The EC-US Taskforce on

Biotechnology Research

Judith B. St. John, US Co-Chair

EC-US Task Force on Biotechnology Research20th Anniversary WorkshopBarcelona, SpainJune 2, 2010

Origin of the EC-US Task Force on Biotechnology Research

• The EC-US Task Force on Biotechnology Research was established in June 1990 by the European Commission and the White House Office of Science and Technology

Who We Are

• Task Force members are European Commission and US Government science and technology administrators who meet annually to enhance communication across the Atlantic and to encourage collaborative research

Working Together for Better Science

• The EC-US Task Force on Biotechnology Research seeks to anticipate the needs of tomorrow’s science, today. To achieve such a challenging goal requires effective transatlantic communication and collaboration.

• The Task Force aims “to promote information exchange and coordination between biotechnology research programmes funded by the European Commission and the United States government.”

Working Groups

The EC-US Task Force sponsors a number of working groups (WG) on topics of mutual transatlantic interest:

•Environmental Biotechnology•Biobased Products and Biofuels•Plant Biotechnology•Marine Genomics•Farm Animal Genomics

Working Group Activities:

• Meetings and Workshops• Short Courses• Short-Term Exchange

Fellowships• Coordinated Programs

Renewable Resources

• Epobio: Realizing the economic potential of sustainable resources -bioproducts from non-food crops

• Involved 12 partners from the US and EU

• Supported by USDA and the EU 6th and 7th Framework Programmes

Flagship Themes in BiobasedProducts and Biofuels

• Plant cell walls in relation to biorefining• Plant oils as industrial feedstocks• Biopolymers

Defining Criteria for Flagship Themes

• User/consumer benefit• Scientific challenge• Economic benefits• Private sector involvement

Outcomes

• Science to support policy in the areas of:– Biopolymers (EU-PEARLS)

– Plant cell walls (RENEWALL)

– Plant oils (ICON)

• Development of a core of research to meet future global challenges

Training in Environmental Biotechnology

• Hundreds of early-career scientists trained since 1995 through: – Workshops on molecular and genomic

methods– Short courses on theoretical, laboratory and

field approaches– Short-term exchange fellowships

Databases and Bioinformatics• Workshops on:

– September 1995: Neuroinformatics– September 1998: Database interoperability– September 1999: Plant and animal bioinformatics– May 2007: Infrastructure needs of systems

biology– September 2007: Cyberinfrastructure resources for

genome-enabled research on microbial life and the marine environment

– November 2009: Animal bioinformatics– December 2009: Plant bioinformatics

Project Coordination

• Facilitation of coordinated projects– The SOL and EU-SOL Initiatives to improve

the quality of potatoes and tomatoes– SOL is supported by NSF and includes the

Solanaceous Genomes Network Database– EU-SOL is supported by the FP6 Programme

and involves 56 partners from 15 countries

SOL and EU-SOL Partnerships

• Central database

• Resource Integration

• Public resources

• Education