SAN FRANCISCO—The UK government will embrace an advisory committee's ambitious recommendations for boosting public financing and incentives for biotechnology development, science minister David Sainsbury said here Sunday (June 6) at the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) annual convention.

Sainsbury praised the Biotechnology Innovation and Growth Team (BIGT) Report, which called for government investment in research to maintain the country's dominance in European biotechnology. The Bioindustry Association, the Department of Health, and the Department of Trade and Industry jointly produced the report in November, and a government working group promised to release a list of practical initiatives for implementing the BIGT recommendations. Those initiatives are set for release Monday (June 7). "The report had some very intriguing recommendations," Sainsbury told The Scientist. "The government's response is to be pretty positive."

In particular, the government plans to create a Biosciences Futures Forum to monitor new scientific discoveries and identify areas...

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