Award details

UK-India Joint Centre on Animal Technology

Reference	BBS/OS/NW/000013
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Christopher Whitelaw
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	University of Edinburgh
Department	The Roslin Institute
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	300,000
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	01/01/2016
End date	31/01/2019
Duration	36 months

Abstract

The aim is to establish UK-India Joint Centre on Animal Technology through linking the research at The Roslin Institute and The Pirbright Institute, the UK’s leading BBSRC National Institutes of Bioscience in the area of animal genetics and health, with India’s Department of Biotechnology’s National Institute of Animal Biotechnology (NIAB) in Hyderabad. To initiate the Joint Centre, this award will enable joint research projects with each project having input from each of the three institutions. Award objectives: To support joint PhD studentships addressing livestock disease; to strengthen current associations between both UK Institutes and NIAB; to provide the platform for sustainable long term interactions between the three institutions through formation of UK-India Joint Centre on Animal Technology.Research projects will focus on veterinary infectious disease challenges facing India, thus addressing NIAB’s mission to develop a sustainable and globally competitive livestock industry through innovative technology.

Summary

This Newton Fund award to The Roslin Institute is supporting four postgraduate students to pursue their PhD studies at the University of Edinburgh. All four students come from India. Two of the four projects involve partnership with The Pirbright Institute. With the overall goal to contribute to improving livestock and poultry productivity in tropical climates of the world, the projects address host adaption to virus infection, reproductive efficiency and milk production, and refining application of new breeding technologies. The students will gain expertise in big data handling and interpretation specifically in DNA sequencing and genomics, and in animal biotechnology. The project outputs aim to advance tropical livestock agriculture in the following areas: the application of genomics to dairy production for increased livestock productivity and a more sustainable environment, improve the productivity and flock dynamics of poultry, and the selection of genetic traits to improve disease resistance and resilience of cattle and poultry. The individual student projects will provide skills in curation and use of data and bioresources to maximise the impact of new and existing knowledge on tropical livestock genetics and health. They will also demonstrates new breeding technologies and ways they can accelerate the impact of tropical livestock genetics.

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	Animal Health
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	Newton Fund - Initial Awards (NFIA) [2017]
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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