Scotland's burgeoning biotechnology industry is to receive 
almost £40 million over the next four years in a concerted 
effort to strengthen Scotland's reputation as a centre of 
excellence for leading edge biotechnology.    

The investment is part of a new Framework for Action for the 
biotechnology industry, announced by Scottish Enterprise 
today, which aims to:

· double employment in the sector from 9,000 to 18,000 
  people
· double the number of biotech companies from 50 to 100
· increase the number of support and supply organisations 
  from 90 to 150 over the next four years. 

The industry backed targets will be achieved by:

· increasing the number of  organisations participating in 
  the cluster
· improving the performance of existing companies
· increasing the nature and the number of linkages within 
  the cluster


The framework is the culmination of an 18 month long  
consultation with the industry and with academia. The object 
was to identify market opportunities and the result was  a 
strategy to promote rapid growth in this area. 

By encouraging innovation, commercialisation and the 
exploitation of global markets for the industry the aim is 
for the sector to improve its competitiveness.  

The focus will be on a number of key action areas and aligns 
closely with recommendations in Lord Sainsbury's report on 
Biotechnology clusters. 
			
Sir Ian Wood, Chairman of Scottish Enterprise was encouraged 
by the valuable input of the biotechnology community in the 
consultation process. He commented: "The biotechnology 
cluster in Scotland is becoming one of Europe's most 
important areas of research, innovation and development. We 
have a wealth of expertise and experience in Scotland, which 
can be shared nationally to develop the economy further, and 
internationally to increase the global marketing potential 
of the Scottish biotechnology community. Working with 
industry, we hope to take our already thriving cluster to 
new plains."

Henry McLeish MSP, Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong 
Learning, said:

"The UK currently leads Europe in biotechnology, but if 
Scotland is to develop further we need to foster an 
environment which encourages biotech companies and investors 
to view our country as a natural place to locate and do 
business. This framework is a welcome beginning of that 
process."

Up and running projects and future proposals include:

· Intellectual Property Rights Fund  - an initiative through 
  Scottish Trade International which supports companies' 
  marketing efforts in non-European countries whilst 
  protecting patents in the process.

· Proof of Concept Funding (£11m for high technology 
  clusters over 3 years).

· Scottish Enterprise's work with the community to improve 
  access to "Business Angels" 

· Work with the biotechnology community and Locate in 
  Scotland to identify key gaps suitable for foreign direct 
  investment.  

· Development of science park and incubator facilities in 
  areas such as Edinburgh (the Pentlands Science Park 
  developments),  Dundee (the Medipark), Dunbartonshire 
  (Bioadventures) and Glasgow (West of Scotland Science Park 
  and incubators).

· Development of  the biotechnology cluster's e-commerce 
  expertise.   

· The support and creation of local networks and 
  associations such as Edinburgh Bioalliance, ACTIVE, 
  Biodundee, and Glasgow Bioscience. 

· Creation of Scottish Biotechnology Institute to provide 
  educational material and continued support for the 
  expansion of multi industry and research organisations 
  such as the Scottish Biomedical Association and Scottish 
  Biomedical Research Trust.

According to Peter Lennox, Network Director of Biotechnology 
at Scottish Enterprise, the development of the biotechnology 
cluster in Scotland needs a united effort.

He noted: "Scotland will succeed if we all work together and 
continue to create a vibrant biotechnology economy. The 
community has demonstrated a willingness to play its part in 
this endeavour by contributing to these plans, and Scottish 
Enterprise will support this. The number of companies and 
new jobs created will be achieved by Scotland's collective 
efforts." 

John Hall, Vice President Strategic Development at Quintiles 
Scotland added: "In less than 5 years in Scotland, we at 
Quintiles have built a profitable, export-led, 
knowledge-based biosciences business employing over a 
thousand people.  This business has every prospect of 
doubling in size in the next few years.  The reason for this 
success is not hard to find.  It is the combined effort of 
my colleagues in Quintiles, those in the academic sector who 
have trained and continue to train them together with our 
colleagues in the public sector including Scottish 
Enterprise, LEEL and the City of Edinburgh Council."


For further information please contact: 
       
Kirstie Crawford - Media & Public Affairs 
 or at kirstie.crawford

Fiona Hamill - Scottish Enterprise Communications
 or at fiona.hamill

You can access the Scottish Enteprise Biotechnology web site 
on http://www.sebiotech.org.uk and the Scottish Enterprise 
web site on http://www.scotent.co.uk

Notes to Editors: 

A cluster is a group of related industries and 
organisations. They can be each other's customers, 
competitors, partners, suppliers or research and development 
sources.   Partners in a cluster continue to compete, but 
they also begin to share the benefits of innovative ideas 
and practices that each contributes. This makes them more 
competitive. An example of a successful cluster is the IT 
industry in California. The cluster approach in Scotland, 
pioneered by Scottish Enterprise, currently applies to 
semiconductors, biotechnology and food and drink.  The 
overall aim is to ensure that Scotland's small,economy 
thrives in an increasingly competitive global economy.   
Although Scottish Enterprise is a driving force in this 
process as it develops, an essential element of the strategy 
is that the main cluster partners eventually take control of 
the process for themselves.  Other cluster areas are being 
identified and brought on stream gradually.       


