Infrastructure for growth and net zero – IBioIC conference

Scotland’s industrial biotechnology sector has a great opportunity to become world-leading and make a massive contribution to the country’s drive towards net zero. Now, the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC) is gearing up to discuss ways

The largest industrial biotechnology conference in the UK attracts hundreds of key figures across the sector including policy, research, commercial and academic experts.

IBioIC’s work in bringing together industry and academia to help drive products and processes towards the commercial market will be at the heart of the conference which this year has a theme of how sustainable development in industrial biotechnology can secure the path to net zero.

Central to increasing the success of industrial biotechnology is improving the infrastructure, according to Liz Fletcher, IBioIC’s director of business engagement and operations. “We need the infrastructure to grow the industry, grow the businesses.”

Scotland is home to several successful business incubators which are all operating at or near capacity and new companies are forced to move outside Scotland to access suitable space. IBioIC’s Scale-Up Centre is working at capacity to support businesses make the transition from research and development into manufacturing but will need to expand to support the growing numbers of businesses working to develop bio-based processes and products.

The rapid growth of businesses using industrial biotechnology in Scotland is a victim of its own success. Liz Fletcher says: “Early-stage companies are using incubator space but the industry is growing so fast there is very little expansion space for them to grow into.”

To scale up and demonstrate that their technology works, and therefore attract investors, companies need urgent access to greater capacity. IBioIC has helped more than 100 projects to scale up in the last five years but a lack of national infrastructure means job creation in Scotland is at risk as companies look elsewhere to develop and grow. As a result, IBioIC has been at the centre of efforts to create a Bioeconomy Accelerator Pilot Plant as part of a Sustainable Chemicals Campus at Grangemouth.

Although more than £130m of private investment has been raised across the sector in the

past four years, more is needed. IBioIC’s annual conference will allow companies, academics and investors to discuss ways of this happening, with the backing of the Scottish Government which has highlighted sector as a key sector for growth under the National Strategy for Economic Transformation.