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Consortium

University of Warwick (UK) Alfonso Jaramillo (coordinator) The University of Warwick consistently ranks in the top ten of all major rankings of British universities and it is the only multi-faculty institution aside from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge to have never been ranked outside of the top ten. It was ranked as the third best 'young' university in the world, and the best in Europe. It is the best university under 50 years of age in Europe, and the third best under 50 years of age in the world.

The School of Life Sciences is home to a wide range of exciting interdisciplinary bioscience. Research in the School ranges from molecular through cellular to the organism level and spans bacteria, viruses, fungi, protists, animals and plants.

Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (ES) Alfonso Rodriguez-Paton Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) is the oldest and largest Spanish technical university. The presence of UPM in the international R&D arena is ensured by its consistent participation in various EU programmes. As UPM participation in the 7th Framework Programme is concerned, the University has taken part in more than 150 European R&D projects with more than 40 M€ of funding received from the European Commission. The UPM has been recognized as the Spanish University with the highest number of projects approved.

After the first year of duration of the 7th Framework Programme the UPM was recognized as the Spanish University with the highest number of projects approved. UPM receives a substantial financial support for research activities from external sources. It amounts to over 130 M€ per year and comprises a large part of an annual budget of the university, which is around 400 M€. Our Computer Science School (Facultad de Informática, www.fi.upm.es) was the first one in Spain to offer the Computer Science university studies. It has been named best place to study computer science in Spain by journal El Mundo for 3th year consecutive. Our Department (Artificial Intelligence Department) is the most productive in terms of research publications of the Madrid area in computer science field.

Our Artificial Intelligence Lab research group (LIA group, www.lia.upm.es) appears as the first research group of the School of Computer Science (Facultad de Informática) in the ranking made by the Madrid government. We are also in 10th position in the same ranking in the whole UPM (more than 160 research groups). Dr. Alfonso Rodríguez-Patón will be the scientific responsible for UPM.

Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine (UK) Mark Isalan Consistently rated amongst the world's best universities, Imperial College London is a science-based institution with a reputation for excellence in teaching and research. Imperial College London embodies and delivers world class scholarship, education and research in science, engineering, medicine and business, with particular regard to their application in industry, commerce and healthcare. We foster multidisciplinary working internally and collaborate widely externally.

Dr. Isalan is integrated within the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial College London, which comprises three academic Divisions: Molecular Biosciences; Cell & Molecular Biology and Ecology & Evolution. The Department embraces the full breadth of modern life science activity and comprises one of the largest life science groups in Europe, with approximately 100+ academic staff, 180 research fellows and post-doctoral researchers, 200+ PhD students and 180+ Masters students. The Department's research and teaching activites are funded by a wide variety of research councils, charities and industries bodies, with the value of current external research grants totaling £70+ million. The department teaches three major undergraduate degrees in Biology, Biochemistry and Biomedical sciences (the latter jointly with the Faculty of Medicine) and a wide range of Masters-level courses aligned to the divisional strengths. Dr. Mark Isalan will be the scientific responsible for IC.

Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de Invertigaciones Cientificas (ES) Victor de Lorenzo The CSIC is the largest Public Research Organization in Spain, encompassing close to 100 Centers and Institutes, spread through the territory of the state, and covering all areas of knowledge. Since its start in 1992, the National Center for Biotechnology (CNB) of the CSIC has become the most important and best endowed public facility for Life Sciences Research in the country. The CNB maintains very productive programs in Microbial Biotechnology, Plant Molecular Biology and Molecular and Cellular Biology. The Center has extensive scientific, human and material resources for the development of this proposal, specifically in the field Synthetic Biology.

The Department of Systems and Synthetic Biology holds four independent teams concerned with various aspects of network biology, environmental microbiology, metagenomics gene expression regulationand protein structure.

The Molecular Environmental Microbiology Laboratory focuses on metabolic engineering and transcriptional regulation in Gram-negative bacteria, broad host range vector development and environmental applications of Synthetic Biology. The participant Laboratory has made acknowledged fundamental and technical contributions directly applicable to the development of this project, specifically on development of genetic tools for analysing and constructing complex phenotypes in bacteria. Dr. Victor de Lorenzo will be the scientific responsible for CSIC.

University of Glasgow (UK) Lee Cronin UoG is one of the most prestigious in the UK, with over 550 years of achievement the University (established in 1451) is the fourth oldest in the UK. In recent history the Chemistry Department of Glasgow has had four Noble Prizes associated with the members who have worked in the Department and today the Department is going from strength to strength, most importantly through the WestCHEM Research School.

The WestCHEM Research School combines research activity in both the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde Chemistry Departments and together includes more than 60 research-active academics, and an overall graduate school of more than 200 Ph.D. students. Established in July 2005, WestCHEM provides a vehicle for a sustainable internationally excellent Research School in chemical sciences, and operates in the core areas of Chemistry and at interfaces with biological, medicinal, physical and materials sciences.

The School has a current research income of around 40 million € from a wide range of sources including the national research councils (EPSRC, BBSRC), industry, charities, Government and the EU. WestCHEM has been very successful in attracting recent funding of 5 M € to establish a National Centre for Physical Organic Chemistry, in partnership with the Institute of Pharmaceutical and Biological Sciences. WestCHEM is renowned for its internationally leading and ground breaking research and is one of the top Chemistry research schools in the UK, as shown by the recent UK research assessment exercise.

Dr. Lee Cronin will be the scientific responsible for UoG.

Universite d'Evry-Val d'Essonne (FR) Alfonso Jaramillo UEVE is one of the four new universities founded in the Paris area in 1991. The official establishment of Genopole next to the university as a national and European research pole which is dedicated to genomes and their applications allows new development and new perspectives.

The researchers constituting this partner work at the new institute of Systems and Synthetic Biology (iSSB). The institute is part of Genopole®, the largest French Biotech Park, located in Evry near Paris.

This BioPark hosts 1,950 people working in over 20 academic institutes and over 60 biotech companies around a small university. It includes Genoscope, Europe’s second largest sequencing center, and it focuses on genomics and post-genomics. Prof. Jaramillo will be the scientific responsible for UEVE.