read the full report by brookdale consulting (2013)

Impact of the John Innes Centre

Brookdale Consulting

7 Brookdale Road

Bramhall

Cheshire, SK7 2NW

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Issued 28th June 2013

Contents

Executive Summary 2

1. Introduction 4

2. Background to JIC 5

2.1 Overview of JIC 5

2.2 Evolution of JIC’s Research 5

2.3 Market Failure 7

3. Impact of JIC Research 8

3.1 Wheat 8

3.1.1 Improving Wheat Yields 8

3.1.2 Reducing Wheat Diseases 10

3.2 Oilseed Rape 12

3.2.1 Reducing Pod Shatter 12

3.3 Nutritionally Enriched Broccoli 13

3.4 Industrial Biotechnology and Synthetic Biology 14

3.4.1 Antibiotics 14

3.4.2 High Value Chemicals from Plants 16

3.4.3 Vinca alkaloids 17

3.4.4 Molecular Pharming 18

3.5 Nitrogen Fixation instead of Fertilisers 21

4. Operating Impact of JIC 23

4.1 Direct Impact 23

4.2 Indirect Impact 24

4.3 Induced Impact 25

4.4 Summary of Operating Impacts 25

5. Wider JIC Impact 26

5.1 Knowledge Exchange and Commercialisation 26

5.1.1 High Impact Journal Articles 26

5.1.2 Collaborative Research, Consultancy and Company Engagement 26

5.1.3 Intellectual Property 27

5.1.4 Spin-Out Companies 28

5.2 Learning, Teaching and Training 29

5.2.1 Inspiring the Next Generation 29

5.2.2 Scientists of the Future 29

5.2.3 Career Development and Continuing Professional Development 30

5.3 Influence, Networks and Public Engagement 30

5.3.1 Local 30

5.3.2 National 31

5.3.3 International 32

5.3.4 Public Engagement 34

6. Summary and Overview 35

6.1.1 On-going impacts 35

6.1.2 Gross Research impacts 36

6.1.3 Net impacts UK 37

6.1.4 Net impacts globally and long term UK 38

Executive Summary

Brookdale Consulting was commissioned by the John Innes Centre (JIC) to produce an

updated socio-economic impact assessment of the Institute1.

JIC’s research has a global focus, contributing to all of BBSRC’s grand challenges and

addressing market failures2 in UK and global agriculture, food and biotechnology research.

On-going Impacts

JIC’s operating impact (from staff and supplier spending) supports 636 jobs and £30.4m of

Gross Value Added (GVA) across the UK economy per year.

JIC’s work has been key in supporting plant breeders in delivering £373m-£445m of gross

wheat yield benefits per year at the UK level compared to 1982 yields. This includes the

benefits of yield improvements and reduced cereal diseases. At the global level, gross

productivity increases supported by JIC’s research could currently be worth £8.7bn.

JIC’s work in antibiotics has supported additional global sales revenue potential of £247m per

year for actinomycete-derived antibiotics, forecast to grow to £306m by 2017.

Future Impacts

In addition to the gross impacts above, net additional impacts of £223m GVA and 408 jobs are

forecast over the next 10 years at the UK level. The value for money of the JIC research

areas considered is £11.99 of GVA at the UK level.

Given JIC’s global leadership in many science areas and the long-term nature of its research,

over a thirty-year period, there could be a further £15.7bn of GVA and 12,433 jobs globally

through JIC research if the areas reviewed are successful.

A summary of the main gross impacts arising is set out below.

Crop Improvement

Improving wheat yields – In addition to the on-going impacts above, for every 1% increase

in yield achieved, the JIC share of impact will be £3.67m at the UK level and £38.7m at the

EU level per year.

Reducing cereal diseases – JIC’s long-term work in cereal diseases supports the UK and

global industry as set out above. By enabling breeders to produce varieties with half the

current level of septoria disease losses (3%) it is estimated that the future impact attributable

to JIC could be £3.3m at the UK level and £70m at the EU level per year while work in take-all

could ultimately lead to reduced costs for UK wheat farmers of £60-340m per year.

Oilseed rape – JICs work to reduce pod shatter in OSR could increase yields by 15%, worth

£165m at the UK farm gate or £1.7bn if implemented across the EU.

1This work was to update a previous impact report Economic Impact of JIC 2008

2 See Appendix 1.

Enriched Broccoli – Beneforte is now on sale in UK and US supermarkets. It has the

potential to reduce cardiovascular disease and prostate cancer and work to support a health

claim is on-going. Potential benefits of £38m per 1% reduction in disease can be anticipated

at the UK level. 50% of these are attributed to JIC.

Nitrogen fixing cereals – If JIC’s work on N-fixing in maize is successful, it could improve

food security for 0.436 billion people in sub-Saharan Africa and provide an alternative to

synthetic fertilisers.

Industrial Biotechnology and Synthetic Biology

Tunicamycin – JIC is working to reduce toxicity of Tunicamycin so it can be taken up by the

pharmaceutical industry as a new class of antibiotics. Antibiotic resistance is a major policy

priority in the UK and EU. Every 10% reduction in the costs of antibiotic resistance at the EU

level will conservatively deliver £125m.

Super Hosts - JIC has just developed a series of Streptomyces strains that can be used as

‘Super Hosts’ to reduce drug development costs where every 1% saving is worth £5-£10m.

High Value Chemicals from Plants - Improving yields of vinca alkaloids will have a

significant impact on the industry, reducing costs and increasing availability. A 10% increase

in yield through JIC’s research could save the pharmaceutical sector £9.4-£18.8m annually.

Molecular Pharming – JIC’s plant molecular production system CPMV-HT3 produces a wide

variety of novel substances. It could revolutionise vaccine screening production, yield novel

metabolites and is licensed to industry. If the technology results in more effective and rapid

vaccines reducing incidence of flu by just 1%, then it would save the UK economy £13.5m per

year. A 1% reduction in costs of HIV treatment and care through the technology would save

the UK £10m per year.

Wider impacts of JIC include:

• independent ranking with the Sainsbury Laboratory as number one in the world for

academic citations in 20094

• engagement in £5m of current industrial collaborations

• spin-out companies with increased investment, turnover and employment

• training scientists from school age children and students through to JIC staff

• JIC is active in the public debate around science, food security and GM, informing

government and society about the direction of scientific research.

• important contributions to the Global Food Security programme and around 330

active JIC global collaborations.

• The JIC-China Centre of Excellence represents a substantial research collaboration

that will have global impact. For example, more than 100 JIC alumni have academic

positions in China.

• Norwich Research Park impacts of 1,300 net additional jobs and £566m GVA over 10

years estimated by Brookdale Consulting as attributable to JIC.

3 Cow Pea Mosaic Virus – HyperTrans

4 Plant and animal science see: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=

411170&sectioncode=26

1. Introduction

Brookdale Consulting was commissioned by the John Innes Centre (JIC) to produce an

updated impact assessment of the Institute.

This report highlights the range of quantitative and qualitative impacts generated by the on-

going research and activities of JIC. The report reviews and updates the previous impact

report of 2008 as well as highlighting the wide range of new areas that JIC is actively

researching.

JIC receives three quarters of its revenue from BBSRC and contributes across all three of

BBSRC’s grand challenges:

• Food security - maintaining a safe, affordable and nutritious food supply for UK

citizens and achieving global food security to feed nine billion people by 2050. Work to

improve wheat yields, N fixation, flowering time in brassicas, crop biotech and improved

nutrient content of legumes are examples of JIC contributions here.

• Sustainable bioenergy, chemicals and renewable materials from bioscience -

through industrial biotechnology, developing options to lessen UK reliance on fossil

carbon; making the low-carbon/green economy a reality. The potential of crop biotech,

synthetic biology to produce high value compounds and high oleic acid oilseed rape are

examples as is temperature sensing.

• Enhancing lives and improving wellbeing - through fundamental bioscience,

particularly as the proportion of UK society living beyond 65 continues to increase

dramatically. Molecular pharming, enriched broccoli, antibiotics and other high value

compounds are all examples here.

The structure of the rest of the document is as follows:

• Section 2 - sets out the background to JIC and describes the evolution of the Institute

since the previous impact report

• Section 3 - presents the impact of JIC research

• Section 4 - sets out the operating impact of JIC

• Section 5 - presents the wider impact of JIC

• Section 6 - summarises the findings of the report

• Annexes contain supporting material and data.

Brookdale Consulting acknowledges the significant contribution of JIC staff in working with the

team to produce this final report.

2. Background to JIC

2.1 Overview of JIC

JIC’s mission is to generate knowledge of plants and microbes through innovative research

and to apply the knowledge to benefit agriculture, the environment, human health and well-

being. In doing so, it trains scientists for the future and engages with policy makers and the

public for the furtherance of science.

JIC’s research has a long-term horizon over many decades and is the focus of fundamental

plant and microbial research in the UK. An emerging area is its research into the potential for

plants and microbes to produce new useful compounds, an area known as industrial

biotechnology.

JIC has four integrally linked Institute Strategic Programmes (ISPs) as follows:

• Sustainable solutions to crop disease and nutrition (BIO) – exploring resistance to

pests and pathogens as well as the beneficial symbioses that micro-organisms can have on plant nutrient uptake and providing genetic alternatives to agro-chemicals. BIO aims to maximise yield by reducing crop losses. This ISP sees JIC scientists working closely with those at the neighbouring Sainsbury Laboratory.

• Growth and Development Underpinning Yield (GRO) – most crops do not achieve

maximum yield due to environmental limitations and disease. GRO aims to maximise yield by increased productivity to secure future food supplies.

• Wheat Improvement Strategic Programme (WISP) – addresses UK and global food security by providing pre-breeding support for development of new high yielding, low input wheat varieties. This ISP involves a collaboration with scientists at the University of Bristol, NIAB, Rothamsted Research and the University of Nottingham.

• Plants and Microbes: factories for food, bio-industry and health (MET) – exploiting

renewable biological resources to provide new antibiotics, sustainable ways of controlling crop pests and diseases and ‘new to nature’ compounds.

2.2 Evolution of JIC’s Research

The previous report5 highlighted the following aspects of JIC’s research:

Crops

• Research into wheat semi-dwarfing genes bringing global annual benefits of £3.4bn.

• Mitigating cereal diseases to avoid losses in world wheat production of as much as

£4.3bn per annum.

• Synteny - JIC’s gene mapping helping to address world hunger, and supporting

international research at IRRI (in the Philippines) and CIMMYT (in Mexico).

• World’s first nutritionally enhanced fresh vegetable, Beneforte Broccoli, with possible

benefits to cardiovascular health and reduced incidence of cancer.

5 Economic Impact of John Innes Centre 2008

Antibiotics

• JIC discovered the genetic basis polyketide of antibiotics, naturally produced by

Streptomyces, a global market now worth $35bn per annum.

JIC spin-outs

• Novacta Biosystems - working on solutions to C. difficile and MRSA, which could add

£194m to the UK economy through prevention of avoidable deaths.

• Procarta Biosystems - developing a completely new approach to overcome antibiotic

resistance that could have broad application.

Cross Cutting Impacts

• Intelligent breeding research, potentially reducing the time for breeding new plant

varieties.

• Income from commercial sources generating an additional £5.2m GVA in the economy

per annum.

• £171k per year of royalty income.

This updated report assesses the on-going benefits of the discoveries highlighted above as

well as research that could yield new impacts as follows:

Crops

• Significant further improvement in wheat yields and reduced diseases of wheat and

barley. Developments in oilseed rape to reduce pod shatter thus increasing yield.

• Beneforte ‘Super broccoli’ is now in supermarkets in the UK and USA and having its

health claims assessed in relation to cancer and cardiovascular disease.

• A whole host of new technologies are in trials under licence to improve yield of crops

such as maize, soya, wheat and rice.

• Plant microbe interactions is an important area of research that may yield useful

discoveries to improve crop productivity

Antibiotics

• Further developments in Streptomyces could yield a whole new class of antibiotics,

reducing resistance which is a major problem for policy makers

• Development of a ‘Super Host’ could radically reduce drug development costs.

JIC spin-outs

• The number of spin-outs has increased.

Cross Cutting Impacts

• JIC contributes to national debate on science

• Global influence has grown including setting up the JIC-China Centre of Excellence

• Norwich Research Park is developing strongly

• Royalty income has increased.