The Intellectual Property Rights Fund (IPRF) is designed to 
assist Scottish companies to expand into foreign  markets 
through the licensing of intellectual property rights to 
overseas companies.   

The fund will help companies meet part of the costs of such 
an exercise - through assistance with the costs of 
identifying appropriate licences; staff costs associated 
with the transfer processes and the cost of drafting 
watertight legal agreements which protect the licensee's 
interests.

The fund will assist companies wishing to make licensing 
agreements in Non-European Union Countries. The five main 
licensing areas which IPRF can support are patents, trade 
marks, copyright, design rights and know how.

The scheme is aimed at Scottish owned and registered 
companies but companies registered elsewhere in the UK or 
which are under non-Scottish ownership may be eligible at 
the discretion of Scottish Trade International if they have 
autonomous facilities within Scotland.     

Qualifying companies will have to demonstrate a clear and 
detailed understanding of their target market; a clearly 
defined strategy to develop income from the licensing 
agreement; exclusive property rights to the technology or 
know how in question; benefits to Scotland as a whole; that 
access to the scheme is essential to development of the 
project. 

BIOTECHNOLOGY 'FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION'

General targets for the key areas :

1	Increasing the number of participating organisations

·	This will be achieved through new firm foundation, 
        direct investment and engaging companies currently 
        not in the cluster.   Concerted efforts will be made 
        to improve the intellectual property policies within 
        the research institutes and to promote joint 
        ventures with existing Scottish and overseas 
        organisations. Targeting technology areas with known 
        market potential, technology scouting, and mentoring 
        schemes will all contribute to achieving this goal. 
·	Steps will be taken to improve the availability of 
        seed and pre-seed funding through the manipulation 
        of existing funding mechanisms and creating 
        innovative additional mechanisms; such as funding 
        for patent filing and protection.     

·	Strategic inward investment will be encouraged 
        through recognising the gaps in the Scottish 
        cluster, and focussing inward investment powers to 
        fill these gaps.  

·	Scottish Applied Research Centre to provide 
        facilities adjacent to the centres of basic research 
        expertise which will enable the fundamental research 
        to be taken a step nearer commercialisation, and 
        will enable Scotland to attract more commercial 
        funding for applied research. Feasibility work is 
        well underway for the first proposed Centre in 
        Dundee, and recently commenced for a second facility 
        in Edinburgh ; Glasgow is expected to follow in due 
        course. 

·	Scottish Incubator Networking - More use will be 
        made of existing new start and company growth 
        measures through co-operation between incubator 
        projects to stimulate more research, development and 
        commercialisation activity.   Advisory services will 
        be used to examine new business models and 
        collaborations.   Additional support will be 
        supplied for patenting and licensing of discoveries.

·	Greater effort will be made to involve intellectual 
        property and specialist legal organisations in the 
        cluster as these services are key enablers to 
        biotech growth.  The investment community will be 
        targeted for specific opportunities in Scotland and 
        a benchmarking/monitoring system is under 
        development to provide information to the investment 
        community. 

 
2.	Improve the performance of participating 
        organisations:
·	Specific business development initiatives, including 
        the creation of joint venture opportunities, 
        collaborative agreements and strategic venturing 
        will be introduced to help existing organisations 
        secure and increase their market share and revenues.
·	New initiatives to help research / higher education 
        institutes present their combined strengths in 
        research and expertise are planned. The number of 
        opportunities for cross-discipline research will be 
        encouraged, e.g. the convergence of opto electronics 
        and information technology with the life sciences to 
        create new technologies.
·	Improvements and expansions to company facilities in 
        Science Parks will be implemented to stimulate more 
        research, development and commercialisation activity 
        and encourage longer term and more global management 
        thinking and learning

·	Trade development through activities such as trade 
        missions will be enhanced to develop and manage a 
        programme of activities to build the international 
        competitiveness of Scottish companies. These 
        activities will be supported by the analysis of key 
        geographic and sector specific markets, and the 
        information will be disseminated throughout the 
        industry. 

·	Product Development Support - Access to programmes 
        for innovation and product development support for 
        small companies.

·	Projects will be developed to examine and create 
        Bio-Manufacturing capacity and capability for 
        Scottish based  organisations and potential 
        investors

·	The support of specialist training and people 
        development activities in networks and providers, 
        such as Biotech Solutions, will ensure that Scottish 
        companies have appropriate skills and knowledge. 

3.	Strengthen and create linkages within the cluster

·	Raise awareness of the benefits of clustering.
·	Create and present more opportunities for formal and 
        informal networking between Scottish organisations 
        and key international players. Achieved through 
        appropriate events /activities for them when they 
        are in Scotland.
·	Promoting Scotland's Biotechnology Cluster to 
        enhance linkages with key international 
        biotechnology clusters.
·	Regional Innovation Networks will be supported 
        within Scotland to facilitate strong local networks. 
·	Value Chain Working Groups will provide a forum to 
        examine issues relevant to subsectors of the 
        industry, increasing the chance of collaboration and 
        co-operation between Scottish organisations. 
·	Improving the performance of existing companies to 
        improve their competitiveness in the global market 
        place.
·	Increasing the number and nature of linkages within 
        the biotech cluster to form a coherent body with 
        added economic strength