Regional centre for biotechnology

Rashmi Atal / TNN / Jul 16, 2006, 20:09 IST

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The govt's Department of Biotechnology is all set to establish a regional centre for education and training in biotechnology, in association with Unesco.

The govt's Dept of Biotechnology is all set to establish a regional centre for education and training in biotechnology, in association with Unesco.
Realising the need for high quality education and training in the area of biotechnology, the government's Department of Biotechnology is all set to establish a regional centre for education and training in biotechnology, in association with Unesco.A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed in the Capital last week.
The mandate of the proposed centre includes capacity building through education and training, and research and development in biotechnology through regional and international cooperation.
Calling it an endeavour towards developing research capacity, M K Bhan, secretary, Department of Biotechnology, said that the establishment of the regional centre reflects the government's concern to link education with research.

The proposed centre, which will be ready in two years, will offer postgraduate, doctoral and post-doctoral education in diverse areas of biotechnology as well as conduct short-term programmes in socially relevant
subjects like IPR/ technology transfer, bioethics, bio-enterprise/ management in biotechnology, biosafety and so on. "Biotechnology is a driving force for innovation and
development. The biotechnology centre would essentially focus on areas like nano-biotechnology, agriculture biotechnology, stem cell research, environmental biotechnology and so on," said Maciej Nalecz, director, division of basic and engineering sciences, Unesco.

Nalecz is hoping that the centre would be authorised to grant its own degrees and diplomas. Talks are also being held with various varsities including JNU to seek affiliation.
Apart from creating benchmarks in biotechnology education at the postgraduate level, the centre also aspires to make a positive influence on undergraduate education available in the discipline.
The centre would function under the aegis of Unesco and will be governed by a body that would have representation from Unesco and member countries.
"We would secure the highest level of scientists from different countries to be a part of the advisory body and through them we would be able to seek participation of their respective governments to further develop the centre," said Nalcez.
It will furthermore act as a coordinating agency and would leverage partnerships with other biotech institutions in both India and other regional countries to share knowledge, research and development (R&D) as well as find solutions to common problems in health, agriculture and environment.
Training, workshops, seminars and faculty development programmes would be the other key activities of the regional centre.
The centre would receive an initial funding of Rs 40-50 crores from the government and it hopes to attract money from member countries at a later stage. It would initially start functioning at the National Institute of Immunology in the Capital from February 2007.

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