New areas of research

• Industrial Biotechnology and Synthetic Biology – new areas with potential of creating

high value compounds from plants or microbes that can be used as drugs, vaccines,

agrochemicals or ingredients for industry

• Researching the potential for nitrogen fixation in cereals to reduce fertiliser

requirements in developing countries and ultimately to potentially displace synthetic

fertilisers in the long term.

2.3 Market Failure

JIC’s research addresses economic, policy and societal issues that are in the public interest

and key to the future of the UK’s society and economy. They are not ‘goods’ that the market

(i.e. private businesses) could be expected to deliver on its own without public investment.

JIC also wins public funding competitively when it bids for grant funding against other potential

providers (e.g. to the European Union Framework Programme and other research funding

bodies). Market failure may still have occurred but competition ensures value for money for

the public purse.

In addition, part of JIC’s income comes from private sources, such as when individual

businesses or trade bodies commission work specifically for them or their members. In this

case, market failure may not apply but JIC’s expertise and reputation are important in

undertaking the work and in ensuring adoption.

Details of specific market failures addressed are set out in Appendix 1.

3. Impact of JIC Research

This section sets out the calculation of final impacts for JIC under the following headings:

• Wheat

• Oilseed Rape

• Nutritionally Enriched Broccoli

• Industrial Biotechnology and Synthetic Biology

• Nitrogen fixation instead of fertilisers

The methodology is set out in Appendix 2.

3.1 Wheat

The previous impact report on JIC’s science highlighted the need for on-going productivity

improvements in wheat production. JIC is active in a number of areas that have the potential

to improve significantly wheat production.

UK farm gate turnover of wheat was £2.2bn in 20116, with 1,969,000 hectares grown, making

wheat by far the largest UK cereal crop by value and area. Uses include milling to produce

flour for baking, animal feed and distilling.

JIC’s work has global impact. According to the Consultative Group on Independent

Agricultural Research (CGIAR) there are around 1.2bn “wheat dependent” to 2.5bn “wheat

consuming” poor (living on less than £1.30 per day)7. Investment in wheat productivity can

benefit these people.

The UK Foresight report suggests a 50% increase in wheat yields will be required by 2030

while the current level of investment from royalties is expected to deliver only 13%8.

While developing world demand for wheat is expected to increase by 60% to 20509, climate-

change could reduce wheat production in developing countries by 20–30% due to

temperature increases. There is a clear rationale for further investment in wheat productivity.

3.1.1 Improving Wheat Yields

JIC has had a global role in contributing to the understanding of the genetics of wheat over

many years. Discoveries include factors controlling bread making quality, Ppd1 (control of

flowering time), Rht1 (control of dwarfing), Ph1 (major locus controlling recombination) and

synteny. These discoveries have supported plant breeders in using and scoring these traits in

commercial wheats. Whilst JIC also described Vrn1 (vernalisation), it was scientists in the US

that finally identified it using synteny.

The previous impact report highlighted a global impact of £3.4bn per year from the

introduction of wheat dwarfing genes. These genes remain important to commercial wheat

crops around the world so can be considered an on-going impact of the work of JIC, other

6 All Defra references in this section are from the publication ‘Agriculture in the United Kingdom 2011’

7 http://wheat.org/index.php/why-wheat/what-the-world-eats

8 Foresight project Global Food and Farming Futures final report and BSPB

9 The Future of Food and Farming: Challenges and choices for global sustainability

institutes and industry. In 2012, using the same assumptions as the previous report, the

gross value of these benefits globally is estimated to have risen to £8.7bn given

increases in global wheat production. This includes the benefits from reduced disease set

out in the next section.

At the UK level, a report on the impact of plant breeding on the UK10

highlighted £373m-

£445m of gross yield benefits per year due to yield increases over the period 1982 to 2008,

JIC being key in supporting plant breeders in delivering these benefits.

JIC is actively working to deliver further yield improvements. For example, JIC is leading the

£15m 6 year Wheat Improvement Strategic Programme (WISP) with five partners11

. The

programme aims to develop new germplasm that will be useful for plant breeders to develop

new high performing wheat varieties.

Three complementary methods will introduce more genetic variation and therefore potentially

find ways of increasing yield in new varieties. Key targets for improvement are yield traits,

nutrient efficiency and resistance to Take All, aphids and bulb fly.

The project will have international relevance in providing germplasm to support new wheat

varieties globally.

JIC’s Germplasm Resources Unit (GRU) curates

germplasm collections of a wide range of cereal and

legume crops and their wild relatives. It is a National

Capability for the research community, which is

unique for the UK and is formally registered under the

International Treaty of Plant Genetic Resources for

Food and Agriculture operated through FAO. Small

grain cereals are the most widely grown crops in the

world. Access to extensive genetic variation in the

GRU is useful for identifying traits to cope with climate

change, disease resistance and improved productivity

for crops. It is vital to JIC on-going research.

In addition to WISP, other JIC research has identified Quantitative Trait Loci (QTLs) that

stabilise yield under different environmental conditions. Research was undertaken up to the

1980s on single gene traits and has recently re-started as there is significant new potential to

be gained, based on other research such as mapping the wheat genome.

JIC is providing the tools to select useful QTLs in breeding programmes. If more QTLs can be

identified, it will be possible to make much more accurate crosses that combine the highest

yielding QTLs of different varieties together. At the moment, breeders do not generally have

this information when they select their crosses. Ten or so QTLs have been identified as

contributing to yield to date but the process takes a long time given the complexity of the traits

and because it is only possible to do one field trial per year.

10

Economic Impact of Plant Breeding in the UK, 2010. 11

JIC, University of Bristol, NIAB, Rothamsted Research and the University of Nottingham

JIC estimates that each yield component identified is worth a potential extra 1-2% yield

minimum.

For every 1% increase in wheat yield at the UK level, the additional revenue to the farming

industry will be £22m (assuming all other factors such as inputs and price remain constant).

As the plant breeding industry is constantly introducing new lines, the research will not

increase costs to the industry.

Impacts from WISP can be equally attributed to the five partners and the plant breeding

industry that will implement the findings of the research. Assuming the same attribution for

QTLs, JIC’s research could realistically deliver several percentage point increases in yield.

On this basis, for every 1% increase in yield achieved by WISP and QTLs, the JIC share

of impact will be £3.67m at the UK level.

Given the significance of this work and the international nature of plant breeding, it is likely

that yield improvements resulting will also influence EU-27 wheat production, and possibly

wider global production (except in areas where other factors such as water may restrict

production). Therefore, at the EU level where wheat production was 139m tonnes in

201112

, a 1% increase would generate 1.39m tonnes of additional wheat at £167 per

tonne13

generating £232m, the JIC share of impact being £38.7m at the EU level.

3.1.2 Reducing Wheat Diseases

JIC’s efforts are focused on identifying durable resistance and highlighting potential trade-offs

between resistance to initial target pathogens and other traits such as yield or resistance to

other pathogens.

The previous impact report highlighted the potential value of reducing global cereal diseases

as being worth £4.8bn annually and JIC’s key role in supporting industry to deliver disease

reductions.

One disease where JIC has had significant involvement is Septoria in wheat. Over the past

20 years, JIC has worked in collaboration with industry to understand the genetic inheritance

of Septoria resistance in wheat. JIC discovered that plant breeders had inadvertently

introduced increased susceptibility to Septoria in the 1980s and that they were relying on a

limited number of resistance genes.

Septoria alone can lead to yield reductions of 20% depending on variety. According to

NIAB14

, the difference in yield between the historic worst performing and current best

performing varieties for Septoria is around 18%, though not all farmers choose to grow the

most resistant varieties. JIC’s historic work, together with industry, has contributed to

reductions in Septoria with each 1% being worth £122m per year at the UK level and

£1.4bn per year at the global level. These benefits are included in the overall wheat yield

improvement impact in the previous section.

New disease challenges keep emerging so this is an area that requires on-going investment.

12

Eurostat 13

Based on Eurostat figures for 2011 at €200 per tonne changed to £ at €1.20/£1. 14

Personal Communication, Dr Rosemary Bayles, Principal Cereal Pathologist, NIAB

JIC continues to provide valuable tools for plant breeders. For example, DNA markers linked

to all three of the known eyespot resistance genes are currently deployed in European wheat

varieties. JIC continues to identify and characterise resistances to some of the most important

cereal diseases in close collaboration with UK and mainland European plant breeders.

Breeders are using JIC markers to assist in their decision-making processes at pre-

commercialisation stage. JIC’s research is continuing to add to the knowledge base on

Septoria resistance.

JIC is part of the WAGTAIL15

consortium led by NIAB. This £962k project aims to increase or

maintain wheat yields through disease resistance as EU legislation may lead to fewer

fungicides being available in future. JIC’s funding is 10% of the project total.

The project involves all major wheat plant breeders in North West Europe, will phenotype a

panel of 500 elite UK winter wheat lines for Septoria, yellow rust, brown rust and mildew, and

run association studies with 90,000 markers. The scale of the project is only possible given

advances in DNA marker screening technology that would not have been possible even 5

years ago.

The WAGTAIL consortium estimates that 6% of wheat production is currently lost to the four

target diseases despite fungicide control. 50% of the UK's pesticide usage is applied to

wheat, accounting for 20% of farmers’ operating costs. Changes to EU legislation removing

certain fungicides from the market could result in yield losses of 20-30% if no action is taken16

resulting in additional losses to the UK wheat crop of £154m-£264m based on 2011

production.

Benefits of WAGTAIL will be:

• clear understanding of the trade-offs between disease resistance and yield

• improved all-round disease resistant varieties without yield penalty

• fast application of the results in UK and EU breeding programmes

• reduced carbon emissions and pollution through reduced need for fungicides.

By enabling breeders to produce varieties with half the current level of disease losses

(3%) it is estimated that the impact could be £33m at current levels of fungicide usage

in the UK, the JIC share being £3.3m based on its 10% funding share.

At the EU level, the impact could be £696m, the JIC share being £70m.

Alongside traditional breeding, transgenic approaches could provide a strategy to introduce

novel resistance and make a step-change in wheat productivity. An example of this is the

control of take-all, a fungal, soil-borne disease that affects the growth of cereals.

The fungus is found in most wheat growing areas. Severity of the disease is affected by

weather, soil type and management. Resistance to take-all will produce a major increase in

yield. HGCA estimates that half of UK wheat crops are affected with average yield losses of

15

Wheat Association Genetics for Trait Advancement and Improvement of Lineages (WAGTAIL) is a BBSRC funded project of £481k, £383k to NIAB, £98k to JIC and £481k industry match funding (2012-June 2015). Total project costs are £962k. 16

http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/pa/grants/AwardDetails.aspx?FundingReference=BB/J002542/1

5-20%17

. The cost to farmers is estimated by HGCA to be up to £60m a year for wheat alone

while industry estimates suggest higher figures of £80-340m18

.

JIC is pioneering transgenic approaches to introduce resistance to take-all in wheat. The

project could result in the following benefits:

• Trialling of GM approaches – the work will test a new GM approach and its potential

to deliver disease resistance. The platform developed will also have relevance for other

traits such as nitrogen fixation and will inform the policy debate on GM approaches.

• Improved nitrogen efficiency – since take-all reduces nitrogen uptake by the plant

roots, a reduction in disease will also reduce the amount of fertiliser required to achieve

the same yield.

• Reduced costs – if introduced in the UK in the longer-term take-all resistance

could save £60-340m per year.

3.2 Oilseed Rape

Since 2006 farm gate turnover of oilseed rape (OSR) has increased by 250% to £1.1bn in

2011, with 705,000 hectares grown making it the third largest UK arable crop by area but

second largest by value19

. A total of 2.8m tonnes of oilseed rape was produced in the UK in

201120

, representing 10% of the total volume harvested across EU-27, which was 29m

tonnes, harvested from 11.4m hectares21

.

Uses include crushing to produce rapeseed oil, animal feed and increasingly biofuels.

3.2.1 Reducing Pod Shatter

Premature pod shatter is a major problem in oilseed rape (OSR), resulting in average yield

losses of between 15-20%22

. The problem is a global issue made worse by weather variability.

Producers try to overcome pod shatter by either spraying the OSR with glue, or cutting the

crop early and letting it dry in the fields.

