• Question: Hello! If you had the chance to take your research to any country, what would it be and why? Thanks :)

    Asked by to Ian, Claire on 20 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Claire Shooter

      Claire Shooter answered on 20 Jun 2014:

      I actually really like working in London where I am now. It’s a particularly good city for genetics because we have people from so many different countries here that I get to study all sorts of different mutations that you wouldn’t normally see in a place where most people were from the same country.
      I would like to try working in the USA for a while because they have great research facilities, pay their scientists well and have better weather. Unfortunately my work doesn’t give me any excuse to go interesting or tropical (although maybe I’ll work that in to my next project)

    • Photo: Ian Simpson

      Ian Simpson answered on 22 Jun 2014:

      I have two answers (because I have a joint position !)

      For Neuroscience I would love to take my work to the USA for a while at least. They have incredible resources and experience and I think both me and the group could really benefit from that. Also I do feel like it’s a “them and us” situation sometimes which I think is counter-productive. We were lucky recently to get a grant to set up a collaboration with a Systems Biology Institute in Seattle so I’m excited about building some links through that.

      From the BioSS perspective we work with plants and animals relevant to agriculture. A lot of the research and techniques either we or our collaborators work on would have a hugely positive impact in developing countries in terms of improving plant and animal health, food supply and quality and reducing disease burden. We are involved in a number of projects for example improving rice quality in SE Asia and monitoring animal borne infections in West Africa, but there’s a lot more that could be done. There are some specific funding streams that we’re applying to hoping to increase that further. It can get quite complicated when the funding is split between different countries as you might imagine.

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