A £23.5m investment in world class research into some of the world’s major environmental challenges will be announced today by Education Minister Jane Hutt.
The funding from the Assembly Government will support a £55m project to create a Biosciences and Environment Alliance between Aberystwyth and Bangor Universities bringing together the newly formed Institute for Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS) at Aberystwyth and the College of Natural Sciences at Bangor University.
Announcing the funding Jane Hutt said: “Living with climate change, renewable energy, global food security and plant and animal diseases are the grand challenges for the 21st century. They impact globally and locally on our health and well being. This investment by the Assembly Government and the Research Council will help us understand and tackle those grand challenges.”
The funding will provide new fit for purpose buildings and facilities for research and teaching at both Aberystwyth and Bangor and new scientific and management posts. The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council is investing £14m for capital developments at IBERS as well as ongoing research funding. The creation of the Institute of Biological Environmental and Rural Sciences at Aberystwyth University from the merger with IGER created a major new research and teaching Institute. The further collaboration with Bangor University’s College of Natural Sciences will deliver the largest group of Biological, Environmental and Rural scientists in the UK and makes the Alliance a major global competitor.
