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Secretary of State’s Foreword 2
Chairman’s Introduction 4
Executive Summary 6
Section 1: Vision of UK Industrial Biotechnology 8
Section 2: Evidence Base 16
Section 3: Where to from Here? 30
Section 4: Barriers to Success 40
Section 5: Recommendations – Closing the Gaps 48
Annex A: Acknowledgements 64
Annex B: International Snapshot 68

 

 

“A transition towards renewable bio-based feedstocks is vital for the production of chemicals, materials, fuels and energy to lessen dependence on fossil energy and achieve climate change goals. For companies like British Sugar these market changes will lead to further opportunities, bringing together scientific skills, process engineering and marketing.”

Mark Carr, Chief Executive, British Sugar Group

Industrial biotechnology (IB) – the use of biological substances1, systems and processes to produce materials, chemicals and energy – will play an essential part in the creation of a low-carbon knowledge-based economy in the UK.

IB can play an important role in maintaining UK competitiveness in global markets, where bio-based systems and processes are rapidly gaining strength and scale.

This means that a ‘business as usual’ approach is no longer an option if the UK is to maintain its global competitiveness. It is therefore vital that the UK become more proactive in its take-up of IB.

A new industrial activism is required from government – the application of ‘market pragmatism’ such that policy direction complements markets in order to achieve a better long term outcome for our economy and society.

To position itself for the ‘new’ low-carbon bio-based future, the UK needs to play to its sources of comparative advantage. The UK has an enormously strong science and technology base, and natural resources that are of particular importance in the domain of biotechnology.

The UK is one of the world’s leaders in terms of quality of research in this area. Knowledge and experience of applied biotechnology are growing and advancing rapidly in this country. Medical biotechnology has already made major inroads in the pharmaceutical sector, to the benefit of companies and patients alike.

IB offers the prospect of similar and even greater benefits. It is rapidly gaining ground in the energy sector, spurred on by consumer choices and government policies and

quotas relating to bioenergy, for example. Other chemistry-using industries are starting to recognise and harness the environmental and economic benefits of IB.

As the chemicals and chemistry-using sectors are among the sectors least exposed to the recent economic downturn, these sectors should be able to take advantage of the benefits of IB as quickly as possible, to underpin the UK’s international competitiveness.

The return on any investment of money and effort in IB – the ‘size of the prize’ – will depend on several factors, including (but not restricted to) the prices and availability of petrochemical feedstocks. However, robust estimates of the global IB market by 2025 range from £150 billion to £360 billion; similar estimates for the UK IB market range from £4 billion to £12 billion. A connected and favourable research and policy environment and increased levels of technology development are critical to UK being able to attain these market opportunities.

Currently, IB is being impeded from delivering this prize in the UK – primarily because of low awareness of the potential of the technology, a lack of the necessary facilities to demonstrate its commercial feasibility, and insufficient connectivity between the key players. These are inhibiting the UK’s establishment of an IB foundation for the low-carbon, knowledge-based economy so urgently needed – using bio-based resources to make products and provide services that are not only less damaging to the planet and its people, but are also able to offer new additional features and benefits.

The Industrial Biotechnology Innovation and Growth Team (IB-IGT), a collaboration of scientists, engineers and other decision-makers from business, academia and government, has identified the most significant barriers to the progress of IB in the UK.

This report presents the IB-IGT’s summary of the evidence base for urgent action to remove the barriers, including both a snapshot of the UK’s present strengths and a scenario-based analysis on future market opportunities for IB.

Recommendations for action in five specific areas are presented, which will:
• Improve the connectivity of UK IB activities in order to grasp the necessary opportunities
• De-risk access to new products and technologies
• Accelerate the innovation and knowledge transfer process
• Retain and develop the necessary interdisciplinary talent in science and management
• Create a ‘public’ and ‘business’ environment that is supportive of IB