JIC understands the genes responsible for causing fruit to open and has translated this to

OSR to stop premature pod shatter. JIC has patented part of the technology. With grant

funding from BBRSC, and collaborations with plant breeders, JIC is now transferring the

technology into OSR to create pre-breeding material. It is likely to be 4-6 years for any new

varieties of OSR to reach market. Benefits will include:

• increasing the OSR yield by an average of 15-20%

• improving production efficiency by reducing the need to spray or swathe the crop; and

eliminating the need to spray fields of subsequent crops to eliminate rogue OSR

caused by pod shatter

JIC is utilising a non-GM approach suitable for UK and EU markets. Assuming JIC’s

technology is bred into commercial crops in the UK and EU, an increase in OSR yield of

17

HGCA - Take-all in winter wheat - management guidelines. 18

Based on combined views of plant breeders KWS, Limagrain, Elsoms, Syngenta and RAGT. 19

Defra 20

Source: FEDIOL 2013 21

FAS EU 27; http://www.thebioenergysite.com/reports/?category=39&id=355 22

Price JS, Neale MA, Hobson RN, and Bruce DM (1996) J Agric Engng Res 80, 343-350

15% would equate to an increase in UK farmgate value of £165m based on 2011 prices

or £1.7bn if implemented across the EU-27. There will also be environmental benefits

from reduced need for spraying.

3.3 Nutritionally Enriched Broccoli

In 1990, JIC began to research disease and pest resistance of Brassica. The research

included investigation of the role of glucosinolates, and the discovery that they were potent

inducers of detoxification enzymes with potential consumer health benefits.

It was found that by crossing cultivated broccoli with a wild plant B.villosa there was potential

to increase the level of glucosinolates in broccoli. A diet rich in glucoraphanin may reduce

levels of cardio-vascular disease and cancers such as prostate cancer.

PBL filed patents for JIC for the high glucosinolate broccoli and in 1999, it was licensed by

PBL to Seminis as the world’s leading supplier of broccoli seed (now Monsanto).

In October 2011, enriched Broccoli was launched in the UK in Marks and Spencer stores

under the brand name Beneforte achieving wide media coverage. In July 2012, it became

more widely available in certain other UK supermarkets. Prior to its UK launch, it was

launched in the USA in 2010 and is now being sold in all US states.

Following its original inception at JIC, the work transferred to IFR to develop an understanding

of the human health benefits necessary to support consumer communications.

A human intervention study at IFR aims to validate heart health benefits of Beneforte.

Another study is looking at benefits for prostate cancer.

Including Beneforte in a healthy diet, also involving reduction in salt and saturated fats could

result in a reduction in cardiovascular disease (CVD) and prostate risk, resulting in benefits for

the individual, cost savings for the NHS and benefits to the UK economy.

CVD causes 50,000 premature deaths per year in the UK and affects more than five million

people with annual costs exceeding £30bn. 80% of premature CVD (i.e. occurring before age

75) is avoidable. Reducing cardiovascular events by just 1% would result in savings to

the health service worth at least £30m a year compared with no additional

intervention.23

Prostate cancer is the most common non-skin cancer for males in western countries. About

41,000 men are diagnosed each year in the UK24

. One study found that prostate cancer costs

the UK economy £800m per year, comprising health care costs of £400m, economic costs of

£200m plus the cost of informal care of another £200m25

. A 1% reduction in prostate

cancer in the UK, would deliver £8m of savings (NHS savings £4m, lost workdays £2m

and informal care £2m).

23

Barton P et al (2011) Effectiveness and cost effectiveness of cardiovascular disease prevention in whole populations: modelling study British Medical Journal 343, 4044 24

Data Table: Incidence cases and rates for males, females and persons in the UK, England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, Cancer Research UK, December 2012. 25

The economic burden of cancer across the European Union, Jose Leal, University of Oxford, NCRI conference paper, Nov 2012

Potential benefits of £38m per 1% reduction in disease can be anticipated at the UK level.

50% of these are attributed to JIC.

Monsanto sees products such as Beneforte as key to its growth plans. Along with other major

agricultural and biotechnology businesses, Monsanto is now seeking to deliver consumer

benefits directly through food rather than simply focusing on increasing yields of commodity

crops for growers.

3.4 Industrial Biotechnology and Synthetic Biology

3.4.1 Antibiotics

JIC’s historic work in antibiotics and Streptomyces in particular has been extensively reviewed

in a previous assessment in 201026

, which highlighted substantial on-going impacts including:

• additional global sales revenue potential of £247m per year for actinomycete-derived

antibiotics, now forecast to be £306m by 2017 through market growth27

• £46m global sales potential for cephalosporins (a class of beta-lactam antibiotics)

• supporting development of new anti-cancer and immunosuppressant drugs likely to

exceed £120m per annum in the long term

• Increasing antibiotic productivity of £44.7m per year and

• Potential animal health drug discoveries, leading to additional annual sales of £60m28

.

The focus in this report is on new developments that have emerged since the last report.

JIC’s work is focused on understanding biosynthetic pathways of Streptomyces and related

actinomycetes such that new useful compounds can be produced in sufficient quantities to be

commercially viable.

There are two key areas of research that have emerged with potential commercial prospects,

firstly Tunicamycin - a potent antibiotic and secondly an enabling technology known as a

‘Super Host’ for the discovery and potentially industrial production of antibiotics and other

natural products such as natural herbicides and insecticides. JIC has a commercially

confidential on-going project to develop natural herbicides.

There have also been developments in JIC spin-out companies Novacta, Procarta and

Inspiralis, which are discussed in Section 5.

3.4.1.1 Tunicamycin

JIC is working with the University of Oxford to produce new derivatives of Tunicamycin. JIC’s

expertise in molecular genetics and molecular biology is complementary to Oxford’s expertise

in natural product chemistry and enzymology.

26

Economic Impact of Streptomyces Genetics Research, BBSRC, April 2010. 27

Antibacterial Drugs: World Market Prospects 2013-2023 28

Economic Impact of Streptomyces Genetics Research, BBSRC, April 2010.

Whilst Tunicamycin is a very potent antibiotic, it is very toxic to humans thus preventing its

use. By understanding how it is made, JIC aims to change its biosynthetic pathway such that

its antibiotic properties are maintained but human toxicity reduced to acceptable levels.

By manipulating the biosynthetic gene cluster, JIC is now able to produce Tunicamycin

variants that can be assessed for efficacy and toxicity. Nevertheless, it will be a couple of

years before any of these candidates could be subjected to pre-clinical trials and at least 10 –

15 years before any could reach the clinic. Should the detoxification of Tunicamycin be

successful it is likely to be rapidly taken up by industry given the growth of antibiotic

resistance and the fact that there is no known clinical resistance to Tunicamycin.

According to the Department of Health, antibiotic resistance is one of the greatest threats to

modern health and ‘Antibiotics are losing their effectiveness at a rate that is both alarming and

irreversible – similar to global warming’. Professor Dame Sally Davies, Chief Medical Officer29

The Department of Health plans to publish an Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy and Action

plan in 2013, which aims to encourage responsible use of antibiotics and to encourage

development of new antibiotics among a range of measures. JIC’s research therefore has a

close fit with Government policy in this area and can make a major contribution to

tackling resistance.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control estimates 25,000 people die in

Europe every year due to antibiotic resistance, with resistance to the five main drugs costing

€1.5bn based on €927.8m extra hospital costs, €10m outpatient costs, €150.4m productivity

losses due to work absence and €445.9m productivity losses from patients who died30

. This

is seen as a very conservative estimate as it is based on resistance to only five drugs.

According to the Guardian, ‘The pipeline of future antibiotics has been described by the World

Health Organisation as "virtually dry"’. Across Europe, there is increasing reliance on last line

antibiotics, such as carbapenems, which are now showing some resistance in Southern

Europe for the first time.

There are market failures in delivery of new antibiotics as the cost and uncertainty over

regulatory approval combined with perceived low returns hinder private investment. A recent

£180m collaboration jointly funded by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) and the

pharmaceutical industry highlights the priority being given to this area with GSK and

AstraZeneca contributing experimental drugs31

. In the USA, the Government is considering

extending patent length to improve antibiotic profitability and to make research more attractive

through the Generating Antibiotic Incentives Now Act32

.

JIC’s work in Tunicamycin has a key role to play in de-risking antibiotic development for the

pharmaceutical industry by undertaking fundamental science to support new antibiotic

development. As this research is taken forward by industry, it has real potential to reduce the

costs of antibiotic resistance. While new drug development is expensive, (see ‘Super Hosts’

29

http://www.dh.gov.uk/health/2012/11/eaad-cmo 30

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and EMA (2009) The bacterial challenge: time to react. Technical Report 31

Kollewe (2012) Drug makers join forces in £180m research in battle against threat from bugs' resistance to antibiotics The Guardian, 24

th May

32 http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm320643.htm

for costs) every 10% reduction in the costs of antibiotic resistance at the EU level will

conservatively deliver £125m.

3.4.1.2 Super Hosts

JIC has just developed a series of Streptomyces strains that can be used as ‘Super Hosts’ for

efficient production of natural or engineered antibiotics or as a means of discovering new

compounds. The ‘Super Hosts’ have been developed for their stability, lack of any antibiotic

activity (facilitating their use in screening), much simplified metabolic profile (facilitating

compound discovery and analysis) high levels of production and ease of manipulation. Their

development is a form of synthetic biology, a growing research area.

The ‘Super Hosts’ are used in the following way. DNA is taken from the strain of interest and

inserted into E. Coli, which is used to identify gene clusters of interest. These are then

transferred to the ‘Super Hosts’ for expression and compound production.

The strains belong to JIC but academics and members of JIC’s Streptomyces Industrial Club

have access to them (the latter after payment of a fee that is used to fund JIC’s fundamental

Streptomyces research). Several pharmaceutical companies have acquired the Super Hosts,

as have prominent academics, including the world-leading laboratory of Professor Chris

Walsh at Harvard University.

As highlighted previously, the ‘Super Host’ has potential to reduce further the costs of

antibiotic production for academic and commercial users. Drug R&D is expensive, risky, and

time-consuming with estimates of at least 10-15 years and total investment of £500m to

£1.1bn to bring a drug to market33

. There is also a set of Streptomyces expression vectors

developed by JIC (‘Strep-X Toolkit’) under evaluation by several commercial companies via

Plant Bioscience Ltd (PBL).

JIC’s Super Hosts are playing a key role in speeding up antibiotic development and reducing

R&D costs for academia and the pharmaceutical industry. This will potentially reduce drug

development costs where every 1% saving is worth £5-£10m. They may also contribute

to production of high value compounds (see next section).

3.4.2 High Value Chemicals from Plants

Plants produce a rich and diverse array of natural products. These compounds have important

ecological functions, providing protection against pests, diseases, ultraviolet-B damage and

other environmental stresses. They are also exploited by humans as pharmaceutical drugs,

agrochemicals, within the food and drink industry, and for a wide variety of other industrial

biotechnology applications.

Research is being undertaken at JIC using genomics to understand pathways to sourcing high

value chemicals from plants and to discover new natural product pathways and chemistries.

This research is also investigating strategies for production of ‘new to nature’ compounds and

developing techniques to scale up production.

33

Infectious Diseases Society of America (2004) BAD BUGS, NO DRUGS As Antibiotic Discovery Stagnates A Public Health Crisis Brews

Terpenes are the largest class of plant-derived natural products. They have important

ecological functions and numerous applications in the agriculture, food and health industries.

Examples include the anti-cancer drugs vinblastine and vincristine, produced by Madagascar

periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus), the anti-malarial compound artemisinin from sweet

wormwood (Artemisia annua), and traditional medicines from plants such as liquorice and

ginseng. Although over 40,000 different terpenes have been reported, the biosynthetic

pathways for most of these compounds are unknown.

Terpenes are a major focus of research at JIC with several high-potential programmes

examining terpenes across a wide range of applications. The current and potential impact of

work in this area is presented in one example below.

3.4.3 Vinca alkaloids

Typically, in order to extract a natural product from a plant, it has to be isolated then purified.

Often these natural products can only be extracted in very low quantities, with the plant

material yielding much less that 1% of the natural product by weight34

. For many plants, the

natural product cannot be extracted economically for a number of reasons. For example,

some plants are difficult to grow and others are rare or endangered. This leads to the price of

natural products being extremely high, in some cases at more than £1m per kg. This is

particularly the case for the anti-cancer drugs vinblastine and vincristine, which are among the

most expensive drugs in the world, with prices ranging from $2m to $15m per kg35

. These

compounds, known as ‘vinca alkaloids’, cannot yet be synthesised and are directly isolated

from the leaves of the plant Catharanthus roseus (the Madagascan periwinkle). The benefits

of these drugs in treating a number of cancers have been known since the 1950s; however

very low yields (less than 0.5% compound for weight of plant) make extracting them costly.

