Part 3
Projects & Landmarks
Health & Food / Project

EU-IBISBA

European Industrial Biotechnology Innovation and Synthetic Biology Accelerator

An accelerator for research and innovation in Industrial Biotechnology and Synthetic Biology

description

The Industrial Biotechnology Innovation and Synthetic Biology Accelerator (EU-IBISBA) is a distributed Research Infrastructure aiming at supporting research in industrial biotechnology (IB) by providing access to first class facilities for all industrial biotechnology professionals, including academic researchers, SMEs and large companies. EU-IBISBA will operate in a multidisciplinary environment developing translational research in industrial biotechnology and developing the synthetic biology discipline. These areas derive from underpinning knowledge from biochemistry, microbiology, genetics, mathematics, computational science, and engineering disciplines such as chemical and process engineering, which will be in large part drawn from European infrastructures dedicated to more basic research.

EU-IBISBA will provide a research nexus for biology researchers and chemical engineers, favouring the connection of di􀀨fferent knowledge domains, and providing a hub for public-private collaboration. EU-IBISBA will form a perfect environment for education and training of biotechnologists and entrepreneurs.

background

Industrial biotechnology is the convergence of numerous scientific and engineering disciplines to provide biocatalysts and bioprocesses for the production of a wide variety of goods. Currently, synthetic biology promises to revolutionise industrial biotechnology using advanced techniques, including genome engineering for the construction of biocatalysts, especially microbial cell factories. However, to realize this promise and accelerate the development of advanced bioprocesses for a wide range of manufacturing sectors it is necessary to address numerous challenges linked to the application of process design specifications and engineering principles to complex biological systems.

EU-IBISBA will support this learning process, providing academics and the private sector with the infrastructure for the development and testing of innovation pipelines, beginning at TRL2 and moving upwards to TRL6, a range that corresponds to the so-called innovation valley of death. It will provide the infrastructure framework for translational research services and innovation in the area of IB. Its mission is to support the maturation of synthetic biology within the focused framework of end-to-end bioprocess development, using engineering principles to achieve industrial process fitness by design.

EU-IBISBA will provide innovation in areas such as computer-assisted design of biocomponents, biocatalysts and bioprocesses, from their early stage construction and proof-of-concept to pilot phase testing of integrated bioprocesses. EU-IBISBA will cover a range of technology areas, including downstream processing and multi-performance analyses. It is expected that EU-IBISBA will accelerate innovation for subsequent translation into goods and services for a wide range of sectors including energy (e.g. liquid biofuels), chemicals (e.g. organic acids), materials (e.g. bioplastics) and ingredients for the food, feed, cosmetics and pharma sectors (e.g. enzymes, antioxidant and antibiotics).

steps for implementation

EU-IBISBA is built on a long-term collaboration between the consortium partners in international, mostly EU-funded projects – BIOCORE, NANO3BIO e RENESENG – and as the result of the successful deployment of facilities in several European countries, in particular the case of INRA’s Toulouse White Biotechnology facility. In July 2017, the consortium MoU has been signed by partner institutions from 9 European countries. EU-IBISBA was the object of ESFRI assessment in 2016, which has provided the basis for the maturation of a new proposal built through stakeholder meetings, one-to-one discussions with industrial partners and the IBISBA 1.0 project, a H2020 Integrating Activities for Starting Communities project.

Currently in its Design Phase, EU-IBISBA reflects the necessity to provide Europe with a Research Infrastructures that will be competitive in the international arena facing US and China in industrial biotechnology.

type
distributed
legal status
pending
political support
lead country
FR
prospective member countries
EL, ES, FI, IT, NL
The full list of research institutions involved must be found in the website of the RI
timeline
Roadmap Entry
2018
Design Phase
2018-2019
Preparation Phase
2019-2022
Implementation/Construction Phase
2022-2025
Operation Start
2025
estimated costs
capital value
52.6 M€
design
3 M€
preparation
4 M€
construction
1.1 M€
operation
65.1 M€/year
headquarters

Institut National Des Sciences Appliquées - INSA
Toulouse, France