New blood was injected into the research councils last week. Science minister Lord Sainbury appointed to the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council: Howard Dalton, chief scientific advisor at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Robert Freedman, deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Kent; Anthony Nash, head of veterinary pathology at the University of Edinburgh; and Alistair Penman, head of Unilever's Colworth Laboratory.
Derek Chadwick, chief executive of the Novartis Foundation; and John Durell, head of physics and astronomy at the University of Manchester, were appointed to the Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils.
Lord Sainsbury also appointed to the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council: Joanna Kennedy, director of Ove Arup and Partners; Beatrice Leigh, director of technology development operations at GlaxoSmithKline; and Martyn Thomas, chairman of First Earth.
The four new appointments to the Natural Environment Research Council are: Valerie Brown, director of the Centre for Agri-environmental Research at the University of Reading; Professor Dalton; Edwin Jenner, general manager for global legacies and liabilities with AstraZeneca; and Karen Morgan, director of Wessex Water and chairman of the University of the West of England.