Although the plant can be cultivated at large scale, the low yields limit commercial

applications36

.

JIC has received funding of around £1.75m through several grants37

to undertake research

into vinca alkaloids aimed at improving understanding of how Madagascan periwinkle

produces these compounds, identifying ways of improving synthesis and extraction, and

developing techniques to manipulate the pathways to make novel or improved natural

products.

Vinca alkaloids are the second most used class of cancer drugs38

. Vinblastine and vincristine

are used to treat a variety of cancers including Hodgkin's lymphoma, lymphoblastic

leukaemias and nephroblastomas. For example, vincristine is particularly effective in the

treatment of childhood leukaemia, the most common form of cancer among children. In 2010,

8,257 people in the UK were diagnosed with leukaemia, with 500 cases of childhood

leukaemia. The five-year survival rate for childhood leukaemia has increased from just 9% in

1966-70 to around 85% in 2001-05, with most of the improvements attributed to improved

treatment.

34

Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don. An Important Drug: Its Application and Production, IJCP, 2010 35

http://www.northeastern.edu/lee-parsons/research/ and http://www.redbook.com/redbook/online/ 36

Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don. An Important Drug: Its Application and Production, IJCP, 2010 37

ERC grant - €1.5m over 5 years; BBSRC grant £400k over 3 years; EPSRC grant of £350k over 3 years 38

http://chemoth.com/types/vinca-alkaloids

Although market information on the drugs is limited, estimates indicate that in the early 1990s

the world market consumed 5-10kg of vinblastine and vincristine with a total market value of

$25 - $50m. In 2005, the market for vinblastine was estimated at between $150m - $300m39

.

A report on chemotherapy drugs estimates that demand for alkaloid drugs will continue to

grow while doctors report that there is a current shortage of chemotherapy drugs40

.

Improving yields will have a significant impact on the industry, reducing the cost of

producing vinca alkaloids and increasing their availability. A 10% increase in yield

through JIC’s research could be worth between $15m - $30m (£9.4-£18.8m) annually in

cost savings for the pharmaceutical sector.

3.4.4 Molecular Pharming

Plants naturally produce a wide range of complex molecules. Some of these substances are

of direct use to mankind but it is also now possible to manipulate the biochemistry of plants

such that they produce novel substances of value for medicinal and biotechnology purposes.

JIC has developed a plant molecular production system that can be used to produce a wide

variety of novel substances. Known as the CPMV-HT technology41

it is a highly efficient and

flexible technology that is finding application in a wide variety of fields.

The CPMV-HT technology is based on JIC research in the 1980s and 1990s on cowpea

mosaic virus42

and is an example of Synthetic Biology in practice. The breakthrough came in

2005-8 when the technology finally enabled plants to express a wide variety of proteins of

potential value43

. The technology could revolutionise vaccine screening, production and

yield novel metabolites. It does not require high containment facilities or a license to handle

viral pathogens. It can radically reduce the costs and time required for vaccine development

and production allowing vaccines to be rapidly and accurately tailored to specific threats.

Plant systems can also express complex products that simpler organisms such as bacteria

cannot. The technology was patented in 2008 by PBL.

An open-IP approach has allowed the CVMV-HT system to be supplied to c. 120 labs

worldwide for experimental use, greatly contributing to academic understanding of the

opportunities and the opening up of routes to create value from the work.

Total funding for the work has included £4.42m from BBSRC and €1.5m from the EU.

Potential applications, some of which are already being trialled for commercial use include:

• Vaccine production

• Anti-cancer drug delivery

• HIV drugs

39

Medicinal Plants 1, Prota, 2008 40

http://chemoth.com/economics 41

Cow Pea Mosaic Virus – HyperTrans 42

Lomonossoff et al (1993) Insertion of Foreign Antigenic Sites into the Plant Virus Cowpea Mosaic Virus. In: Proceedings of the Second AFRC Protein Engineering Conference. 43

Sainsbury and Lomonossoff (2008) Extremely High-Level and Rapid Transient Protein Production in Plants without the Use of Viral Replication, American Society of Plant Biologists.

Influenza vaccine production: Medicago, a Canadian biotechnology company has a licence

to use the technology to produce vaccines for influenza virus, including the potentially

pandemic H5N1 avian strain. In tests in 2012 for DARPA, Medicago went from initial gene

sequence to delivery of 10m effective doses in 30 days44

, while the traditional route using egg

culture would have taken 9 – 12 months. Medicago has completed construction of a Virus-

Like-Particle (VLP) vaccine facility to produce 10m doses of influenza vaccine per month. On

an annual basis, the facility could have production capacity of 30m doses of quadrivalent

seasonal influenza vaccine or 120m doses of pandemic influenza vaccine. Medicago is now

attracting substantial investments to enable further product development and production with

international partners and customers.

Every winter there are around 8,000 flu-related deaths in England and Wales45

. Seasonal flu

mutates making it necessary to develop quickly a different vaccine, as the time from

identification of the strain to start of the outbreak is short. Pandemic flu can be devastating;

Spanish flu killed at least 25m globally in 191846

. The time between identification of a

pandemic strain and the first wave of the pandemic is only three to four months.

Rapid vaccination programmes before the pandemic has time to become established will save

lives and ill health and minimise the economic impact of the disease.

Economic modelling suggests that pandemic flu could reduce UK gross domestic product

(GDP) by between 0.5% (£8.4bn) and 4.3% (£73.2bn) or more, depending on severity and

other factors. Adequate vaccination could reduce the maximum impact to about 1% of GDP

i.e. c. £16bn47

. One UK business calculated that flu cost the UK economy £1.35bn in 2010,

with 7.5m working days lost48

. If this technology results in more effective rapid vaccines

that reduce the incidence of annual flu by just 1%, then it would save the UK economy

£13.5m per year.

Anti-cancer drug delivery: A £360k BBSRC Industrial Partnership Award for 3 years from

Feb 2011 has enabled the development of patented technology to produce empty

nanoparticles or Virus-like-particles (VLPs). JIC’s partner, US Company Aura Biosciences is

investigating using these adapted CPMV particles as a targeted drug delivery system, initially

based on delivering an anti-cancer drug to cancerous cells. JIC will receive royalties from drug

sales. This has potential to be a disruptive technology if commercialised.

Antibody production: As of 2011, the global market for therapeutic antibodies was worth

$23bn. 90% of global bioreactor capacity provides just 10 products out of the 80 or so in this

marketplace. Just about all of these rely on mammalian cell culture, which is comparatively

slow and expensive. Plant based HT technology could provide additional global capacity.

Once the specific molecular requirement is established, the optimal product can be rapidly

developed and scaled up for production of the final product at much lower capital cost. There

are currently only three plant based production units in the world, all in the USA49

.

44

Medicago successfully completes the production of more than ten million doses of H1N1 VLP influenza vaccine in one month, Medicago press release, July 2012. 45 DoH press release 30 Sept 2010 ‘Don’t underestimate seasonal flu’. 46

Medicago website 47

BMJ 2009; 339: b4571 48

Co-operative Group press release; 7.6 million working days lost due to flu, October 18, 2010 49

Medicago, Icon Genetics, USA Fraunhoffer.

Animal diseases: In 2009, a JIC-led EU funded research consortium50

of 11 labs in 7

countries demonstrated production of plant-based proteins as veterinary vaccines, including a

potential vaccine against bluetongue virus. A licence has been granted to a South African

company where this disease is endemic but its real value to the UK economy lies in

enhancing preparedness lest this disease be detected in the UK. A capacity within AHVLA51

to diagnose the strain causing an outbreak and very rapidly provide a treatment could contain

an outbreak which otherwise could cost the UK up to £500m and 10,000 jobs52

.

Other impacts:

The technology has also been used by other research groups at JIC and elsewhere to help

understand many aspects of fundamental plant biology and to rapidly evaluate new vaccines

and therapeutics for application in humans and animals, for example, to produce biologically

active pharmaceuticals for HIV neutralisation53

. The annual cost of providing HIV treatment

and care in the UK could be as high as £758m by 2013, or over £1bn including social care54

.

A 1% reduction in these costs as a result of JIC developed technology would save the

UK £10m per year.

Molecular Pharming facility at Norwich Research Park (NRP):

A consortium of academic and commercial partners is considering the option of establishing a

bespoke, modular commercial pharming facility on the NRP to capitalise on applications not

yet licenced or commercialised and would operate in specialised glasshouse facilities using

the HT system and other non-genetically modified organism technologies.

The niche for Norwich would be to produce materials for clinical trials, vaccines and

antibodies for smaller disease areas where the plant-based technology is competitive in cost

and scalability.

A larger scale vaccine production facility could enable the UK to swiftly develop and produce

vaccines against emerging pandemics, increasing national preparedness and economic

resilience.

There is competition, with a variety of protein expression providers in the UK, mainland

Europe, the USA and Israel. The five immediate UK competitors are small and are using non-

plant based systems, though they each have viable market niches55

.

In the medium-term this facility could catalyse an indigenous fast-response vaccine

production capacity, strengthening national preparedness against natural and terrorist disease

threats. It would also cement the UK’s position in a leading-edge technology with potential to

grow a new UK industry sector with high value jobs.

50

PLAPROVA - Plant Production of Vaccines develop a rapid plant-based system to produce and assess the capacity of different proteins to act as vaccines against important diseases of livestock such as avian influenza and blue tongue; EU Framework 7 programme (Research area: Cooperation; Theme: Food, agriculture and fisheries, and biotechnology) 51

AHVLA is required to provide an emergency response capability for exotic notifiable diseases of animals, including Bluetongue 52

http://www.pirbright.ac.uk/ecosoc/docs/Blue-Tongue-case-study.pdf 53

Rapid Transient Production in Plants by Replicating and Non-Replicating Vectors Yields High Quality Functional Anti-HIV Antibody, PLOS ONE, Sainsbury et al 54

Mandilia S et al. Rising population cost of treating people living with HIV in the UK, 1997-2013. PLoS One, 5, 12: e15677, 2010 55

For example, the University of Southampton hosting the Cancer Research UK non-GMP protein production labs and the translational GMP lab for the production of vaccines of Phase 1 & 2 trials

3.5 Nitrogen Fixation instead of Fertilisers

Cereal production is highly dependent on inputs of nitrogen based fertiliser, produced using

fossil fuels as the energy source, and responsible for the major source of pollution from

agriculture. UN World population prospects suggest the world population will increase from

7bn in 2012 to 9bn by 2048. Around half of these people will be in sub-Saharan Africa.

Feeding the world’s growing population will be a major challenge.

In developing countries cereal production is limited to 20-40% of its potential yield due to

nutrient limitations for plant growth56

, while in developed economies, yields of crops may be

maintained using unsustainable levels of inorganic fertilisers.

If productivity could be improved in developing countries by improving crop nutrition, there is

potential to contribute to solving the world’s food security problem.

Legumes form symbiotic interactions with rhizobial bacteria through formation of root nodules

that provide the plant with a source of nitrogen and with mycorrhizal fungi to facilitate

phosphate and other nutrient uptake.

JIC is researching the potential for cereal plants to benefit from these symbiotic interactions in

the way legumes do. By understanding the symbiosis signalling components in legumes, JIC

is investigating how these can be transferred to initiate nodulation in cereals. JIC has also

identified the genes within bacteria that enable them to convert nitrogen in the atmosphere to

ammonia. Introducing these genes directly into plants is an alternative way of creating self-

fertilising crops.

This £8.6m research project is the first step towards nitrogen-fixing cereals with the ultimate

aim of improving productivity for smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa without using


A recent study of the economics of maize production in one region of Nigeria57

showed that at

a yield of 3.19 tonnes per hectare (higher than the overall average in sub-Saharan Africa)

fertiliser costs accounted for £37 per hectare with profit of £282 per hectare (based on maize

selling at £158 per tonne). It was noted that availability of money to buy fertiliser and

agrochemicals was the main constraint on production. Assuming N fixing maize was adopted,

it is expected that increased yields would be obtained for either the same or a reduced

fertiliser cost, thus removing a key constraint on increasing production.

This is a high-risk research area, but if successful, new cereal varieties could be in the field

within 20-30 years requiring further research effort and investment.

