Programme

13 JANUARY 2010 -  Day 1

Workshop Chair: Mr. Marvin Duncan, Chairman of the OECD Task Force on Industrial Biotechnology
Workshop Facilitator: Mr. Joel Velasco, Chief Representative in North America of Brazil's Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA), Washington DC.

Session I - Trends in Technology and Applications

Objective: An overview of current technological trends in Industrial Biotechnology and to understand what policy could do to support technological advances.

Presentation of the paper “Industrial Biotechnology: Trends in Technology and Applications”

Powerpoint presentation: Mr. Manfred Kircher, Chairman of CLIB2021, Germany

Commentary Session -  Mr. Alois Jungbauer, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Austria

Group Discussion- Questions addressed:

R&D Trends and Indicators

• What are the current Industrial Biotechnology R&D achievements and priorities in academia and industry by sector? How can we evaluate their impact on Industrial Biotechnology?
• How can technological developments in Industrial Biotechnology be best measured? What are available indicators and data sources? Are these indicators available, accurate and comparable between OECD countries?
• What barriers, if any, impede the translation of R&D in marketable technologies and products? How one can evaluate the efficiency of translational research in Industrial Biotechnology? What kind of indicators could be used for this purpose?
• What R&D priorities could be foreseen in the near future for both, academic and industrial research activities (5 years period of time)? Are there any economic evidences to support the vision? Are there any foreseeable and justifiable benefits (e.g. delivery of public goods; industrial growth and sustainability; environmental sustainability) while fixing such priorities?
  Coordination of R&D Programmes Amongst Main Actors
• Are the IB R&D priorities and activities coordinated between the academia and industry? Is such coordination necessary?
• Are there any examples of successful coordination and its impact on the delivery of valuable technologies/products and examples when the absence of the coordination negatively impacted the IB translational research?

Synthesis of Main Discussion Points and Closing of the Day
Mr. Joel Velasco, Chief Representative in North America of Brazil's Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA), Washington DC, USA

Presentation of the Austrian Centre for Industrial Biotechnology (ACIB)
Mr. Alois Jungbauer, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Austria

14 JANUARY 2010  – DAY 2

Session II - Structure of the Industry and Business Models

Objectives: Was to identify new industrial biotechnology structural trends and to map the current and emerging business models in this sector.

Presentation of the paper “Industry Structure and Business Models for Industrial Biotechnology - Research Methodology and First Results for Further Discussion” 

Powerpoint presentation: Mr. Gunter Festel, CEO, Festel Capital, Switzerland

Commentary Session - Mr. Teppo Tuomikoski, Programme Manager, Tekes, Finland
 

Group Discussion - Questions addressed:

Structural Trends in Industrial Biotechnology

• What are current trends and changes in structure of Industrial Biotechnology?
• What factors drive the engagement of the Industrial Biotechnology actors while developing the IB business models?

Sector-Specific Structural Differences and Measurement Indicators

• Are there any differences in the IB structure depending on the application area? What are the regional differences? How do “small size” countries position themselves in the global Industrial Biotechnology?
• What indicators and data sources are available to measure the industrial biotechnology development? How globalisation influences these trends? Are indicators available for most of the OECD countries? How accurate and comparable are the data?

Business Models for Industrial Biotechnology

• What are the current and emerging business models for firms?
• Do existing models constrain industrial capacity for developing/performing R&D or absorbing next generation technologies?

Synthesis of Main Discussion Points
Mr. Joel Velasco, Chief Representative in North America of Brazil's Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA), Washington DC, USA
 

Session III - Trends in Financing and Investments

Objectives: To review the sources of financing for Industrial Biotechnology firms; to review investments in R&D and infrastructure; to discuss market failures and finally, to discuss how the Industrial Biotechnology sector will weather the current financial crisis.   

Presentation of the paper “Financing and Investment Models in Industrial Biotechnology- Research Methodology and First Results for Further Discussion”

Powerpoint presentation:  Mr. Gunter Festel, CEO, Festel Capital, Switzerland

Commentary Session - Mr. Martin Austin, Managing Director, TransformRx, Basel, Switzerland

Group Discussion - Questions addressed:

Investment Trends in Industrial Biotechnology

• What are the main trends in Industrial Biotechnology financing and investment?
• What is the impact of the current financial crisis and globalisation on the availability of finance and the investments for the Industrial Biotechnology sectors?
• What makes the Industrial Biotechnology an attractive sector for investors and which aspects discourage investment?

Measuring Investment in Industrial Biotechnology

• What parameters/indicators could be used for measuring financial and investment trends in industrial biotechnology?
• Are these indicators available, comparable across countries and accurate?
• Public Policy and Investment in Industrial Biotechnology
• Where might public interventions be warranted and why (what incentives are there)?
• What recommendations could be made to guide the governmental programmes supporting IB?
• What are the main elements of the policy environment - in OECD and non OECD countries - which influence financing for, and investment in Industrial Biotechnology? Where changes in policy might be warranted?

Synthesis of Main Discussion Points and Closing of the Day
Mr. Joel Velasco, Chief Representative in North America of Brazil's Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA), Washington DC, USA

15 JANUARY 2010 – DAY 3

Session IV - Trends and Challenges for Public Policy

Objective: To assess mismatches between countries and challenges for public policy.

Presentation of the paper “Industrial Biotechnology: Policy Trends”

Powerpoint presentation: Mr. David Batten, Senior Economist and International Analyst, Transport Bio-fuels Stream, CSIRO Energy Transformed Flagship, Australia

Commentary Session - Mr. Dirk Carrez, Public Policy Director, EuropaBio

Group Discussion - Questions addressed:

Policy Trends for Industrial Biotechnology

• What policy areas should be given priority while developing and supporting Industrial Biotechnology? 
• What are the main policy trends and challenges in supporting Industrial Biotechnology?
• What is the role of different actors in the IB-related policy development?
  

Policy tools for Industrial Biotechnology

• How the identified public policy challenges are addressed; are there “best practices”? How the efficiency and impact of such policies could be measured? 
• What are the foreseeable roles of national bio-based economies in the global bioeconomy? In other words, could be there “winners” and losers”? What are the foreseeable national economic niches (in industrial biotechnology) in the global bioeconomy? 
• Are there any national strategies which address Industrial Biotechnology-related issues in a system’s, integrative way (e.g. policy coherence between agro-, industrial, environment and health related policy frameworks)?

Synthesis of Main Discussion Points
Mr. Joel Velasco, Chief Representative in North America of Brazil's Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA), Washington DC, USA

End of Workshop