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The Silsoe Research Institute was an agricultural research institute which closed in 2006.

History
The Silsoe Research Institute was formed initially as the Institute of Agricultural Engineering at the University of Oxford in 1924, and was first sited at St Giles', Oxford. The formation of the institute was prompted by the Agricultural Machinery Testing Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries; its remit was to undertake testing of agricultural machinery and to investigate farming practices relating to machinery (such as ploughing and haymaking).

The Institute of Agricultural Engineering changed in 1932 to become the Institute for Research in Agricultural Engineering, with the institute moving to larger premises on Parks Road, Oxford. The field station moved several times during the 1930s, from the Oxfordshire villages of Hampton Poyle and then Benson onto land owned by St John's College, Oxford at Long Wittenham, which was in Berkshire at the time.

National Institute of Agricultural Engineering
The National Institute of Agricultural Engineering (NIAE) was established in 1942 by taking over the Institute for Research in Agricultural Engineering from the University of Oxford, moving from Oxford to Askham Bryan near York in North Yorkshire. The newly formed institute was housed in premises which belonged to the Yorkshire Council for Agricultural Education, but the intention at the time of formation was that the institute should have its own purpose built premises nearby after the end of the war.

The National Institute of Agricultural Engineering was formed with three main departments; the Agriculture Department, the Engineering Department and the Field Station Department. The Agriculture Department was described as a clearing-house designed to enable the exchange of information between farmers and machinery manufacturers, and establishing new requirements for farmers and how they can be met by machinery companies. The Engineering Department, which was equipped with its own drawing office and engineering workshops, was concerned with liaising with farmers and manufacturers to develop required new machinery, testing prototypes and then assisting manufacturers producing the new machinery.

The Field Station Department had a wider brief and was available to undertake whatever testing was required. It was also concerned with collecting information on farming techniques from across the country, making suitable adaptations to make these techniques appropriate in different areas, and then disseminating that information to farmers across the country. This work was undertaken in conjunction with the War Agricultural Executive Committees. The direction of the National Institute of Agricultural Engineering was overseen by the Agricultural Machinery Development Board.

S.J. Wright, the director of the Institute for Research in Agricultural Engineering at Oxford was appointed as the first director of the National Institute of Agricultural Engineering. He was one of 12 members of staff who transferred from Oxford to North Yorkshire in 1942. The institute would expand rapidly during the war and by 1947 and the next planned move, 150 staff were employed.

The planned relocation occurred in 1947, with a move to Wrest Park, in the village of Silsoe, Bedfordshire. This would be the home of the institute until its eventual closure in 2006.

The work undertaken at Silsoe included developments in grain drying and storage, manure spreading, improvements in hay making and a tractor with a hydraulic transmission system.

The National Institute of Agricultural Engineering was joined at Silsoe by the National College of Agricultural Engineering in 1959. Sir Eric Ashby was the initial chair of the governing board.

Scotland
A Scottish research station was established at Howden, Mid Calder. This was run by a dedicated committee as it was funded in part by the Scottish Office. The Scottish research station moved to the Bush Estate at Penicuik, Midlothian in ... . It became the Scottish Institute of Agricultural Engineering in 1975 and merged with the Mechanisation Department of the Edinburgh and East of Scotland College of Agriculture in 1987 to form the Scottish Centre for Agricultural Engineering.

Agricultural and Food Research Council Institute of Engineering Research
The institute was renamed in 1986, becoming the Agricultural and Food Research Council Institute of Engineering Research (AFRC IER).

Silsoe Research Institute
The Institute of Engineering Research was renamed again in 1991, becoming the Silsoe Research Institute. The Agricultural and Food Research Council was merged with part of the biological section of the Science and Engineering Research Council to form the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC); the Silsoe Research Institute would become one of the eight institutions supported by the BBSRC.

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

Directors

 * 1942−1947 S.J. Wright
 * 1947− W.H. Cashmore, CBE
 * C.J. Moss
 * 1977−1984
 * 1984−

Chairmen

 * 1942−1954 William Pleydell-Bouverie, 7th Earl of Radnor
 * 1954−1960 Sir Harold Augustus Wernher
 * 1960− Sir Gilbert Flemming