Annelie du Plessis

Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC) Established in 2014, IBioIC is a networking and support organisation that brings together industry, academia, and government to accelerate biotechnology innovation in Scotland. It supports companies on their innovation journeys by offering networking, access to scale-up facilities, bespoke talent development programmes, funding support, and strategic promotion of Scotland’s distinctive bio-economic assets, companies and research. As the voice of Scotland’s industrial biotechnology community, IBioIC provides direct innovation support, helps secure funding for collaborative projects, and fosters networking across sectors and disciplines. It acts as a catalyst for growth, representing the sector nationally and internationally, and connecting companies with the partners, expertise, and resources needed to bring new biotechnologies to market. FlexBIO is IBioIC’s pilot-scale bioprocessing scale-up centre at Heriot-Watt University, designed to help companies scale processes from the lab bench up to 300 L (microbial) and 15L (mammalian). The facility supports upstream and downstream bioprocessing across a wide range of organisms, with expert technical guidance and affordable access for start-ups and SMEs. FlexBIO also plays a key role in skills development, offering specialist training with CPD courses approved by the RESILIENCE skills centre of excellence for medicines manufacturing. FlexBIO is also a Co-Pilot facility helping to develop the next generation of EU Pilot-scale facility database.