The total area of maize production across sub-Saharan Africa58

was 31m hectares producing

49.2m tonnes in 2011 suggesting average yield of 1.6 tonnes per hectare. Yields in other

tropical nations in 2011 were 4.2t/ha (Brazil), 2.9t/ha (Mexico) and 4.3 t/ha (Thailand)59

.

56

Foley et al Nature 478:337 57

Oladejo and Adetunji (2012) Economic analysis of maize (zea mays l.) production in Oyo state of Nigeria. Agricultural Science Research Journals Vol. 2(2) pp. 77-83 58

Defined as Central, Eastern and Southern Africa excluding South Africa. 59

FAOstat

Adoption of improved maize seed in the area is around 60%60

suggesting 18.6m hectares61

of

the area could be reached with a new N fixing maize variety.

Based on the assumptions above, if part of the nutrient limitation identified by Foley et al in

Nature could be removed and yields were able to reach the lowest of the tropical country

benchmarks (Mexico at 2.9 t/ha), N fixing maize could deliver an additional 24m tonnes of

maize in sub-Saharan Africa, an increase of 50% on 2011 production.

Maize accounts for around a quarter of starch consumption in Africa with per capita

consumption ranging from around 26 kg per head per year in Central and Eastern Africa to 85

kg in Southern Africa (excluding South Africa)62

. Taking a mid-range of these figures as 55 kg

per head per year, the additional maize delivered through a N fixing variety could meet

the starch needs and improve food security for 0.436 billion people.

The project is also likely to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as less synthetic fertiliser will

be needed versus alternative scenarios.

This project may not have a direct economic impact in the UK if GM restrictions remain the

same, but reducing greenhouse gas emissions will contribute to decreasing the speed of

climate change with indirect benefits to the UK and the rest of the world. Were N fixing

cereals to become a reality they would significantly influence the GM debate in Europe.

JIC’s research is high risk, but if successful, could offer an alternative more

sustainable route to global food security away from dependence on synthetic

fertilisers.

60

World Bank (2011) Maize Revolutions in Sub-Saharan Africa 61

60% of the 31m ha in sub-Saharan Africa 62

World Bank (2011) Maize Revolutions in Sub-Saharan Africa

4. Operating Impact of JIC

The operating impact of JIC relates to the on-site running of the Institute, such as expenditure

incurred and staff employed, plus the knock-on effects as these expenditures ripple through

the UK economy and support further activities. The total economic impact of operating JIC

therefore encompasses three distinct elements:

1. Direct impact: output generated and persons employed in the day-to-day operation of

the Institute in Norwich;

2. Indirect impact: output and employment created in the businesses which supply the

inputs or materials used by the Institute; and

3. Induced impact: output and employment created when workers employed directly or

indirectly spend their income in the local economy.

4.1 Direct Impact

JIC’s income in 2011/12 was £35.2m. Figure 4.1 illustrates JIC income by source over the

last 4 years. Income has been similar to over the last 3 years, but is significantly above the

level in 2008/09. Between 2008/09 and 2011/12, total revenue income has increased by

£1.7m and capital funding has increased by £3.8m. The main source of the increase in

revenue finding has been BBSRC competitive funding and EU funding

Figure 4.1: Sources of JIC Income (£000’s)

Source: JIC Management Accounts JIC directly employs 346 staff comprising 255 in research and 91.2 FTEs central services

63. In

addition, in 2011/12, JIC had 86 students and 128 visiting scientists. The students receive a

stipend that varies according to the sponsor. Visiting scientists are supported by their host

institutions, or by EU funding for training purposes – see Figure 4.2.

63

In total, there are 152 staff in Central Services. JIC pays 60% of these staff costs, so 91.2 FTEs have been allocated to JIC.

29,681

35,388 35,256 35,191

0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

30,000

35,000

40,000

08/09 09/10 10/11 11/12

Capital BBSRC - Maintenance

Capital BBSRC - Capital

JIC Other

JIC Other public e.g. TSB

JIC Private

JIC EU funding

JIC BBSRC competitive funding

JIC BBSRC core funding

Figure 4.2: Staffing at JIC (2011/12)

Source: JIC HR database

4.2 Indirect Impact

JIC spent £12.3m with suppliers in 2011/12, of which £11.4m was with UK based suppliers.

This supplier expenditure forms the inputs for calculating the indirect operating impact of JIC.

Figure 4.3 illustrates the supplier expenditure by type.

Figure 4.3: JIC Expenditure by Type

Source: JIC Management Accounts

In 2011/12 construction was a major element of the expenditure, comprising buildings, repairs

and maintenance and ‘other capital’.

0.0 50.0 100.0 150.0 200.0

Research Staff

Scientific Support

KEC

Management

Central Services

Students

Visiting Workers

BIO MET GRO WISP NCG

Consumables

19% Computer services

2%

Construction

38%

Education

1%

Utilities

23%

Professional

services

5%

Equipment

2%Other

4%

Sub contracting

2%Transportation

4%

This profile of supplier expenditure supports output and employment amongst supplier

industries, and their suppliers in turn. The extent of this impact can be estimated using the UK

National Accounts published by ONS, estimating the level of expenditure required to support a

FTE job in each supplier, and their knock-on expenditure.

In total for 2011/12, JIC’s supplier expenditure is estimated to generate a total of £24.9m

output for UK industries, supporting 193 jobs. This comprises 92 FTEs in those UK

companies directly supplying JIC, and a further 101 employed through further supply chain

effects (i.e. as JIC’s suppliers purchase inputs in-turn from their suppliers, which is still

attributable to JIC’s initial demand).

4.3 Induced Impact

Total salaries paid to JIC staff amount to £13.1m for 2011/12. Other salary costs paid by JIC

include support services of £4.7m and a further £1.3m of student costs. In addition, the

salaries paid to staff working within the JIC supply chain are estimated at £4.4m. In total, this

£23.6m of direct and indirect salaries accrues to households to be spent on a profile of

consumer goods and services, generating further economic activity in the UK. This forms the

basis for JIC’s induced impact.

Modelling this household income using an average consumer profile, indicates that the direct

and indirect salaries will lead to increased spending of £10.8m and will support a further 97

jobs across the UK economy. While these induced impacts can be attributed to JIC, they will

largely occur in sectors out-with the profile of direct and indirect industries, occurring instead

in consumer industries such as retail and recreational services.

4.4 Summary of Operating Impacts

Figure 4.4 summarises the direct, indirect and induced impacts of JIC highlighting the 636

jobs and £30.4m of Gross Value Added (GVA) across the UK economy.

Figure 4.4 Summary of JIC Operating Impacts

Output

(£m)

Employment

(jobs)

GVA

(£m)

Direct 35.2 346 19.1

Indirect 24.9 193 9.1

Induced 10.9 97 2.2

Total 71 636 30.4

5. Wider JIC Impact

In addition to the operational impacts and those associated with specific research areas, JIC

has many wider academic, economic and social impacts.

These wider impacts are discussed here and broadly follow the RCUK pathways to impact

framework64

. There are three primary areas where the wider impacts of JIC are seen:

• Knowledge Exchange and Commercialisation

• Learning, Teaching and Training; and

• Networks, Collaborations, Public Engagement and Influence.

5.1 Knowledge Exchange and Commercialisation

5.1.1 High Impact Journal Articles

JIC publishes extensively in the scientific literature as one means of disseminating its

scientific knowledge for impact. JIC, along with The Sainsbury Laboratory (TSL) has been

independently ranked first in the world plant and animal science citations 1999-200965

.

JIC publishes around 15 papers per year in the highest impact scientific journals66

including

Cell, Nature, Science, PLOS Biology, Current Biology and PNAS. This top performance in

publications underlines JIC’s focus on long-term fundamental science to address key

challenges of food security, sustainability, industrial biotechnology and healthy ageing.

In 2009, the US magazine ‘Science’ produced a special issue67

on plant- microbe interactions;

JIC and the Sainsbury Laboratory authored 3 of the 7 articles, demonstrating the global

recognition of JIC’s work in this area.

A list of articles published in journals with impact factor of 5 or more is set out in Appendix 3.

5.1.2 Collaborative Research, Consultancy and Company Engagement

Since 2008, JIC has engaged in industrial collaborations worth nearly £5m in research

funding68

. These have varied from providing direct funding (e.g. Bayer BioScience, Monsanto,

Syngenta, BASF), co-funding (e.g. AHDB, BASF, KWS UK Ltd, Elsoms seeds, RAGT Seeds),

and in-kind contributions (e.g. HGCA, BASF PLC, CPB Twyford, Monsanto, Nickersons).

JIC has three innovation clusters, which aim to develop practical application from JIC’s

science. The cluster leaders focus on Crop Flowering Time, Crop Pathogen Interactions and

Anti-Infectives Technologies.

Three examples of industry engagement projects are set out below.

64

http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/kei/impacts/Pages/meanbyimpact.aspx 65

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=411170&c=1 66

Journals such as Nature, Cell and Science have Impact Factors of 30 and above. 67‘Science’ 2009 Vol 324, issue 5928, pages 677-840 68

JIC Director’s Statement

Vernalization in brassicas - funded through Defra LINK, BBSRC and industry is a JIC

collaboration with Elsoms Seeds, Bejo Zaden and Weatherquest. This joint project has

focused on better understanding vernalization requirements of different varieties of broccoli

and cauliflower to improve certainty in crop scheduling and yield:

Trait Tag - JIC developed a new genomic methodology for identifying molecular markers in

gene expressions called Trait Tag69

. Trait Tag enables plant breeders to identify these

markers quickly and robustly by identifying and scoring variation across very large sets of

plants. It allows plant breeders to improve the quality of plants in a shorter timescale and at

lower cost than previously possible. JIC collaborated with Eagle Genomics Ltd, a

bioinformatics software company in Cambridge, who fine-tuned the software. JIC receives

5% royalty from Eagle Genomics.

CASE PhD studentships70

- JIC hosts a number of students, jointly supervised by academic

and industrial partners. One recent example is Chris Burt who was funded by BBSRC and

HGCA to work with plant breeder RAGT on ‘eyespot’, a fungal disease that causes large yield

losses in cereals in North West Europe and North West USA.

5.1.3 Intellectual Property

JIC makes use of two approaches to intellectual property (IP). Firstly IP protection and

secondly Open-IP or open innovation. Both are exploited for commercial, economic and

societal benefit as appropriate.

IP protection and exploitation - JIC has an IP management and technology transfer

company - PBL. Since its inception, PBL has invested £2.3m in the costs of patent protection

for JIC IP and has generated revenues of £2.8m from licensing JIC’s innovations. As a result,

JIC and JIC inventors have received over £0.85m from PBL. JIC currently has 24 active

patented technologies, of which over 60% have already started to generate revenue and four

have generated in excess of £100,000.71

Several of these technologies could be at the point

of significant breakthrough in terms of income generation and UK job creation. Examples

include: • DA1 – by identifying and removing genes that are negative regulators of growth, there

is potential to deliver a 5% increase in wheat yield that would deliver £110m at the UK

level and £1.16bn at the EU level. The technology has been licensed to industry and

is being refined further.

• Crop root hairs – JIC has identified the genes that cause plant root hairs to grow

longer thus improving moisture and nutrient uptake. This technology is licensed to

industry with worldwide patent cover. The original JIC inventor is now a named

Professor at Oxford University, demonstrating the academic impact of JIC alumni. If

successful, it is likely to be adopted into maize, soya beans, wheat, rice and other

major crops around the world.

• Temperature Sensing - JIC has discovered genes responsible for temperature

sensing and controlling growth such that plants can continue to grow at lower or

higher temperatures. This is licensed to a grower in the covered vegetable sector

where it is saving energy used to heat greenhouses. A 10% reduction in energy costs

69

For which JIC scientists Martin Trick and Ian Bancroft were nominated Innovators of the Year, 2010. 70

Collaborative Awards in Science and Engineering (CASE) are 4-year doctoral training studentship grants that give students high quality research training in collaboration with an industrial partner. 71

JIC IP Summary November 2012.

could save the UK sector £17m-£26m per year and reduce CO2 emissions. The

research could also help plants adapt to climate change and improve food security.

The original inventor at JIC has now moved to the Sainsbury Laboratory in Cambridge

demonstrating again the academic impact of JIC.

