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Up to 70 jobs are under threat at an internationally renowned plant research centre at Aberystwyth University. The Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (Ibers) said it had to restructure. Director of Ibers Wayne Powell told staff about the cutbacks on Friday citing financial matters as the reason. The institute was formed out of merger between the university and the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research in 2007. Ibers said it faced a funding deficit of �2.4m by the end of the 2011/12 financial year, and it sees job cuts as a way of solving its financial worries. The posts under threat include technical, support, teaching, and research staff. The proposed losses will be presented to the council of the university on next Friday. A 30-day consultation period with staff and unions has started. Ibers said it hoped the majority of job losses would be achieved by means of "redeployment within the university, voluntary redundancy and voluntary early retirement". However, it said compulsory redundancies could not be ruled out. Despite its funding deficit, Ibers said it was pressing ahead with a multimillion-pound development programme that would provide "state-of-the-art teaching and research facilities" at both its Penglais and Gogerddan campuses. It is also creating 13 new posts. Decling to comment further on the possible job losses, Ibers director professor Wayne Powell said the development of the research facilities would put Ibers "at the forefront of cutting edge scientific research" "This will enable Ibers to take full advantage of exciting developments in science, and align our activities to current global challenges, whilst continuing to meet the needs of public and private sector partners and research funders," he added. "The new appointments, coupled with the development of the new facilities, will provide fresh impetus as we work to improve the quality, volume and impact of our research."