BBSRC Forward Look for UK Bioscience 2024: Community Consultation

Overview

In 2018, BBSRC published its first ever Forward Look for UK bioscience.

Scoped and developed in collaboration with our community and stakeholders, the Forward Look has served as a crucial framework for BBSRC, guiding our strategic direction, actions and investments. It also underpins our strategic delivery plan 2022-2025 while providing a robust foundation for our input into Government Spending Reviews.

Since publishing our Forward Look six years ago, UKRI has launched its first ever five-year strategy, transforming tomorrow together. The strategy sets out a series of long-term, high-level priorities designed to deliver an outstanding research and innovation system in the UK. During this time, there have been wide-ranging scientific and technological advances along with political and socioeconomic changes that impact how we support, deliver, and translate bioscience research.

Supporting the UK’s long-term growth

The UK government has set out a clear mission for long-term economic growth and the bioscience ecosystem will be pivotal in delivering this.

Bioscience research and innovation lies at the heart of sustained economic growth, job creation and productivity, playing a fundamental role in supporting progress across diverse industries and harnessing technological transformation for the benefit of economy and society alike.

As the UK’s major public funder of bioscience research and innovation, BBSRC is committed to supporting bioscience to help further our understanding of the world in which we live, leveraging its power to address critical challenges on a global scale.

Looking forward

It’s time to review our Forward Look for UK Bioscience and we welcome your support and input.

UK bioscience is a vibrant and diverse ecosystem comprising a wealth of roles, skills, ideas and expertise.

We’re seeking the views and input of the entire community to make sure our Forward Look continues to represent and reflect your views, priorities and values.

Through consultation, we will deepen our understanding of the current drivers of bioscience research and innovation. We want to better understand shifts in focus for our stakeholders and test our thinking regarding BBSRC's role as a funder, connector and trusted strategic partner.

Our goal is to deliver a refreshed Forward Look that is developed with our stakeholders, for our stakeholders.

We will build on existing insight drawn from our horizon scanning activities. These include the Bioscience Big Ideas Pipeline, a wide range of stakeholder and partner engagements, analysis of our funding portfolio as well as:     

• BBSRC Futures Workshop and community consultation 2023 report
• Advice from: BBSRC Council,
                         BBSRC Strategy Advisory Panels
                         BBSRC Committees and Pool of Experts

Why your views matter

Your insight will help us better understand how we can build a strategy that will enable bioscience to thrive while contributing significantly to scientific advancement, economic growth and improved quality of life in the UK and beyond.

We want to hear from anyone who forms part of our community, whether you work in research and innovation or are a business owner, a policy professional, a public engagement specialist, an end user of bioscience or an interested member of the public.

We will analyse the survey results, working in collaboration with our Strategy Advisory Panels and Council.

We aim to publish our refreshed Forward Look for UK Bioscience in 2025.

If you’d like to know when the document is published, please include your contact details and we’ll make sure you’re notified you when the Forward Look goes live.