The Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS) is a department of Aberystwyth University within its Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, and is located in Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, Wales. It has a remit for teaching, research and business innovation in the area of bio-sciences, land use and the rural economy. Sites IBERS is currently situated on two main sites. The main teaching activity takes place at the Edward Llwyd, IBERS and Cledwyn buildings on the university's Penglais campus and the majority of its research activities take place at the far larger Gogerddan campus, two miles to the North East of Aberystwyth, near Penrhyncoch and Bow Street. Teaching Taught undergraduate degree schemes offered by IBERS include those in Agriculture, Biology, Biochemistry, Ecology, Genetics, Marine & Freshwater Biology, Microbiology, Plant Biology, Veterinary Biosciences, Zoology and Equine Science. IBERS offers a range of taught postgraduate courses and, in partnership with Bangor University, offers a distance learning postgraduate programme in Sustainable and Efficient Food Production. The institute has approximately 1300 undergraduate students, approximately 150 postgraduate students, 70 full-time lecturers and a similar number of part-time associate-lecturers. Research IBERS has three research themes: Animal and Microbial Science, Environmental Impact and Genome Diversity. The institute has a state of the art translational genomics facility and is home to the BBSRC National Phenomics Centre. Plant Breeding IBERS has active breeding programmes for forage and amenity grasses, forage legumes, grain legumes, oats and miscanthus. History IBERS' history is one of a complicated series of mergers. University College of Wales (UCW) The University College of Wales (UCW) opened in 1872 with classes in biological sciences starting in 1874. Its department of Agriculture opened in 1891. Welsh Plant Breeding Station (WPBS) The Welsh Plant Breeding Station was established in 1919 under the guidance of Sir George Stapledon. This was possible due to an initial donation of £10,000 from Sir Laurence Philipps, 1st Bt., with a further £1,000 for the following ten years. The WPBS was initially based at Alexandra Road in Aberystwyth as a department of UCW, with land at Penglais Farm and Frongoch Farm. The station moved to new premises on Penglais hill in 1939, since renamed Aberystwyth University's Cledwyn building and housing various service departments of the university. The institute was subsequently moved to Plas Gogerddan, near Bow Street, in 1955 when it was officially opened by the Queen. Grassland Research Institute (GRI) The Grassland Improvement Station