The Victorian Government announced its $55 million plan to promote the state’s biotechnology industry. The Minister for Technology, Gordon Rich-Phillips, said the plan reflected the Baillieu Government’s new approach to supporting technology and its commitment to driving productivity growth.
The Victorian biotechnology plan covers two action areas:
Capability development, which seeks to develop the necessary talent pool, capitalise on Victoria’s world-class R&D base and pursue international trade and investment opportunities; and
Biotech-enabled innovation, focussed on demand-driven product development, uptake programs, demonstration projects and regulatory reform.
The biotechnology plan is the first in a number of sector plans under the Government’s Victoria’s Technology Plan for the Future program, the others being in Information and Communication Technology (ICT), and small technologies. The Government sees these enabling technologies as important in driving productivity, growth and competitiveness. This was reinforced by the Minister for Technology. “Our vision for the future is to bring together the transformative power of the major technology platforms – biotechnology, ICT and small technologies – to unleash greater innovation and wider economic benefits”, he said.
The Baillieu Government Technology Plan for the Future program embraces the convergence of key technology platforms as an important development that it is hoped will position Vitoria as a global leader in new industries, boost the competitiveness of existing industries and create highly skilled jobs. Having first raised the importance of, and advocated the push for, convergence in 2008, the ICT for Life Sciences Forum welcomes the Government’s announcement and policy direction.
It is pleasing to see convergence now openly discussed and action being taken by public policy officials, research and academic institutions around Melbourne. Recent announcements from the University of Melbourne, the Bionics Institute, the Victoria Research Laboratory of NICTA, among others, demonstrate convergence is well underway and we should expect to see the first results in good time.
