Congratulations to two SBCS academics who were recently awarded major grants by the UK Research Councils. Richard Pickersgill received around £400,000 from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council for a project entitled ‘Complex biochemical pathways’, and Igor Larrosa received around £320,000 from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council for a project entitled ‘Metal catalysed decarboxylative C-C bond formation’.