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Last year’s report by the UK Stem Cell Initiative, led by Sir John Pattison, included a recommendation that a UK-wide national Stem Cell Cooperative be created. This Cooperative should aim to “maximise the cross-fertilisation between those involved in the sub-disciplines of UK stem cell research”.

 

The Government, although accepting all of the report’s recommendations, has yet to allocate specific funds for the establishment of a Cooperative. However the Research Councils have collectively established a fund to begin to move this specific recommendation forward. The BBSRC has now launched an online consultation on behalf of the UK Research Councils, the Department of Health, the Office of Science and Innovation, and the Department of Trade and Industry to “provide stem cell researchers with the opportunity to express their opinions on how they would like to see the UK Stem Cell Cooperative established and run”.

 

The consultation is open until the end of May, and seeks responses to questions such as what activities the Cooperative should be involved in, and how it should be run.

 

The online consultation questions and instructions on how to respond can be found on the BBSRC website.