The Centre will also seek advice from separate Business Development and Scientific Advisory Groups on how best to facilitate the commercialisation of individual technologies on a case by case basis. In a background briefing, Dr Carmichael told HigherEducationIreland that The Centre for Innovation in Biotechnology was established in 1995 with funding from the International Fund for Ireland to promote and exploit biotechnology research in Northern Ireland, and was as a partnership between the University of Ulster and Queen s University Belfast in Northern Ireland and BioResearch Ireland which co-ordinates the commercialisation of biotechnology research from universities in the Republic Of Ireland. The Centre s mission is to work with the universities, research institutions, governement and industry to catalyse the growth and development of the Biotechnology infrastructure in Northern Ireland. The Centre operates to develop links between companies seeking to improve their processes or develop new products and research groups keen to apply their research expertise and to find industrial partners to commercially develop their ideas. The Centre also is actively involved in encouraging government support for initiatives to increase the level of biotechnology research and development in Northern Ireland and will act as an information Centre to continue to raise public awareness of the benefits of biotechnology Biotechnology research in the Republic of Ireland recently received a massive boost with the announcement of approximately IR 540 million for capital investment and research and development in Ireland as part of an overall investment in research and innovation of close to IR 2 billion.
Biotechnology is the development of products and services which are based on biological processes.