Our development priorities are updated for every commissioning round (last updated July 2009). We also include information on the commissioning team and process.

Specialist Factual now commissions all video content on all platforms including bbc.co.uk, mobiles and interactive 'red button' services as well as for television.

Background

Science at the BBC ranges from the broad and instantly accessible - like Grow Your Own Drugs on BBC TWO - to more thoughtful and challenging pieces like Jim Al-Khalili's Atom on BBC FOUR.

Natural History also ranges in tone, from the warm and familiar tone of long-standing success of SpringWatch and AutumnWatch, through big high-impact pieces like Life in Cold Blood through to high-concept innovative pieces like Swarm: Nature's Incredible Invasions.

While a range of tones is welcome in both genres, above all else, the BBC is looking for quality and originality. We need to keep refreshing our Science and Natural History offer to serve audiences unparalleled content that builds ideas and knowledge, innovates and is engaging and exciting to watch.

Development Priorities July 2009 - October 2009

Full details of our specific Development Priorities are available here.

• High Concept TV
• Pre-watershed Ideas
• 2235 Singles or Short Series
• Big Series

• Consumer Science
• Medical Singles
• Big Science or Natural History

• Big Science
• Science or Natural History Singles

Multiplatform

• Scientific Conversations
• 360 Landmarks with BBC ONE and TWO
• Surprising Approaches with BBC THREE

What's been working well?

The Incredible Human Journey
Dr Alice Roberts' engaging journey took audiences through the development of an idea in an immersive and entertaining way.

Swarm: Nature's Incredible Invasions
Revealing the awe-inspiring nature of animal swarms through the innovative use of camcorders, mobile phones and cutting edge 'flying cameras'.

Yellowstone
Stunning camera work and a fascinating iconic location made this series a draw for a broad audience.

Richard Hammond's Engineering Connections
A broad audience came to this series; Richard Hammond's easy and engaging style along with the compelling narrative structure made engineering accessible.

Grow Your Own Drugs
Offering an alternative look at both gardening and science with a truly propositional offering, this series also introduced a passionate and likeable new face to BBC TWO.

The Audience

Science and Natural History has a core heartland audience but new programmes should aim to engage the broadest range of viewers possible. We need to innovate to find new ways in to subjects, to refresh ideas with new approaches and to think hard about what it is that is important or relevant to our audiences.

Importantly, for Science, programmes should think to remove barriers for women to watch, and Natural History should think of ways to excite younger viewers without alienating traditional Natural History lovers.

Strands

Programme ideas can also be submitted to the editors of Science and Natural History strands: Natural World and Horizon.

Tariffs

Please read the full details regarding factual genre tariffs for independents.

Your Feedback

Your feedback about these development priorities is welcome here

• As from April 2007, all proposals must now be submitted via our e-Commissioning system.
• This enables both in-house and independent producers to track their submissions online.
• Proposals will no longer be accepted via email.

Timeline

• All proposals are registered on a confidential database and independent suppliers receive an acknowledgement of their proposal within two weeks of receipt.

• The relevant Commissioning Editor will either reject or progress proposals within six weeks of receipt (four weeks from acknowledgement.)

• Proposals may be provided with funded development, in which case the timetable to commission will be subject to negotiation between the external supplier and the BBC and determined by the development contract.

• The final decision will be no later than 20 weeks of receipt of the proposal. A successful proposal will be given approval by the relevant Commissioning Editor.

• Projects may be held over in exceptional circumstances but only with the formal agreement of the supplier.

Queries

• At any point during this maximum 20 week period, an external supplier may write to the Commissioning Editor asking for a progress report and be guaranteed a response within 10 working days of receipt.

Page last updated 5 August 2009