Beneficiary 4. University of Surrey (UNIS), United Kingdom

Division of Chemical Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences

The University of Surrey is experienced in both leading and participating in EC funded research. It has participated in Framework funded research for approaching 20 years and has received funding from more than 130 EC projects since 1st August 2002 alone. As at October 2007 Surrey was participating in over 70 live EC projects most of which were funded under FP6. Eleven FP7 contracts are currently being set up. The Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Surrey was rated 5* in the UK in the last RAE-assessment.

28. Prof. Dulcie Mulholland is Head of the Natural Products Research Group. She recently moved to the University of Surrey from South Africa, where she was Head of the School of Chemistry at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Research in this group involves natural products chemistry, synthetic organic chemistry and environmental analysis. Facilities exist within the faculty for screening compounds against a range of cell lines. The aim of her research is to isolate secondary metabolites from plant species, to establish the structures of these compounds and to determine possible activity of compounds isolated. The group has previously been funded by SAPPI-SAICCOR (in South Africa) to analyse effluent composition of its pulp factory and to modifying components to the effluent, and by MONDI to investigate the development of products from Eucalyptus waste. She has published over 160 papers in the fields of phytochemistry, analytical and synthetic organic chemistry and serves as subject editor for phytochemistry for Phytochemistry Letters and is on the editorial boards of Planta Medica and Journal of Ethnopharmacology.

(29). Prof. James M. Lynch (OBE, BTech, PhD, DSc, CSci, CChem, FRSC, CBiol, FIBiol, FIBiotech, FRSA). He has a PhD in microbial physiology and a DSc on studies on the effects of soil micro-organisms on plants. From 2004 he was appointed Distinguished Professor of Life Sciences. From 2003-2007 Jim was Chief Executive of the Forest Research. In 2007 he became Director of C-Questor PLC, Chairman of Terraform PLC and Senior Advisor to the South East England Development Agency to create the International Institute of Sustainability and a Science and Innovation Campus for Sustainability. From 1989-2006 he was co-ordinator for the OECD Programme on Biological Resource Management, and was awarded the OBE for this in 2007. From 1996 to 2001 he was Vice-Chair of the Blasker Award Committee to provide a major international prize in environmental science and engineering. He is on the Board of the European Forestry Institute. Research interests are primarily concerned with rhizosphere biology and its manipulation. In 1993 Jim was awarded the Carlos J Finlay Prize in Microbiology by UNESCO for outstanding contributions to the study of microbiology and its applications, particularly the development of the ground and scope which will allow us to modify the population balance of soil to the benefit of man. Fifteen books have been produced in microbial ecology/environmental biotechnology. In addition, he has authored 286 reviews and research papers, and 4 patents and been editor of 14 journals.

Role in the project

• Isolation, fractionation and characterization of biologically active compounds from wood or wood residues (WP2).
• Providing WP3, WP4 and WP5 with compound fractions and isolated pure compounds for various biological, physiological and pharmacological activity tests, for testing their properties from the perspective of material science, and for assessment of their value as ingredients in cosmetic products (WP2).
• Improvement of water retention capacity in arid soils (WP5).
• Increase of the nutrient availability to plants in infertile soils (WP5).
• Detoxification of soils subject to organic and heavy metal pollution (WP5).