HC Deb 13 July 2000 vol 353 c609W
Dr. Tonge

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what financial assistance her Department provides for research by the UK Institute of Arable Crops. [130455]

Mr. Foulkes

We do not provide financial assistance in the form of core funding for the Institute of Arable Crops Research (IACR). Funding is provided for specific research projects with agreed objectives which contribute to achieving our overall objectives and also under consultancy contracts.

IACR is currently involved in 12 research projects with a total value of £2,355,599 which are wholly or partly funded from our Renewable Natural Resources research programmes. Most of these involve research collaboration with other institutions in the UK or overseas. It is not possible to disaggregate the share of funding received by IACR in the time available.

IACR also has some involvement in an Indo-UK collaboration on oilseed crops funded from our India programme which includes research and technology transfer and has a total value of £2 million over eight years.

In addition IACR has a contract to provide us with specialist advisory and diagnostic services in the field of tropical plant virology and in response to inquiries from our partner countries. The value of this contract is currently around £40,000 a year.