Agriculture Minister Andrew Muir has decided not to progress with wholesale structural changes to the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI), although other recommendations made as part of a review of the organisation are being taken forward.

That review, commissioned by DAERA, was completed by consultancy firm Baker Tilly Mooney Moore (BTMM). Their final 160-page report, dated February 2025, has now been published by the department, alongside the DAERA response.

AFBI was created in 2006 by joining the science service of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) with the Agricultural Research Institute at Hillsborough in Co Down. It is a non-departmental public body, so has a level of independence from government, but it is sponsored by DAERA and ultimately comes under the responsibility of the DAERA minister.

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A recurring theme throughout the BTMM report is that AFBI’s span is too broad, covering multiple areas including animal health, livestock, crops, environmental protection, fisheries, food safety and laboratory diagnostics. The report authors question whether AFBI’s various objectives “can realistically be achieved within the confines of one organisation”.

They also maintain it is not clear whether AFBI is best described as a body which provides statutory testing for DAERA, or whether it is a scientific advisor to DAERA or actually a scientific research organisation.

“As a consequence, the organisation is being pulled in three directions and there is a lack of vision, direction and leadership,” states the BTMM work.

Their report sets out five different options as part of their key recommendations within the review:

  • 1. AFBI remains as it is.
  • 2. Split AFBI into two distinct organisations. The first would do testing and monitoring work, while the other would be an independent and commercially funded research institute.
  • 3. The third option involves a similar split to that above however, the research arm of AFBI would merge with the likes of Queen’s University Belfast or the University of Ulster to “create a powerhouse research institute in NI”.
  • 4. Under the fourth option, AFBI would retain its testing and monitoring work, but all research activities would cease.
  • 5. The final option is seen as an opportunity to “re-imagine AFBI”, with the organisation scaled back to focus solely on work relating to animal health.

    • While the BTMM consultants don’t outline their preferred option, they make clear that change is required and this will necessitate significant financial investment, leadership, courage and vision.

    “This is a unique opportunity which poses undoubted challenges, but equally presents untold opportunities and reward,” concludes their report.

    DAERA response

    The response now published by DAERA states that the various options have been considered, but in light of the potential disruption caused by a break-up of the organisation, Minister Muir has decided not to progress with potential plans.

    “Such structural change, however, is not being ruled out in the future, particularly if there is insufficient progress in addressing the areas of change identified as being needed in the review,” notes the DAERA response.

    Other recommendations

    Those other areas of change are incorporated into five main recommendations put forward to address a number of issues highlighted by BBTM consultants.

    They include how DAERA commissions scientific services from AFBI, with the process seen by many stakeholders as being “highly bureaucratic” and “highly inefficient”.

    The department has also recently changed how it will procure science research which has left AFBI “feeling uncertain of its role”.

    However, perhaps the main findings relate to how DAERA has often micro-managed AFBI, with a common theme coming from the AFBI side of “poorly defined” requests for information as well as repeated requests “which served no obvious purpose”.

    Overall, it has helped create a sense that AFBI lacks confidence, with a fear of making mistakes and of wider scrutiny.

    On the other side, feedback from DAERA staff was that AFBI “is not always forthcoming with essential or basic information,” while delays in the delivery of research often went unchallenged, with “limited, or no consequences, for missed deadlines.”

    Accepted

    The various recommendations made by BTMM consultants to address these issues have been accepted by DAERA.

    As a result, an urgent review is to be done on how work is assigned to AFBI by DAERA, as well as a review and update of a partnership agreement between both entities.

    More is also to be done on communicating the benefits of research to industry, with a farmers’ forum among the actions proposed.

    About AFBI

    The Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) is an executive non-departmental public body (NDPB) of DAERA, set up in 2006.

    It has 677 staff across six main sites, with 259 people working in Veterinary Sciences, 184 in Sustainable Agri-food Sciences, 138 in Environment and Marine Services, with the remainder in Finance and Corporate Affairs.