April 2024 Newsletter
Welcome from the CEO
This edition of our quarterly newsletter is largely devoted to two flagship events which took place in March, our 10th Anniversary Conference, and the second Bioeconomy Week Scotland.
IBioIC24 marked IBioIC’s 10th anniversary, and in keeping with such a milestone, there was a lot of reflecting on how far the bioeconomy in Scotland has come since IBioIC was launched in 2014, and much horizon-scanning and forecasting of what will be coming and how things will continue to change in the future.
We were delighted to secure TV presenter, charity CEO, and seasoned science communicator Maggie Philbin, OBE to open proceedings. Following an introduction by Richard Lochhead, MSP, Maggie brought her years of experience to bear by stepping out into the audience to meet and engage with individuals, and this interactive approach was kept up throughout the conference with engagement from the audience with panel sessions, interactive workshops, and both informal networking and scheduled 1-1 meetings throughout both days.
IBioIC recently announced that we have secured funding to continue to operate into the future, and while there will be some change to our operational model, our core purpose to bring together industry, academic, and government to lead and support the growth of the bioeconomy in Scotland remains as much of a focus as ever.
To underscore the commitment to IBioIC’s purpose, Minister Lochhead announced during the IBioIC24 opening plenary that investment of nearly £850,000 has been awarded by Scottish Enterprise to enable us to purchase and install a 300 litre fermenter at our FlexBio facility at Heriot Watt University. This new equipment will enable us to offer greater assistance to businesses looking to scale up their processes, and ultimately help a range of sectors get closer to net zero.
Talking about the range of sectors influenced by the bioeconomy, the Bioeconomy Cluster Builder has been engaging more closely with the textiles sector, and ran an in-person networking event in collaboration with the Glasgow School of Art as part of Bioeconomy Week Scotland on 13 March. This event featured the Generation of Waste installation which was first exhibited as part of COP26 and took a detour from its official tour to join us in Glasgow
IBioIC recently also announced that our membership has passed 200. Our official 200th member is LiYF Bioethanol, a Swiss start-up which recently opened a new facility in Ayrshire. Our other new members are Algal Global, ArticZymes, BioConnect, Cashew Shell Bio-refinery, CIA, Concinnity, Cyanocapture, Ellers Farm Distillery, Entocycle, Fera, FlexSea, GEA, GPE, I&C, Julabo, Lallemand, Lawrie, Lincoln IP, Mercel, Model, New England Biolands, Salvortech, SasitLab, SilviBio, Solena, Take Root Bio, LCG, and TorryLinn. I hope you will join me in welcoming all of the companies who have joined the membership in the past quarter.
Best wishes
Mark