Open-IP – in parallel with protected IP, much of JIC research is made available widely to

industry and academia with little or no-IP restrictions. This method ensures that benefits of

public good research are quickly and widely distributed and adopted. Examples include the

Wheat Improvement Strategic Programme (WISP), which shares the benefits with plant

breeders, aspects of Streptomyces research that are shared with academics and industry

through the Streptomyces Industrial Club and molecular pharming where the CPMV-HT plant

production technology has been widely shared amongst academics for research use.

5.1.4 Spin-Out Companies

JIC has formed a number of spin-out companies that continue to develop strongly. Examples

include:

Inspiralis - supplies topoisomerase enzymes, tools and resources to large pharmaceutical

companies, biotech companies and academics worldwide. Its

products and services are used for drug discovery, saving time

and costs for clients. The company has grown to employ 5

FTE employees and is profit making. Sales for the financial

year 2011/12 were £330K, 85% of which were exports

worldwide including to Japan, USA, India and Europe. Sales

have been rising since the company started in 2008 while exports have formed a similar

proportion of sales each year. There are no UK competitors, the main direct competitor being

in the USA while there are other international competitors offering some of what the company

provides. Inspiralis therefore brings additional economic benefits to the UK. Inspiralis

received investment by the Iceni Seed corn Fund.

Procarta Biosystems - has developed a new type of DNA-based antibiotics based on JIC

research. Procarta’s technology blocks the metabolism of the bacteria (the transcription factor

binding site) making it almost impossible for bacterial resistance to develop.

The approach has proven to be successful against MRSA

and is now in pre-clinical development. Procarta has just

received further investment of £500,000 from Morningside

Venture Investments and an EU patent that it expects to take

worldwide.

Dr Michael McArthur, CSO of Procarta Biosystems said ‘It is becoming recognised among

investors and grant funders that something must be done about the challenge of antibacterial

resistance. What we can offer is a genuinely novel and potent approach that can be rapidly

developed to treat numerous bacterial infections, for which the number of effective treatments

is dwindling’.

As already highlighted in the report, antibiotic resistance costs at least €1.5bn per year across

the EU. As well as new antibiotic discoveries at JIC, Procarta’s technology could present a

new way of countering resistance in bacterial infections.

Novacta - is working on discovering new anti-infectives that target Clostridium difficile and the

superbug MRSA. It already has compounds in clinical

trials. Deaths involving C. difficile are now falling in

England and Wales from a peak of 8,324 in 2007 to

2,053 in 201172

. A review by the National Institute of

Clinical Excellence estimated the economic cost to the

NHS at the peak to be £194m73

. The company completed a Phase I study of NVB302 against

C. difficile infection in healthy volunteers in August 2012.

5.2 Learning, Teaching and Training

JIC runs an extensive programme of training and engagement across the entire school and

university spectrum aimed at inspiring the next generation of scientists. This continuum of

training has impacts in terms of changing perception of science as a career and attracting

young people into bioscience.

5.2.1 Inspiring the Next Generation

JIC’s mission statement puts the development of human capital at the heart of what it does. A

key objective is “to train scientists for the future”.

Schools activities range from working with primary schools, informing them about scientists

and their work, to school lectures at JIC and non-residential camps and placements.

The SAW Trust – The SAW (Science, Arts and Writing) Trust,

established in 2006, is a registered charity that encourages science

education in schools through engagement between science and the

arts. Since its inception, it has delivered over 70 projects with

around 3,500 school children in the UK, around 50 projects in the

US and was launched in China in December 2012.

Teacher Science Network (TSN) - JIC hosts, and is an active member of, the Teacher

Science Network, which puts members of the Norwich Research Park in contact with local

science teachers to support delivery of up to date science; to counteract ‘boffin’ stereotypes;

and encourage interaction. As part of this wider role, JIC has made inputs to current school

scientific textbooks.

5.2.2 Scientists of the Future

JIC has a wide range of activities to train young scientists including the following:

Linkages to the University of East Anglia (UEA) - JIC is part of the Graduate School at

UEA. JIC Project Leaders are honorary Professors at UEA schools of Biology, Chemistry,

Pharmacology and Computer Science and contribute to undergraduate and postgraduate

courses. In particular, JIC scientists teach a Masters degree at UEA in Crop Improvement.

72

Office for National Statistics 73

Economic Impact of John Innes Centre 2008

Summer research training programme - JIC hosts an undergraduate summer research

training programme, which last year received 500 applications for 16 places. It offers insight

into careers in bioscience research, access to world-class scientists and facilities, and the

opportunity to gain new skills and laboratory experience.

Placements with JIC - Through affiliation with three universities, JIC offers two students

annually a ‘year in industry’, enabling them to spend up to 12 months working alongside a JIC

scientist.

Post Graduates, Post Doctorate and Visiting Workers - around 60% of JIC researchers

are post graduates, post doctorate or visiting masters. JIC’s global reputation means strong

competition for training places and a very high standard of candidates. At any time, JIC will

have around 100 PhD students. This continual flow of training researchers means that JIC

benefits from considerable scientific research output, adding value to its research and

reputation.

5.2.3 Career Development and Continuing Professional Development

JIC has a structured career development path for staff, to help realise the potential of their

scientific research, to support lifelong learning and CPD.

5.3 Influence, Networks and Public Engagement

JIC plays a key role in informing policy, in influencing debate, in sharing its knowledge and

expertise and in public engagement. These areas are considered below at local, national and

international levels.

5.3.1 Local

5.3.1.1 Norwich Research Park (NRP)

The NRP is centred around six research institutes/organisations, employing around 2,700

scientists and 12,000 staff (plus UEA students). All six organisations have their primary

facilities on-site, providing a critical mass of multidisciplinary activity and expertise at the NRP.

This mix is very appealing to potential inward investors. The large number of multidisciplinary

research staff onsite is also likely to lead to a growing number of spin-outs and start-ups.

In 2011, the NRP was awarded £26m UK Government funding to enable the development of a

research and innovation campus. The first phase of this new development is already well

underway.

The strength of JIC’s science has supported development of the NRP. For example, JIC

enabled NRP partners to secure a BBSRC Doctoral Training Partnership award for PhD

funding by demonstrating high levels of revenue from research. JIC’s proposed molecular

pharming facility could have a major impact on direct jobs and inward investment (see

molecular pharming case study).

Number of jobs and GVA attributable to JIC

Assuming equal attribution amongst the partners, the NRP will lead to 1,300 net additional

jobs and £70m GVA per year as shown in Table 5.1.

Table 5.1 Jobs and GVA supported by both current and future potential commercial

space at NRP

Net additional

jobs

Net additional

GVA

10 yr. NPV @ 3.5%

Current commercial space 220 £12,094,353 £104,104,396

Future potential commercial

space 7,502 £412,629,707 £3,295,871,730

Total 7,722 £424,724,060 £3,399,976,126

Attributable to JIC 1,287 £70,787,343 £566,662,688

Source: Brookdale Consulting based on consultations with NRP

Earth and Life Systems Alliance (ELSA) - a major strategic collaboration between JIC and

the University of East Anglia to integrate world-class expertise in biological, earth and social

sciences to tackle the challenges posed by a changing climate.

Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy Alliance – JIC is also contributing to this growing

research area along with partners on the NRP and elsewhere to harness the potential of new

production methods for high value compounds and renewable energy.

5.3.2 National

House of Commons - JIC annually hosts House of Commons dinners, which

enable NGOs, ministers and MPs to talk openly with scientists about key

scientific developments such as synthetic biology, food security, the value of

knowledge generation, working with industry and the economic and societal

impact of science. This enables useful science based discussions to take

place before topics become over politicised. JIC has also used this forum to

inform the science curriculum on the importance of plant biology which tends

to have less profile than human biology.

Government Briefings - JIC often prepares Briefing Documents for Ministers. Issues include

topics such as GM, Marker Assisted Breeding and the implications of the EU Directive

banning the future use of pesticides. JIC’s inputs help ensure any debate is based on robust

scientific evidence.

Government Consultations - JIC actively helps inform government policy by formally

responding to consultations, either in its own capacity, or jointly with partners or BBRSC. On

average, two formal consultation responses are issued by JIC annually.

Leadership positions - JIC staff sit on various influential committees and partnerships. For

example, JIC’s Director sits on the Synthetic Biology Leadership Council, responsible for

implementing the Synthetic Biology Road map, and the Food Research Partnership, chaired

by Sir John Beddington.

Policy Response - In response to the recent UK Ash Dieback outbreak, JIC led a research

bid to BBRSC to examine both the tree and pathogen genetics in order to find potential

solutions to the disease. This is a joint bid with The Sainsbury Laboratory (TSL), the

Universities of Exeter and Edinburgh and a Norwegian tree pathologist. This demonstrates

JIC’s ability to respond to major biological challenges facing the UK.

5.3.3 International

JIC Alumni - A high proportion of JIC PhD and post-doctoral researchers are international

and over half leave the UK following their time at JIC. Therefore, JIC attracts a high inflow of

talent and exports a high outflow of talent overseas. JIC and its alumni form a truly global

network of highly skilled researchers that often network or collaborate on projects.

International collaborations - JIC scientists have around 330 active international

collaborations across the globe. JIC has strong collaborations with China and emerging

research partnerships with Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia creating a strong basis for further

developing scientific programmes in Asia. Through a NRP led initiative, JIC is developing

collaborations with research organisations in Brazil. Partnership between JIC and sub-

Saharan Africa will encourage engagement and knowledge transfer to support the agriculture

of developing nations.

JIC-China Centre of Excellence - JIC has had links with the Chinese Academy of Science

(CAS) for over thirty years. More than 100 JIC alumni have academic positions in China,

including three within CAS itself.

In June 2011, JIC and CAS signed a Memorandum of

Understanding to collaborate in areas of public good

research such as food security, sustainable agriculture and

healthy living. The research will focus on sustainable

production of wheat and rice. A joint CAS-JIC Centre of

Excellence will be established in China and there will be

regular staff exchanges and alignment of research to drive

development of new crops and production of valuable raw

materials and complex chemicals to underpin industries as

diverse as plastics and pharmaceuticals.

Alongside the impacts of successful research, benefits to JIC will include an expanded

research base, enhanced reputation and attraction of the best scientists.

CGIAR74

- JIC staff serve on many international science advisory boards including CGIAR

whose institutes may take up JIC research and apply it globally including:

• International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)

• International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT)

• International Potato Centre (CIP)

• International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)

Together with these bodies, JIC provides important contributions to the Global Food Security

programme.

74

Formerly known as the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research

European Plant Science Organisation (EPSO) – JIC is a member of EPSO, which brings

together more than 204 research institutes, departments and universities from 29 countries in

Europe and beyond. It aims to improve the impact and visibility of plant science in Europe.

Streptomyces networks – over decades, JIC has pioneered Streptomyces research to

support antibiotic development. As well as the Streptomyces Industrial Club, there are global

networks of researchers who share information on Streptomyces to support their research.

Coordination of International Collaborative Projects - JIC takes a leading role in the

coordination of collaborative research programmes. Within the EU Framework 7 programme

JIC was a partner in eleven programmes, coordinating five and interacting with 152 research

organisations from 30 countries.

Additional international collaborations led by JIC include the Japanese funded Human

Frontiers Science programme and UK Government funded initiatives with foreign partners

through international aid (Department of International development, DFID) and with charitable

trusts (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation). Examples include:

MM4TB EU consortium - JIC is one of 25 laboratories across Europe collaborating to find

new drugs to combat TB, which kills 1.8m people per year75

. Current TB treatments are old

and require to be taken for a long time. A previous EU FP6 consortium NM4TB delivered a

new drug for clinical trials ahead of schedule. The current project involves academics and

industry and aims to screen widely for compounds that would not be commercially viable for

industry to take forward.

The Grain Legumes Integrated Project (GLIP) was a €14.75m multinational project, co-

funded by the EU FP6 Framework Programme, to develop new strategies to enhance the use

of grain legumes crops in food for human consumption and animal feed throughout the world.

JIC coordinated this ultimately successful project, with another 67 contractors at 80 locations

participating. At evaluation, the project was given the highest rating and considered to have

fully met its objectives.

ATHENA is an FP7 collaborative project, involving 11 European institutions, coordinated by

JIC. The project is assessing anthocyanins in protecting against cardiovascular disease,

cancer and obesity in preclinical studies with animals.

