegates, who will go on to apply for funding to begin to solve these problems. Further details and registration can be found here.
C1 Network Produces report on gas fermentation
C1 Net commissioned E4Tech to produce a report entitled “The commercial and strategic opportunity offered by gas fermentation in the UK”. The report notes that there are pre commercial plants operating in China, Taiwan, the USA and Japan, but that the UK is well positioned to take advantage of the technology because of its strong capabilities in gas fermentation, coupled with research strengths in microbiology, synthetic biology and process engineering.
The report can be downloaded here and C1 Net are happy to see as wide a distribution as possible.
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£17M Announced to Support Industrial Biotechnology – IB Catalyst Round 4 results published
The BBSRC have announced that sixteen projects have received a share of £17M to bring innovative biotechnology concepts to market. These projects have been funded under Round 4 of the Industrial Biotechnology Catalyst and they focus on a wide range of products from creating new drugs from bacteria, to increasing yields in the production of platform sugars from municipal solid wastes (MSW). The IB Catalyst has invested over £75M in four rounds and has helped create jobs, drive new technologies and promote academic and industrial collaborations to translate research into commercial reality. More information can be found in the complete BBSRC press release here.
Registraton open: Value Chain of Waste & Bio-resources, Manchester 30 Jun-1 Jul
The BBSRC Integrated Biorefining Research and Technology club (IBTI) and Networks in Biotechnology and Bioenergy (BBSRC NIBB), including ADNet, FoodWasteNet, LBNet and P2P, are hosting a FREE event focussed on addressing issues with the value chain of waste and bio-resources as feedstocks, at the Portland Hotel, Manchester on 30th June-1st July 2016. We will be discussing topics underpinning the value chain of waste feedstocks, particularly aiming to assess the value chain from all perspectives; from the feedstock to the end-product end of the value chain, as well as capturing novel technologies for the future and the challenges with respect to policy and regulation in the utilisation of waste feedstocks. This event will provide a brilliant opportunity to identify and highlight the major roadblocks in utilising waste and bioresource feedstocks and allow for right communities to combine their thoughts and efforts in order to tackle these issues.
This event has a maximum capacity and therefore a limited number of spaces are available. Should the number of applicant registrations exceed the maximum attendance, the registrations will be assessed in order to ensure that the most suitable audience is invited to attend.
Registration is available via the following link, https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/WVKVD3V. Registration will close at midnight on the 06/06/2016 and attendance will be confirmed by 10/06/2016.
Posters and flash presentations
All applicants are welcomed and encouraged to apply for one of our flash and/or poster presentation spaces. All details regarding these are included in the registration link above.
Bursary placements
Please inform colleagues who may be interested in the following.
The bursary placement scheme aims to allow academics who are not members of IBTI to attend a Dissemination Event and covers cost of attendance at the event (excluding travel). This is available to individuals who can benefit from interaction with the IBTI community and who also have a contribution to make. We would in particular like to invite academics who have engaged or attempted to engage with the community. Recipients will present a poster of relevant research and present a 2 minute poster flash to introduce themselves and their interests.
To apply for an IBTI bursary placement please use the following link, in addition to the event registration above, https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/WC36NMS. Registration for bursary applications will close at midnight on the 06/06/2016.
Funding Opportunities: Spending review announces Global Challenges Research Fund
AD Network members may be interested in a new £1.5 bnGlobal Challenges fund announced in the latest spending review (pages 35 & 54). The fund is allocated over the next 5 years to ensure that UK science takes a leading role in addressing the problems faced by developing countries whilst developing our ability to delivery cutting-edge research.
The exact nature of the funding streams has not been defined, but it is clear that there will be opportunities for UK industrial biotechnology and bioenergy (IBBE) expertise to be applied to these challenges. We will keep you updated with any developments.
Free analysis – Anaerobic Digestion Science meets Industry, 10 May 16, University of Warwick
This FREE event will bring together AD users and scientists. Come and enjoy interesting talks, hear from experts on the AD process, participate in an open discussion session and hear how you can take part in our initiative to monitor AD microbiomes!
There will be talks from the following acadmics and industry people:
Prof Charles Banks – University of Southampton
Prof Tom Curtis – University of Newcastle
Prof Angus Buckling – University of Exeter
Dr Phil Hobbs – Anaerobic Analytics
Angus Browne – G’s Fresh
Bring a sample from your digester to the meeting and we will analyse it’s microbial profile for FREE!
If you are a member of the Anaerobic Digestion Network and need help with travel costs, we can provide funding of up to £100 to attend.
To REGISTER, visit http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/go/adevent