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The IB-IGT was established in November 2007 to facilitate the creation of a strategic view collectively from industry on what the innovation & growth challenges are for its future competitiveness and how industrial biotechnology (IB) can improve the competitiveness of the chemicals and chemistry-using sectors as availability.
The industry-led IB-IGT, chaired by Ian Shott published its report to Government today. The report sets out their vision for IB in 2025 and makes a series of recommendations to Government and industry on how to achieve this vision.
By 2025 the IB-IGT sees:
The power and benefits of IB being fully evidenced across the UK chemical and chemical-using industries, driven by coherent manufacturing, skills, environment and technology policies, judicious investment, and a sense of urgency, to deliver innovation, jobs and prosperity
The work of the IB-IGT was delivered through an industry-led Steering Group that had overall ownership of the IB-IGT and three sub-groups that addressed a series of linked issues in order to identify the critical challenges for this area; see related documents for details of this work.
The IB-IGT looked at the whole business environment affecting IB, with the full involvement across Government. It worked closely with key opinion leaders in industry and has identified five critical recommendations that will ensure the UK is best placed to translate the opportunities IB presents into innovations, jobs and prosperity:
Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform, Lord Mandelson, welcomed this report, and the Government will respond to this report in June 2009.
The definition accepted by BERR and EuropaBio is the use of biological resources for producing and processing materials, chemicals and energy. Such resources include plants, algae, marine life, fungi and micro-organisms.
IB uses biotechnological knowledge – about genomes and complex cell functions – to develop new processes for making products such as industrial enzymes or chemical building blocks. These are used, in turn, in the production of chemicals, detergents, textiles, paper, and much more. This kind of work requires an understanding of enzymes, proteins and DNA at a molecular level. It involves the ability to work with cells, tissues and whole organisms; the use of process engineering and fermentation; and the use of advanced techniques such as bioinformatics and genomics.
Biotechnology applied to energy and fuels is already the subject of significant investment, development activity and government support. The work of the IB-IGT broadens the picture to other chemistry-using sectors where IB holds the promise of a major dividend.
IB is not an industry sector in its own right. Rather, it is a key underpinning technology with applications across the highly diverse chemistry-using industries – effectively, every manufacturing sector.
For more information please email: IB-IGT@berr.gsi.gov.uk
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