Towards Net Zero: Growing the Bioeconomy – IBioIC's 7th Annual Conference

IBioIC’s 7th Annual Conference welcomed a record-breaking 798 registrants in February, along with  the new BEIS Minister Lord Callanan, Minister for Climate Change and Corporate Responsibility (holds the Chemicals, Bioeconomy and Plastics portfolio at BEIS) representing at the UK level, Trade and Innovation Minister Ivan McKee, who represented for the Scottish Government, and Fellow peer to Lord Callanan, ex-Environment Secretary and current Chairman of the Independent Committee on Climate Change Lord Deben.  

Also speaking at the two day event were Steve Bagshaw, CBE, of Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies and the BIA COVID-19 Vaccine Manufacturing Taskforce, SEPA CEO Terry A’Hearn, and RSE President Professor Dame Anne Glover as well as a host of highly influential and respected industrialists and academics. 

The conference was the perfect opportunity to announce the findings of the latest economic analysis which shows that biotechnology associated turnover in Scotland was £747million in 2019, putting us well on track to deliver the National Plan for Industrial Biotechnology target of £900million by 2025. 

The importance of the role of biotechnology in tackling climate change was succinctly described by Lord Deben: 

Biotechnology has an enormous role to play. We are going to have to reuse and recycle, but we are also going to have to recognize that there will be residues which will need to be used again. Biotechnology is crucial to that. Biotechnology will have some real role to play in the new processes which we will need in order to get to net zero […] with climate change, there is no vaccine, but there are very many things which we can do to hasten along that path to net zero and biotechnology will play a major part in the changes we have to make. 

In his opening plenary address to the conference, Ivan McKee said: 

IBioIC of course is a key partner for us in delivering on our ambitions and priorities. It successfully established itself as […] the lead organization for industrial biotechnology in Scotland over the past years. The Innovation Centre continues to forge links between industry and academia, to make Scotland a significant player in the global bioeconomy.  

If you missed anything, or want to revisit any of the sessions, you can view the session videos below, or visit our YouTube channel to watch the full playlist.

To send us your feedback, contact debbie.mccreath@ibioic.com or valerie.evans@ibioic.com