IBioIC has welcomed what could be a record-breaking number of new members in the last quarter. You may have spotted the news, published in July, that we had passed the 150 members milestone. I’m delighted to say that the membership has continued to grow strongly since then. A very warm welcome to our newest members; Abergower, Atlantic Mariculture, Cellogy, Cexal, Crubag, Glox Therapeutics, Hamilton, Holiferm, IGS, Kaly, LAUDA Technology, Moredun Scientific, NiTech, Pyro Yield, Quas, RIPCELL, RUBISKO, Sea Dyes, SRG, Spectrometrics and Tuggs.

Alongside building the network, the team delivered a rousingly successful Members Summer Social event during that brief hot spell in June which hosted some fascinating presentations and the opportunity to meet colleagues and build networks – especially crucial for our many members who are starting up and building their business. IBioIC’s first Careers Day took place in July and welcomed around 100 students and 20 companies to come together in the University of Strathclyde’s Insight Institute to meet, share advice and wisdom, and develop crucial contacts.

At the end of July, the Bioeconomy Cluster Builder hosted a webinar to introduce the carbon ‘bookkeeping’ tool that IBioIC has been developing and assisted by Firefinch Software. This cutting-edge tool is being designed to enable biotech processes to predict their carbon emissions and I was delighted to see the numbers attending to hear more about it.

I am also pleased to revisit some of our members’ highlights from the quarter, including funding and investment wins, new projects, and awards, and share with you some of their wisdom and insight on their specialist subjects.

Congratulations also go to ENOUGH, who have just announced the raising of €40 million in growth funding co-led by World Fund and CPT in order to scale up production. This is fantastic news for the team and represents a significant vote of confidence in the capacity of biobased solutions as a whole and the growth of a mature and thriving IB sector.

Finally, in August we bid a fond farewell to our Technical Director, Dr Ian Archer, who has left IBioIC to take up an exciting and challenging new role as CEO of BioConnect in Ireland.

Ian has been a cornerstone of IBioIC since he joined the team in August 2015. His contribution to the success of IBioIC and the biotech community over his eight years on the team cannot be underestimated. He has encouraged and supported innovation in IB across Scotland, driven key projects of national significance, and also led our highly respected skills and training programme. IBioIC will miss his endless enthusiasm for biotech and his friendly and supportive manner. We now start the process of searching for a new Technical Director and I’d be happy to hear any suggestions or opinions from you on this. I have no doubt Ian will excel in his new role, and look forward to working with him as we develop Irish-Scottish relations in the future.

Best wishes

Mark