Biotechnology YES for plant scientists
25 May 2011 by Evoluted New Media
The Biotechnology Young Entrepreneur Scheme (YES) has announced a new workshop for plant, microbial and environmental scientists entering the scheme.
The Biotechnology Young Entrepreneur Scheme (YES) has announced a new workshop for plant, microbial and environmental scientists entering the scheme.
The Biotechnology YES competition – an annual business plan competition for early careers researchers – is designed to raise awareness of commercialisation amongst bioscience postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers.
The workshop will take place in October at Syngenta’s Jealott’s Hill International Research Centre near Bracknell. Sygenta are one of four partners – the others being the BBSRC, the University of Nottingham Institute for Enterprise and Innovation (UNIEI) and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).
“This is the first time ever that a Biotechnology YES workshop has been held on commercial campus that has a specific research theme,” said Dr Celia Caulcott, director of innovation and skills at the BBSRC. “It is a unique opportunity for BBSCR-funded early career researchers in plant sciences to develop their commercial awareness, improve their industrial collaborations and better understand how their research might make an impact.”
The workshop will help researchers acquire the necessary skills to develop research in a commercial setting so their science can be translated into products processes and policies that will help avoid future food security crisis and improve sustainability in a changing environment.
“Partnerships between academic researcher and Syngenta’s research and development staff are extremely important to us,” said Dr Mike Bushell, principal scientific advisor at Syngenta. “Working with academic researchers who understand what it takes to bring an idea from the pre-commercial stage into development of a new product is really invaluable.”
Professor John Peberdy MBE, emeritus professor of enterprise at UNIEI said: “Biotechnology YES was, and continues to be, a pioneering programme focussed on giving PhD students and early stage researchers, from all areas of the biosciences, an awareness of commercialisation processes and business relevant skills.”
Applications for the competition close on 27th May. More information can be found at www.biotechnologyyes.co.uk
