Driving new and exciting innovations in Scotland’s talented Biotechnology sector
The 9th annual Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre’s (IBioIC’s) conference held on 15-16th March featured an interesting blend of almost 400 students, academic and industrial researchers together with policy, IP and commercial experts. Focusing on “Resilience and the Bioeconomy”, the two day event highlighted the breadth and depth of the biotechnology sector in Scotland and beyond. Many exciting examples of industrial biotechnology applications were shared in fields ranging from cultured meat and sustainable food production to diagnostics, carbon dioxide recycling and biomaterials used for textiles, sustainable construction and repair of buildings.
A recurring theme across several sessions was the need for government support in Scotland, and further afield. This would help leverage the breadth of academic, industrial, and entrepreneurial expertise to solve climate and sustainability crises and help more spin out companies make the jump from technology demonstration to full commercial production. An interesting investment-focused session showcased the different ways to finance this scale up journey, from grants and investors, to crowdfunding.
Johann Partridge, MiAlgae’s Operations Director, chaired a session on Scaling Up to Commercialise, where speakers discussed how best to ensure that great ideas are translated into commercially viable products or services with associated positive societal and environmental impacts. Showcasing strong examples of Scottish success stories within the biotechnology sector, Craig Johnston from ENOUGH and Mark Simmers from Celtic Renewables shared their own experiences of scaling up to deliver impressive facilities in Holland and Grangemouth respectively. With both stories highlighting familiar challenges to those faced during MiAlgae’s own journey, each speaker highlighted the key similarities that many small companies will face as they continue to grow on their journey to commercialisation.
During the session, we also heard from organisations who are helping startups to tackle the initial period of costly research, optimisation and scale up work – also known as the “valley of death” - that companies must overcome to unlock further investment and reach commercialisation. Neil Renault, IBioIC, spoke about the upstream and downstream scale-up support that IBioIC can provide at the pre-pilot scale and emphasised the importance of “starting with the end in mind”; ensuring that early-stage R&D activities are undertaken with the potential scalability of strains and processes as a key consideration rather than an afterthought. He also stressed the importance of allocating sufficient time and resources to scaling up processes, explaining that the journey is often longer and more costly than many people first hope!
Sofie Lodens from Bio Base Europe and Payam Ghiaci from RISE Processum highlighted how their organisations can help biotechnology startup companies who are in the pilot stages, with high quality equipment and technical expertise. It was noted that having pilot facilities of this scale would be of great benefit to Scotland’s biotechnology sector.
It was great to be amongst like minded biotechnology professionals and students, as we continue to bounce back from the pandemic and return to face-to-face events. Overall, the conference showed that there is more of a positive buzz than ever in our sector, and an enthusiasm to support new and innovative developments in Scotland, with the promise of much more still to come.
Thank you to the organisers for a great event and we look forward to attending again next year!
If you want to learn more about what we do, please contact: info@mialgae.com .