Institute of Biology

The Institute of Biology (IoB) was a professional body for biologists, primarily those working in the United Kingdom. The Institute was founded in 1950 by the Biological Council: the then umbrella body for Britain's many learned biological societies. Its individual membership (as opposed to the individual membership of its affiliates) quickly grew; in the late 1990s it was as high as 16,000 but declined in the early 21st century to 11,000. It received a Royal Charter in 1979 and it held charitable status. The IoB was not a trade union, nor did it have the regulatory power over its membership (like the General Medical Council) although it did have the right to remove a member's Chartered status and was empowered by its Royal Charter to represent Britain's profession of biology. In October 2009, the IoB was merged with the Biosciences Federation (BSF) to form the Society of Biology, which has around 14,000 individual members and over 90 member organisations. In May 2015, the Society was granted permission to become the Royal Society of Biology.

As the professional body representing biologists, the IoB was frequently consulted on biological issues by Government, Parliament, industry and other organisations. Due to its widespread members and affiliated societies, it prided itself on producing a balanced response that reflected the views of the biological profession as a whole. At its peak of policy activity in the late 1990s the Institute was each year responding to over 40 consultations and organising half a dozen policy events and workshops in addition to its usual committee meetings. Topics addressed were wide and varied, for example including relating to: agricultural research, AIDS, antibiotic resistance, alternative medicine regulation, bioethics, biodiversity, biotechnology, careers in biology (both for school leavers and at the research level), climate change, GMOs, public understanding of science, national park formation, renewable energy impact, research assessment, safety in biological fieldwork, safety in laboratories, xenotransplantation... among many others.

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