75

http://www.mm4tb.org/

Fellowships – JIC is successful in securing EU grants and prestigious fellowships as shown

in the Table below for the period 2007-12

International Grants

2007-2012

Programme Number

Awarded

Number

Coordinated

FP7 Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowships 16

International Incoming Fellowships 4

International and European Reintegration 3

Training Networks (consortia) 4 2

European Research

Council (ERC)

Advanced Investigator Grants 2

Starting Grants 4

FP7 Collaborative Grants 9 3

Cost Action (consortium) 1

Coordination and Support Action

(consortium)

1

5.3.4 Public Engagement

The final area of JIC’s engagement is with the general public including the following:

Science in Society Programme - JIC operates an active programme of engagement with the

general public ranging from providing speakers in public debates, engaging with interest

groups, exhibiting at shows, through to hosting events and discussions. Events attended by

JIC include the Edinburgh Science Festival, Cereals, the International Fascination of Plants

Day, Big Bang Fair, British Science Association Science Festival, the Royal Norfolk Show and

the Royal Society Summer Exhibition.

Social media – JIC has active social media accounts as a means of engaging the public. It

has over 2,300 followers on Twitter, more than 800 ‘likes’ on Facebook and 443 followers on

LinkedIn. These figures do not include the numerous Twitter and social media accounts of

individual scientists and departments which are used extensively to converse with peers and

the public.

Friends of JIC - has 4,000 members made up of general public, alumni, industry and

partnership organisations, who receive the ‘Advances’ newsletter and are invited to around 8-

9 events annually, discussing key topics with the scientific lead.

Media partners - JIC works with media partners, aiming to be the trusted first port of call for

information relating to plant and microbial science.

Interest groups - As with genetic modification, there are interest groups with concerns about

the use of synthetic biology. JIC has aimed to make the debate more accessible to the

interested public by hosting presentations and discussion on YouTube – one example being

seed store76

.

Hosted visits and open days – JIC scientists regularly host visits and take part in open days

for members of the public and for schools. These include site open days, visits to Church

Farm and visits by local and wider interest groups. 76

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6PSNMFV20k

6. Summary and Overview

JIC’s focus is on long-term fundamental high quality research with a longer-term horizon than

universities and aspirations to address global challenges.

Within the context of fundamental research, it is a relatively short period since the last impact

report, nevertheless:

• JIC’s KEC strategy is supporting a wide number of industrial collaborations, research

projects and Intellectual Property with significant potential.

• Areas in which JIC previously had substantial impact are continuing to have great

potential e.g. wheat, brassicas and antibiotics. • A number of promising new areas of research have emerged, in particular, industrial

biotechnology and synthetic biology.

• Royalty income may be at a turning point - following years of relatively small returns, a

number of technologies are coming to fruition at the same time that could deliver very

substantial income for JIC. • There is strong evidence to support JIC’s contribution to grand challenges such as

global food security with a time horizon beyond many funders and researchers.

• Synergies from the Norwich Research Park are increasing and joint research between

JIC, TGAC and UEA is increasing. TGACs capabilities are important in underpinning

JIC research that would not have been possible even 5-10 years ago.

• In wheat, JIC is demonstrating that the gap between what plant breeders can deliver

(13%) and what forecasts suggest is required (50%) could be bridged by innovative

new technologies exploiting JIC’s fundamental science over many years. Very large

yield increases are still possible through step changes in genetic improvement, though

time horizons are 10-20 years.

• N-fixation has a potential role in global food security – it is high risk but potentially very

high reward over the next 20-30 years.

• There is a balance between actual and potential impacts. Some very long-term

research projects are now coming to fruition, e.g. Beneforte Broccoli, which is now on

sale. Other areas such as molecular pharming could soon deliver very substantial

impacts and represent a completely new opportunity for the UK economy. Some of

these areas will require substantial investment that may not be forthcoming from the

private sector given the risks.

6.1.1 On-going impacts

JIC has a substantial impact on the regional economy around Norwich. This includes 636

jobs, plus annual Gross Value Added (GVA) impacts of £30.4m at the UK level per year.

JIC’s work has been key in supporting plant breeders in delivering £373m-£445m of gross

wheat yield benefits per year at the UK level compared to 1982 yields. This includes the

benefits of reduced cereal diseases. At the global level, gross productivity increases

supported by JIC’s research could be worth £8.7bn in 2012.

JIC’s work in antibiotics has supported additional global sales revenue potential of £247m per

year for actinomycete-derived antibiotics, forecast to be £306m by 2017 through market

growth.

6.1.2 Gross Research impacts

A summary of the main gross impacts arising is set out below across the case studies.

Crop Improvement

Improving wheat yields – In addition to the on-going impacts above, for every 1% increase

in yield achieved by WISP and QTLs, the JIC share of impact will be £3.67m at the UK level

and £38.7m at the EU level per year.

Reducing cereal diseases – JIC’s long-term work in cereal diseases supports the UK and

global industry as set out above. By enabling breeders to produce varieties with half the

current level of septoria disease losses (3%) it is estimated that the future impact attributable

to JIC could be £3.3m at the UK level and £70m at the EU level per year while work in take-all

could ultimately lead to reduced costs for UK wheat farmers of £60-340m per year.

Oilseed rape – JICs work to reduce pod shatter in OSR could increase yields by 15% worth

£165m at the UK farm gate or £1.7bn if implemented across the EU.

Enriched Broccoli – Beneforte is now on sale in UK and US supermarkets. It has the

potential to reduce cardiovascular disease and prostate cancer and work to support a health

claim is on-going. Potential benefits of £38m per 1% reduction in disease can be anticipated

at the UK level. 50% of these are attributed to JIC.

Nitrogen fixing cereals – If JIC’s work on N-fixing in maize is successful, it could improve

food security for 0.436 billion people in sub-Saharan Africa and provide an alternative to


Industrial Biotechnology and Synthetic Biology

Tunicamycin – JIC is working to reduce toxicity of Tunicamycin such that it can be taken up

by the pharmaceutical industry as a completely new class of antibiotics. Antibiotic resistance

is a major policy priority in the UK and EU. Every 10% reduction in the costs of antibiotic

resistance at the EU level will conservatively deliver £125m.

Super Hosts - JIC has just developed a series of Streptomyces strains that can be used as

‘Super Hosts’ to reduce drug development costs where every 1% saving is worth £5-£10m.

High Value Chemicals from Plants – one example of improving yields of vinca alkaloids will

have a significant impact on the industry, reducing costs and increasing availability. A 10%

increase in yield through JIC’s research could be worth between £9.4-£18.8m annually in cost

savings for the pharmaceutical sector.

Molecular Pharming - JIC has developed a plant molecular production system CPMV-HT77

that can be used to produce efficiently a wide variety of novel substances. It could

revolutionise vaccine-screening production, yield novel metabolites and is licensed to industry.

If the technology results in more effective rapid vaccines that reduce the incidence of annual

77

Cow Pea Mosaic Virus – HyperTrans

flu by just 1%, then it would save the UK economy £13.5m per year. A 1% reduction in costs

of HIV treatment and care because of the technology would save the UK £10m per year.

Wider impacts

Wider impacts of JIC include:

• independent ranking with the Sainsbury Laboratory as number one in the world for

academic citations in 200978

• engagement in £5m of current industrial collaborations

• growing spin-out companies with increased investment, turnover and employment

• training scientists from school age children and students through to JIC staff

• JIC is active in the public debate around science, food security and GM, informing

government and society about the direction of scientific research.

• Important contributions to the Global Food Security programme and around 330

active JIC global collaborations.

• The JIC-China Centre of Excellence represents a substantial research collaboration

that will have global impact. For example, over 100 JIC alumni have academic

positions in China.

• Norwich Research Park impacts of 1,300 net additional jobs and £566m GVA over 10

years estimated by Brookdale Consulting as attributable to JIC.

6.1.3 Net impacts UK

In addition to the operating impacts highlighted in 6.1.1, a summary of the net impacts across

the case study areas is set out below (Table 6.1). It takes the gross impacts calculated for

each case study and assesses research costs, implementation costs, timescales of adoption,

and additionality at the level of the UK economy. These figures are summed together to

derive the net cumulative impact expected over the next 10 years. Finally, Value for Money

(VFM) ratios are also presented for each area. Overall, the VFM of the JIC research areas

considered is £11.99 of GVA at the UK level. See Appendix 4 for further details.

78

Plant and animal science see: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=411170&sectioncode=26

Table 6.1 Summary of 10-year net impacts of JIC Research at the UK level

6.1.4 Net impacts globally and long term UK

Given JIC’s global leadership in many science areas and the long-term nature of its research,

we have also considered impacts that are not captured within the UK 10-year figures above.

These include non-UK, EU and global potential impacts of technologies such as N-fixation

and longer-term UK potential impacts such as those related to antibiotic resistance. Table 6.2

summarises these impacts. It can be seen that over a thirty-year period, there could be a

further £24bn of cumulative impacts attributable to JIC if its research is successful. See

Appendix 5 for further details.

Table 6.2 Summary of net impacts of JIC Research (long term UK and international)

TOTAL

Total research funding assessed

£ 42,660,000

JIC share of research funding assessed £ 18,657,500

Gross annual benefits identified (£) £ 506,000,000

Implementation timescale Over 10 years

Gross Benefits over 10 years (£PV) £ 858,102,298

Gross Implementation Costs over 10 yrs

(£PV)

£ 25,461,429

Net Benefits (£PV) £ 789,980,869

Additionality of the impacts 100%

Value of benefits to the economy (£PV) £ 789,980,869

JIC attribution based on share of work 44%

Additional Output over 10 years (£PV) £ 347,065,370

Additional GVA over 10 years (£PV) £ 223,781,154

Additional Jobs Supported (FTE) 408

Value for money

VFM - JIC research funding only (GVA

leverage per £1 JIC research funding

(10yr GVA NPV))

11.99

Summary of Net Impacts of JIC Research

Funding

Gross Impacts

Net Additional Benefits

for the UK Economy

Impacts Attributable to

JIC

TOTAL


£ 21,118,000

JIC share of research funding assessed £ 21,118,000

Gross annual benefits identified (£) £ 8,517,400,000

Implementation timescale Over 10 years or more

Gross Benefits over 30 years (£PV) £ 48,819,178,749


(£PV) £ 403,226,394

Net Benefits (£PV) £ 48,386,164,355

Additionality of the impacts 100%

Value of benefits to the economy (£PV) £ 48,386,164,355

JIC attribution based on share of work 49%

Additional Output over 30 years (£PV) £ 23,877,630,812


Funding

Gross Impacts


globally


JIC

Appendix 1: Market Failure Table A1.1 sets out how JIC’s activities relate to different market failures. Table A1.1: Market Failure – Why public funding of JIC is justified Market failure

Rationale for JIC Role

Public good Public goods are those where individuals cannot be excluded from using them and that when one person using the goods does not reduce the amount available for anyone else. Knowledge is an important public good. In many instances, there is little incentive for any individual company to bear the cost of developing the knowledge (i.e. through research) which will subsequently become widely available to the whole industry.

Scientific research where the results are widely disseminated enhances the knowledge within the sector and benefits industry as a whole It is often not in the interests of any one commercial business to pay for the science that will also benefit the other businesses in the industry. JIC performs an essential role in undertaking the research that can then be used and accessed right across industry for example, wheat and brassica genomes.

Market power Access to knowledge can be restricted through patents. However, if a company was given the funding to do work and protected the resulting intellectual property, it will have a monopoly or sufficient market power to influence prices to its own advantage and the benefits of the research will not be widely shared.

Excess market power disadvantages consumers either through price or because access to the findings of the research, and therefore the improved product, is restricted JIC operates independently of industry and frequently makes freely and widely available those findings funded by the public purse e.g. CPMV-HT molecular pharming technology shared amongst academics and Streptomyces ‘Super Hosts’.

Imperfect, asymmetric or lack of information Many within industry may not be aware of the potential benefits to be gained from undertaking research.

Businesses may lack the information to know that a problem exists within a particular plant or that there is a possible solution to a known problem. JIC knowledge and expertise in this area enables the organisation to undertake research to address relevant issues e.g. LINK projects, JIC cluster programmes

Risk Aversion Business may lack the information to assess the likely returns on investing in research, or they may be unwilling to invest in something where it is uncertain whether the benefits will outweigh the costs.

Research is time consuming and uncertain in its outcomes. Businesses may not invest in undertaking research in areas where the returns on investment may be a long way off, or the science is not sufficiently advanced to provide confidence that it is worth investing in. JIC is able to undertake research where the commercial returns to the research may not be realised within a typical business planning cycle of industry. N fixation research is one example.

