Dr Jef Grainger

Associate Director, Research Strategy and Programmes, BBSRC

Dr Jef Grainger is Associate Director, Research Strategy and Programmes at the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).

Providing strategic leadership for BBSRC’s mission-led research areas, Jef has a successful track record in research strategy development and investment case-building across a range of BBSRC’s portfolio areas.

He was previously seconded to the Government Office for Science to work on the joint publication of the ‘Animal and Plant Health in the UK: building our science capability’ document with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Jef has also worked on a follow-up document for the UK government and UK Research and Innovation on the vision and high-level strategy for UK animal and plant health research.

In September 2023, he was appointed as BBSRC’s Interim Executive Director for Research Strategy and Programmes with responsibility for:

  • frontier and interdisciplinary research
  • responsive and strategic programmes
  • science strategy, including horizon-scanning
  • tools and technology

He returned to his substantive post as Associate Director for Research Strategy and Programmes on 1 July 2024.

Jef has an honours degree in plant science from The University of Edinburgh and a PhD in plant molecular biology from the University of Cambridge. He undertook a period of postdoctoral research in plant virology at the John Innes Centre before joining BBSRC in 2004.

Last updated: 12 November 2024

This is the website for UKRI: our seven research councils, Research England and Innovate UK. Let us know if you have feedback or would like to help improve our online products and services.