§ Sir Bernard Braineasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will give a list of university and research centres carrying out work on production of protein concentrates from indigenous United Kingdom sources for animal use, human use or both, and also a list of grants given by the Agricultural Research Council or other research councils for such work for each of the years 1972 to 1976, distinguishing between agricultural research and food research, and between grants or financial support to research institutes and grants to university departments.
§ Mr. MulleyI regret that an authoritative list could not be provided without disproportionate cost. The ARC finances work on protein concentrates from indigenous United Kingdom sources at seven institutes. The Plant Breeding Institute, the Welsh Plant Breeding Station, the Rothamsted Experimental Station and the John Innes Institute are concerned with the breeding, agronomy and composition of high protein crops; and the384W will give details of the annual research expenditure by the Agricultural Research Council in each of the years 1972 to 1975 and that planned for 1976, distinguishing between agricultural research and food research, and between grants or financial support to research authorities and grants to university departments.
§ Mr. MulleyThe information is set out in the attached table.
National Institute for Research in Dairying, the Grassland Research Institute and the National Institute of Agricultural Engineering with the extraction, feeding and mechanisation of leaf protein. The work is not the subject of specific financial allocations and some of it forms part of larger programmes so that it cannot be costed separately.
The Council has also made grants of £7,500 to the University of Aberdeen for the microbial treatment of barley straw to produce a high protein animal feed and of £10,500 to the University of Durham for the sequential synthesis of proteins in developing seeds of field peas and beans.
The Science Research Council has awarded grants totalling £170,000 over the period 1971–79 for research into the mechanisms of microbial growth on petroleum products which is also relevant in this field.