Externalities Externalities are the costs or benefits that are not borne by the people that buy or sell the product.

The spillover benefits of much of the scientific research undertaken at JIC enable other researchers in different fields to build on the findings and make progress in other areas of scientific research that is not the direct focus of the funding.

Appendix 2: Methodology

In order to measure impact, each area of JIC science was reviewed and routes to impact

assessed. Thirteen areas were chosen as case studies in consultation with JIC science

leaders. The areas were chosen to give the best representation of current research effort,

taking into account the 2008 impact report and giving a mix of existing and new research

areas. Nine of these are reported in detail in this report, though impacts are modelled for all

thirteen areas.

In each case, the impacts were assessed by modelling socio-economic outcomes of the

research such as improved health, improved productivity, and reduced costs. Where relevant,

such outcomes are quantified at the UK level, though much of JIC research has global

application. Softer impacts such as academic, collaboration and human capital are also

highlighted along with international impacts.

The report contains a mixture of actual and potential impacts, as some research has not yet

fed through to final impacts. In all cases, best estimates have been used of actual and

potential impacts based on available evidence with conservative estimates. The impacts

reported in the case studies are gross. They are then reduced to net impacts by taking

account of implementation costs required to achieve impact (by researchers and industry),

what would have happened in the absence of the work (deadweight) and any activity which

may be displaced. Displacement at the UK level is important to note. Where JIC has assisted

an individual company leading to increased sales, it may simply displace other economic

activity at the UK level. The company will have benefited but the UK will only benefit if imports

can be displaced or there is some other value added.

Attribution of the results to JIC is calculated based on either its share of total project costs or

its share of the research undertaken. This varies for each area.

Estimates of the rate of adoption of the research/technologies are also included so that net

impacts are measured over a 10-year period (base year 2012) by way of a net present value

(NPV) and a discount rate of 3.5% in line with HM Treasury Green book. The 10 year NPV

presented can be considered the net contribution to the UK economy. The value for money of

each research area can then be measured by dividing the net economic impacts by the

research costs plus any other inputs. In some cases, given the nature of JIC research, the

timescales are much longer than 10 years. In these cases, given the uncertainty, we have

presented annual benefit estimates and assumptions over an appropriate period.

In order to comply with the RCUK impact framework, Section 5 is devoted to wider impacts

that are not necessarily captured within the monetised figures or the softer impacts highlighted

within the case studies.

Appendix 3: JIC Journal Articles in Journals with impact factor of five or more, 2006-

2012.

Journal Impact Factor Total Publications

ACS Chemical Biology 5.149 1

Analytical Chemistry 5.646 2

Annual Review of Entomology 10.68 1

Annual Review of Phytopathology 10.237 1

Bioinformatics 6.019 5

Cell* 31.253 3

Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences 5.511 1

Chemical Communications 5.141 4

Current Biology* 10.992 8

Current Opinion in Plant Biology 10.333 11

Development 7.293 2

Developmental Cell 13.523 1

EMBO Journal 8.295 1

EMBO Reports 6.907 1

FEMS Microbiology Reviews 7.963 3

Genes & Development 12.075 2

Genome Biology 6.626 3

Genome Research 10.176 1

Journal of the American Chemical Society 8.58 6

Journal of Biological Chemistry 5.581 20

Journal of Cell Science 6.144 4

Journal of Molecular Biology 5.229 9

Molecular Biology & Evolution 9.872 1

Molecular Microbiology 5.361 24

Nature* 34.48 8

Nature Biotechnology 29.495 3

Nature Cell Biology 19.527 1

Nature Chemical Biology 16.058 6

Nature Genetics 34.284 2

Nature Reviews Cancer 29.538 1

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology 12.273 1

New Phytologist 6.033 11

Nucleic Acids Research 7.479 10

Organic Letters 5.42 1

Phil Trans Royal Society B 5.117 1

Plant Cell 9.293 47

Plant Journal 6.946 25

Plant Physiology 6.235 31

PLoS Biology* 12.916 6

PLoS Genetics 9.532 4

PLoS Pathogens 8.978 3

Proc National Academy of Sciences* 9.432 31

Proteomics 5.479 3

Science* 29.747 21

Journal Impact Factor Total Publications

Small 6.171 3

Structure 5.904 1

Trends in Biotechnology 6.909 2

Trends in Cell Biology 12.115 1

Trends in Genetics 8.869 1

Trends in Microbiology 6.894 1

Trends in Plant Science 9.883 3

Appendix 4: Impact Model UK 10 years

TOTAL Wheat yields

Wheat

Diseases -

Septoria

Wheat

Diseases -

Take all N-fixation

OSR high oleic

acid and pod

shatter Broccoli


£ 42,660,000 15,625,000£ 1,100,000£

included in

long-term &

Non UK model

included in long-

term & Non UK

model

1,721,000£ 14,805,000£

JIC share of research funding assessed £ 18,657,500 2,076,000£ 100,000£ 860,500£ 7,402,500£

Gross annual benefits identified (£) £ 506,000,000 44,000,000£ 33,000,000£ 213,000,000£ 38,000,000£

Implementation timescale Over 10 years From yr 5 From yr 5 From yr 5 -£

Gross Benefits over 10 years (£PV) £ 858,102,298 100,611,556£ 75,458,667£ 354,075,119£ 129,659,754£


(£PV)

£ 25,461,429 -£ -£ 1,867,021£ 1,966,184£

Net Benefits (£PV) £ 789,980,869 84,986,556£ 74,358,667£ 350,487,097£ 112,888,571£

Additionality of the impacts 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

Value of benefits to the economy (£PV) £ 789,980,869 84,986,556£ 74,358,667£ 350,487,097£ 112,888,571£

JIC attribution based on share of work 44% 17% 10% 50% 50%

Additional Output over 10 years (£PV) £ 347,065,370 14,164,426£ 7,435,867£ 175,243,549£ 56,444,285£

Additional GVA over 10 years (£PV) £ 223,781,154 8,463,104£ 4,870,272£ 115,368,172£ 34,736,378£

Additional Jobs Supported (FTE) 408 15 7 157 140

Value for money



(10yr GVA NPV))

11.99 4.08 48.70 134.07 4.69


Funding

Gross Impacts


for the UK Economy


JIC

Appendix 4: Impact Model UK 10 years (cont’d)


JIC share of research funding assessed

Gross annual benefits identified (£)

Implementation timescale

Gross Benefits over 10 years (£PV)


(£PV)Net Benefits (£PV)

Additionality of the impacts

Value of benefits to the economy (£PV)

JIC attribution based on share of work

Additional Output over 10 years (£PV)

Additional GVA over 10 years (£PV)

Additional Jobs Supported (FTE)

Value for money



(10yr GVA NPV))


Funding

Gross Impacts


for the UK Economy


JIC

Legumes

Crop

Scheduling Vinca Alkaloids

Temperature

Sensing DA1 Antibiotics

Molecular

Pharming

1,500,000£ 1,000,000£

included in

long-term &

Non UK model

821,000£ 668,000£

included in

long-term &

Non UK model

5,420,000£

720,000£ 1,000,000£ 410,500£ 668,000£ 5,420,000£

13,000,000£ 10,000,000£ 21,500,000£ 110,000,000£ 23,500,000£

From yr 5 - - - -

18,747,539£ 22,419,525£ 37,429,857£ 80,758,505£ 38,941,777£

1,449,275£ -£ 871,442£ 1,000,000£ 18,307,507£

15,798,263£ 21,419,525£ 35,737,415£ 79,090,505£ 15,214,270£

100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

15,798,263£ 21,419,525£ 35,737,415£ 79,090,505£ 15,214,270£

48% 25% 50% 70% 50%

7,583,166£ 5,354,881£ 17,868,708£ 55,363,353£ 7,607,135£

4,760,090£ 3,449,222£ 11,653,777£ 36,380,829£ 4,099,309£

19 5 16 50 1-

6.61 3.45 28.39 54.46 0.76

Appendix 5: Impact model long term UK and global impacts

TOTAL Wheat yields

Wheat Diseases -

Septoria

Wheat

Diseases -

Take all N-fixation

OSR high oleic

acid and pod

shatter Broccoli


£ 21,118,000 included in UK

10 year model

included in UK

10 year model 1,030,000£ 17,460,000£

included in UK 10

year model

included in UK

10 year model

JIC share of research funding assessed £ 21,118,000 1,030,000£ 17,460,000£

Gross annual benefits identified (£) £ 8,517,400,000 232,000,000£ 696,000,000£ 200,000,000£ 3,792,000,000£ 2,197,000,000£ 38,000,000£

Implementation timescale Over 10 years or more From yr 5 From yr 5 From yr 10

From Yr 22

nonUK From yr 5 From Yr10

Gross Benefits over 30 years (£PV) £ 48,819,178,749 2,747,177,742£ 7,179,769,565£ 705,630,051£ 5,284,089,566£ 19,781,940,249£ 382,866,723£


(£PV) £ 403,226,394 included in UK

10 year model

included in UK

10 year model 4,209,866£ 21,267,564£

included in UK 10

year model

included in UK

10 year model

Net Benefits (£PV) £ 48,386,164,355 2,747,177,742£ 7,179,769,565£ 700,390,186£ 5,245,362,001£ 19,781,940,249£ 382,866,723£

Additionality of the impacts 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

Value of benefits to the economy (£PV) £ 48,386,164,355 2,747,177,742£ 7,179,769,565£ 700,390,186£ 5,245,362,001£ 19,781,940,249£ 382,866,723£

JIC attribution based on share of work 49% 17% 10% 50% 70% 50% 50%

Additional Output over 30 years (£PV) £ 23,877,630,812 457,862,957£ 717,976,957£ 350,195,093£ 3,671,753,401£ 9,890,970,124£ 191,433,362£

Additional GVA over 30 years (£PV) £ 15,752,599,536 302,189,552£ 473,864,791£ 230,953,661£ 2,419,201,765£ 6,528,040,282£ 126,346,019£

Additional Jobs Supported (FTE) 12433 136 213 313 1,095 2,941 140

Value for money



(30yr GVA NPV))

included in UK

10 year model

included in UK

10 year model 224.23 138.6

included in UK 10

year model

included in UK

10 year model


Funding

Gross Impacts


globally


JIC

Appendix 5: Impact model long term UK and global impacts (cont’d)


JIC share of research funding assessed

Gross annual benefits identified (£)

Implementation timescale

Gross Benefits over 30 years (£PV)


(£PV)

Net Benefits (£PV)

Additionality of the impacts

Value of benefits to the economy (£PV)

JIC attribution based on share of work

Additional Output over 30 years (£PV)

Additional GVA over 30 years (£PV)

Additional Jobs Supported (FTE)

Value for money



(30yr GVA NPV))


Funding

Gross Impacts


globally


JIC

Legumes

Crop

Scheduling Vinca Alkaloids

Temperature

Sensing DA1 Antibiotics Molecular Pharming

included in UK

10 year model

included in UK

10 year model 1,750,000£

included in UK

10 year model

included in UK 10

year model 878,000£

included in UK 10 year

model

1,750,000£ 878,000£

13,000,000£ 10,000,000£ 9,400,000£ 21,500,000£ 1,160,000,000£ 125,000,000£ 23,500,000£

From Yr 10 - From yr 5 Post 10 yr

benefits From yr 7 From yr 14 Post 10 yr benefits

107,329,552£ 100,754,401£ 91,163,435£ 199,417,632£ 11,399,732,347£ 629,850,922£ 209,456,564£

included in UK

10 year model

included in UK

10 year model 1,307,679£

included in UK

10 year model

included in UK 10

year model 376,441,284£


model

105,829,552£ 99,754,401£ 88,105,756£ 199,167,632£ 11,399,232,347£ 252,531,638£ 204,036,564£

100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

105,829,552£ 99,754,401£ 88,105,756£ 199,167,632£ 11,399,232,347£ 252,531,638£ 204,036,564£

48% 25% 100% 50% 70% 100% 50%

50,798,185£ 24,938,600£ 88,105,756£ 99,583,816£ 7,979,462,643£ 252,531,638£ 102,018,282£

33,282,002£ 16,374,476£ 57,554,799£ 65,682,819£ 5,266,326,344£ 166,372,361£ 66,410,666£

113 22 79 30 7,117 186 47

included in UK

10 year model

included in UK

10 year model 32.89

included in UK

10 year model

included in UK 10

year model 189.49


model