Building science networks across industry boundaries

Butana Mboniswa, CEO of BioPAD.

Since its inception in 2002, the Biotechnology Partnerships and Development (BioPAD) initiative has had a clear vision of making its region a hub of cutting-edge biotechnology research and enterprise development.

With a significant portion of its funding provided by the Department of Science and Technology as part of the National Biotechnology Strategy, BioPAD funds a portfolio of multi-institutional biotechnology projects in the industry focus areas of animal health and industrial, mining and environmental biotechnology. As a knowledge organisation, BioPAD's investment spans over the entire value-chain of the biotechnology commercialisation process. This, in itself, consists of a wide continuum of activities, from concept feasibility assessment to setting up a company. The organisation places a strong emphasis on capacity development, providing biotechnology entrepreneurs with financial, infrastructural and intellectual resources.

BioPAD's mission of brokering partnerships between researchers, entrepreneurs, business, government and other stakeholders and promoting innovation and sustainable biotechnology businesses, has led to five of its 14 initial investments now being ready for commercialisation. "The fact that the commercialisation stage has been reached only three years after the funding was approved for those five investments, is an indication to us that we are on the right track," says BioPAD's CEO, Butana Mboniswa,

One other thing that BioPAD has "done right", according to Mboniswa, has been their recent move to The Innovation Hub. Speaking from their new offices in the Enterprise Building on the Hub site, Mboniswa points out that with global biotechnology trends pointing towards a convergence of IT and biotechnology, BioPAD could not have picked a better location for its headquarters. The hope now is that the move will lead to building co-operation between tenant companies at the Hub specialising in IT and other biotechnology companies. "Using our authority in the industry, BioPAD will be able to attract more biotechnology companies to the Hub", he added.

Mboniswa sees BioPAD as having a responsibility to help create some of the networks that will lead to the establishment of Gauteng as a global city region. In the context of the Gauteng Provincial Government's vision of establishing Gauteng as a 'smart province', BioPad has not yet fully exploited the opportunities that exist. "We need to encourage interaction," he says.

According to him, the Hub's central location and proximity to the CSIR, the University of Pretoria and the Tshwane University of Technology, its focus on innovation and its designation as a science park, will all be key factors in the facilitation of this interaction.

For more information on BioPAD, contact Butana Mboniswa at +27 12 844 0145.

[Back to top]

Next